All posts by Allison Hungerford

Holiday Survival Tips

Helpful Tips

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During the holiday season, the pace of life often speeds up. We all tend to get busier and more distracted. In addition to our usual adult and parental responsibilities, we have family in town, shopping, parties, school plays, and other added commitments.

For kids, the sensory overload from increased activities and altered schedules often triggers stress and outbursts. For kids with learning challenges, changes to the usual routine can be especially disruptive.

Here are some tips to help you manage the demands of the holiday season for you and your family:

  • Stick with your daily routine as much as possible. Schedule blocks of time without commitments. It’s ok to decline a party or activity if you predict that you’ll be rushed or tired at that time.
  • Keep nighttime reading on your daily activities to help further their reading and comprehension skills.
  • Consider keeping an unstimulating/undecorated space in the house. This could be your child’s room or a corner in the living room with no decorations.
  • Sitting quietly combats stress. This is a good place for reading time. Your child can practice reading, or you can read and ask imagery questions.
  • Prepare kids prior to outings, visits, church.  Talk about what kids will be doing during the upcoming outing, and help them picture what it will be like.
  • Ask imagery questions to help them prepare, such as “What do you picture the Smith’s Christmas tree or Hanukkah decorations will look like?”
  • Consider packing a notebook or coloring book and crayons so they can entertain themselves when needed.
  • Get outside if you can. Physical movement and fresh air help keep us calm.
  • Take a walk and notice all the holiday decorations.
  • Move around inside if weather prevents you from going outside. Dance, “rough house,” play tag, be silly indoors to expend energy.
  • Games are a great way to work on critical thinking skills.
  • Cooking together—measuring helps with basic math computation.
  • Get enough sleep. Going to bed at the usual time gives parents and kids adequate rest.
  • Keeping the usual bedtime routine for kids is calming and reassuring.
  • Reading at bedtime helps keep their skills fresh during the school break.

Plus, here are a few more websites for good tips about handling holiday stress:

http://www.cdc.gov/family/holiday/

http://childparenting.about.com/od/healthsafety/a/holidaystresskids.htm

http://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/traditions/Holiday-Survival-Guide

Lindamood-Bell Celebrates Our Troops!

Community

Letters4On Tuesday, November 10th, all 59 of our US Learning Centers celebrated our 6th annual Thank-a-Thon by creating thousands of thank you cards and letters to be sent to our troops overseas.

While reaching out to our community for Thank-a-ThonLetters3 participation, we received a touching response from a headmaster and former colonel in the military. We want to share his letter, as it gives great imagery and is an encouraging reminder of why we hold this annual event.

He says,
“Having read these letters on the ‘other side’ I can attest to their power. I read many letters by American kids that had been stapled to the inside of an expeditionary airfield plywood shelter in the middle of the desert somewhere in Iraq. It was a dark, dangerous place – far from home and family. Seeing hand drawn American flags and reading well wishes by flashlight in the desert before getting into what was basically a flying soup can was very comforting. I am thankful for programs such as those. Thank you for keeping our service men and women in your thoughts and prayers.”

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We’re Flying our Kite High in the Land Down Under!

Australia


We’re Flying our Kite High20150912Ang iPhone-IMG_0397 in the Land Down Under! 

Lindamood-Bell traveled to Brisbane, Australia in September to present our research at the Asia Pacific Autism Conference. Lindamood-Bell’s results with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders were featured. Researchers and educators from around the world gathered to share their latest findings about a range of important topics about Autism Spectrum Disorders. It was an honor for Lindamood-Bell to participate.

Also in September, Lindamood-Bell was a featured presenter at the Education and Neuroscience Conference series in New Zealand. We presented our research findings in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, spanning the North and South Islands.  We met educators, administrators, and parents from around the country – nearly 1,000 people.  It was thrilling to be among the presenters in this first of its kind event, sponsored by the Gaze Foundation.  

Traveling again to Brisbane after the New Zealand conference series, we presented our research findings at the Joint Conference on Learning Difficulties.  While here, we had the opportunity to present learning results from students who attended our Learning Centers over the last seven years. Student results from our Australia Learning Centers were highlighted at this triennial conference hosted by the Learning Difficulties Australia, SPELD Queensland, and the Learning Support Teachers’ Association, Queensland Inc. We had a full house—over 120 teachers attended our presentation—and we had many more stop by our booth in the exhibit area.  It was a pleasure to meet so many educators across Australia at this exciting two-day event!

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Four Challenges Hindering Literacy Success in Urban Schools

For Schools, Professional Development

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Four Challenges Hindering Literacy Success in Urban Schools

There are several challenges urban schools face while attempting to meet the needs of its diverse student population.  As one Public School Program Manager for Specialized Instruction put it, “As a district, we are heavily over-identified for special education services.  We have so many children that have IEPs, so many children with significant disabilities, particularly in reading.  The history is that if students are identified for SPED in Kindergarten, and they are still there in 3rd grade, chances are they are not coming out of SPED.  And that’s a problem.  We have to change the picture for these kids.  They are our future.”

Four challenges:

1. Teacher quality and experience—High teacher turnover and lack of experienced staff are well documented in urban schools.  This makes it difficult to address the needs of at-risk students, even with resources and professional development designed to do so.

2. Chronic low achievement of at-risk populations—Large, urban districts are faced with significant numbers of students who struggle to read and succeed academically.  Schools lack the staff and the time to adequately address the literacy needs of so many.

3. Incoherent instructional initiatives—Large, urban districts often have too many initiatives and programs, making it difficult to implement any one program with quality or fidelity.

4. Limited expertise in diagnostic evaluation and progress monitoring—While schools may collect a lot of performance data, most urban districts lack the expertise to truly diagnose literacy needs and differentiate instruction, especially in the early grades.

Professional development has been shown to be ineffective in raising or sustaining student achievement, largely related to the factors cited above. Urban districts invest a significant amount of money and time in professional development but often experience little or no ROI.

However, through an innovative partnership model, Lindamood-Bell is establishing onsite literacy centers staffed and managed by its program specialists.  This model allows districts to meet the needs of its most struggling learners while not requiring additional professional development, programming, or demands on district staff during the instructional schedule.

Guest Mom Blog: “How I Plan to Balance Learning and Fun this Summer!”

Learning Centers

It’s been a great year of Kindergarten for my little guy. He learned how to raise his hand at school, how to write every alphabet letter, and how to start sounding out words and recognize a few! It’s been exciting to watch his growth, especially as a long-time Lindamood-Bell instructor—I’m happy to be sharing spelling tips and high fives with my own kid!

Teacher and Student Smiling

Now that the school year is drawing to a close, I find myself thinking about summer differently than years past. Sure, I want us to have lots of fun—making memories and checking local adventures off the bucket list—but I also don’t want to lose the momentum of his blooming reading skills and his EXCITEMENT about reading. By the end of the school year, his favorite activity was working towards his goal for the Read-A-Thon. I for sure don’t want READING to start to feel like WORK vs. all the “fun” stuff. We decided mornings will include reading from a book, sight word practice, and sentence writing practice. Every afternoon will be our out-of-the-house learning (fun!): the beach, the zoo, the natural history museum, the park, etc. By the end of August, I know we will both feel even better about starting first grade, having worked on his emerging skills every day, including his sand castle building skills. Happy Summer! Kim Z., Mom and Lindamood-Bell Instructor

Instruction Robot Connects Kodiak Island Borough Schools

For Schools, Professional Development, , , , ,

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Kodiak Island Borough Schools in Alaska connect with Lindamood-Bell on-site every day. We provide job-embedded professional development to educators, and more opportunities for students. We are proud to have this cost-effective way to meet the needs of this unique community!