SFL Newsletter | Feb 2017

Our February newsletter includes news regarding new team members and a free parent workshop series on Executive Functioning. You’ll also find an article on multi-sensory instruction as well as testimonials from our SLF families.

Feb 2017 Newsletter Final

SFL Newsletter | Fall 2014

How can your student be more organized? How can both students and parents reduce anxiety related to school assignments? In this issue we highlight Sarah Schwartz’s article “Help Your Child Reduce Anxiety” and some of our favorite resources to help you learn more about Executive Functioning, the cognitive processes of working memory, reasoning, task flexibility, and problem solving as well as planning and execution.

Issue 2_Fall 2014_Strategies for Learning

Back to School: Time Management Strategies for Students

Time Management Event

Join us for a free presentation on practical strategies to help your child or teen develop daily routines, plan for long-term homework projects, and use reminders and prompting methods. Parents of K-12 students, educators, and caregivers welcome. Presenter Maria Howard, M.A., M.S.T., is Family Education Coordinator at Strategies for Learning, Inc. The workshop is sponsored by PRAISE (Piedmonters for Resources, Advocacy, and Information in Special Education).

Date: September 18, 2014

Time: 7:00-8:30 p.m.

Venue:
Piedmont Community Hall
711 Highland Avenue
Piedmont, CA 94611

 

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Help Your Child Reduce Anxiety

Written by Sarah Schwartz

Many people struggle greatly with anxiety in their day to day lives. Youngsters are no different. The beginning of a new school year presents a great opportunity to implement routines aimed at reducing the amount of anxiety your child experiences. Some amount of anxiety is inevitable. However, through planning and organization, it can be kept to a minimum.

A good place to start is by helping your child map out due dates and exams for each course she is taking. Your child’s teacher should give them a syllabus at the beginning of each term. Sit down, and, using an application such as Google Calendar (or even a paper planner, if that’s preferred) help your child enter test and due dates. From there, help her determine the discrete tasks (and how long these should take) necessary for accomplishing each goal. These should be put into the planner/calendar as well.

If your child does not have a quiet place to study with time set aside each day, this must be established. A routine of completing items due the next day, followed by time spent working on smaller items necessary to achieving long term goals will be guided by information entered into the planner. Thus, your child should start each session by reviewing the calendar/planner.

Good overall organization is also important. If your child has trouble organizing papers, an accordion style folder, with labels for each subject can be used to store teacher handouts. A separate folder for completed assignments waiting to be turned in will prevent misplacement. The important part of organization is consistency. If your child is not keeping up the system during the day at school, help her incorporate the necessary steps into her daily study routine, before consulting her planner.

For further suggestions on planning and organizing for middle and high school students, check out this GreatSchools article.

Even organized, well-prepared students experience anxiety, particularly right before a test. For these times, breathing exercises are regarded as the first line of attack. Here is the simplest one I have found. It is from Dr. Andrew Weil’s website:

  • Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
  • Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
  • Hold your breath for a count of seven.
  • Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
  • This is one breath. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths.

I hope the above advice was helpful. For students dealing with only a moderate amount of anxiety, it should be. However, if you feel your child is experiencing a significant amount of anxiety, it is a good idea to involve a professional. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America website offers guidelines and suggestions for coping with anxiety. This link will take you directly to information specific to children and teens.

Money Sense

Written by Megan Jensen

Parents frequently ask me what they can do to help their children develop math skills. Children have an inherent interest in handling money. Giving them opportunities to assist in making payments and counting out change will develop a better sense of decimals and improve their mental math calculations. Here are a few ideas of how to highlight and enhance those moments to develop skills.

Younger children can use coins of the same value to practice skip counting. Start with dimes, then move to nickels and quarters. Once they have mastered counting up (e.g. 25, 50, 75, 100, 125…) have them count backwards (eg. 125, 100, 75, 50, 25, 0). Have your child manage your coin purse and provide the correct amount of change to pay for a purchase. They can work on finding specific amounts or estimating what would be the closest amount needed to cover the cost.

Counting out a random amount of change is great practice in grouping. When there is a long list of numbers to add, we naturally group items together into chunks that are easier to add. Coins provide a natural way to practice this skill. Give your child a handful of change (or have the cashier hand it to them) and let them count it out. Look to see how they group coins. If they are struggling, suggest they start with quarters then move to dimes, nickels, and lastly pennies. If they use a different (or more arduous) method, show them how you would have counted it out. As long as you get to the same amount there is no “wrong” answer, but some ways are much more efficient.

Older students should be able to help you with other payment shortcuts. They should be able to predict the amount of change based on the charge, and can then check the receipt to see if they were correct. Have them determine what would be the best amount of money to give a cashier to minimize the coins returned (e.g. If a bill is $4.57, by paying with $5 and 1 nickel and 2 pennies, you would get back 2 quarters instead of 43¢ in change).

By middle school, students should be able to quickly assess simple percentages in their head. Have your child estimate the tip on a restaurant bill or calculate the savings of an sale item. Finding 10% of any amount is very simple since you only need to move the decimal over one place (e.g. 10% of $15. 40 would be $1.54 or approximately $1.50). Using this as a benchmark, students can double the amount to determine what 20% of a bill is (e.g. 20% of $15. 40 would be approximately $3). Once they are able to do this consistently they can estimate 15% of a bill by finding 10% (e.g. $1.50) and 5% (e.g. 75¢) and adding the two together (e.g. $1.50 + 75¢= $2.25).