Studio3Music Blog

Posts Tagged ‘learning’

Mar
31

Bad handwriting – just laziness?

Dysgraphia is a form of learning disorder which affects how kids write—more accurately, don’t write. These kids avoid writing like the plague. When forced, it’s a struggle. Often gifted students, they are labeled lazy or messy because of the extreme amount of time it takes them to produce next to nothing—and that’s not even talking about legibility. When reasonable kids are given reasonable training and still don’t want to write, dysgraphia may be the reason!

For a long time, dysgraphia wasn’t a recognized learning issue. Just read a few of the comments on any of the websites listed at the bottom and you’ll quickly see what I mean. You’ll hear from adults who struggled through school and only later in life discovered they weren’t stupid or lazy. Good-hearted parents who have tried to decode the mystery of their smart non-writer lament and rejoice in the helpful diagnosis. Guilt-smothered parents who berated their kids for not doing what they couldn’t are out there too, guaranteed. It’s time for dysgraphia to come into the light.

The diagnosis for dysgraphia is, as with many learning disabilities, somewhat inexact. A “cluster of symptoms” identifies it. Here is a sampling of the list from Wikipedia: Dysgraphia: Signs and Symptoms:

Cramping of fingers while writing short entries
Odd wrist, arm, body, or paper orientations such as creating an L shape with your arm
Excessive erasures
Mixed upper case and lower case letters
Inconsistent form and size of letters, or unfinished letters
Misuse of lines and margins
Inefficient speed of copying
Inattentiveness over details when writing
Frequent need of verbal cues
Referring heavily on vision to write
Poor legibility
Handwriting abilities that may interfere with spelling and written composition
Having a hard time translating ideas to writing, sometimes using the wrong words altogether
May feel pain while writing

Writing is a complex set of motor and information processing skills. Breakdowns can occur on several levels. Three identified subtypes are: Dyslexic & Spatial which are brain-based issues. Motor which is caused by fine motor problems.

Dyslexic: Children’s spontaneous writing is illegible. Copy work is fairly good, but spelling is bad. Not thought to be fine motor based problem.

Spatial: Illegible spontaneous writing and copy work, but normal spelling. Not thought to be fine motor based.

Motor: Fine motor skills are deficient. They have poor dexterity, weak muscle tone or clumsiness. Writing requires extreme effort and an unreasonable amount of time to accomplish. Writing is poor, often illegible. They have difficulty drawing. Their oral spelling is normal. Often they hold their pencil in an awkward manner.

The bright side of a diagnosis of dysgraphia may well be the emotional relief and redirection of correction in a positive direction. Stress was listed as a main negative side effect of the disorder. Can you imagine the frustration of not being able move a thought from head to hand to paper? Assigning correct meaning helps the patient and parent know how to proceed.

Intervention for dysgraphia is better when started younger. Dianne Craft, an expert in treating “learning glitches” as she calls them, has a website and treatment program for a variety of learning disabilities affecting children, including dysgraphia. Exercises include retraining the brain through copy work and gross motor activities. She identifies dysgraphia as the most common learning block of gifted children and offers many resources for helping children move beyond the disability.

When therapy is given the college try and is clearly not helping, “accommodation” is recommended. Helping children live with dysgraphia often includes teaching cursive as it can be easier letter formation than printing. Early keyboard training can help diminish frustration, however giving up on handwriting is not recommended. Public schools are able or sometime required to offer diagnosed children therapy or appropriate classroom help, such as a keyboard, or note-taker or alternate testing methods.

Check out these websites for more information:

ncld.org: National Center for Learning Disabilities

Nototherwisespecified.typepad.com: Sara Gardner’s blog (mother of a child with dysgraphia)

Diannecraft.org: Expert in treating childhood learning “glitches.”

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who hopes that this blog will get some frustrated children the help they need to succeed.

Tags: Donna Detweiler, learning, physical development

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Mar
29

Rituals and Routines and Morning Tea

Posted in Child Development, Family

A couple of days ago, I woke up late and had to rush out the door. My husband kindly offered to make me my usual cup of tea. (He’s the coffee drinker, me – Stash Double Bergamot Earl Grey with stevia and half and half, thank you very much.) I was horrified at the thought of having to chug my tea down before I left, so I declined.

You see, my morning tea is supposed to be sipped slowly while sitting at the dining room table reading the celebrity gossip, err… news on my iPad. No rushing allowed. Without my tea, I was seriously out of sorts all morning long. (And it wasn’t the lack of caffeine; I only have one cup.)

If you’re not a morning beverage have-to drinker, perhaps you’ve sat down to watch your favorite TV show, and discovered it was on hiatus? Bet you turned into cranky pants. We grown-ups grow accustomed to our routines and rituals, and it can be aggravating and unsettling to be jolted out of them!

We’re born with a need for routine and ritual. Predictability is important to an infant, a toddler, a pre-schooler, a jr. higher, and adults. We like to know what comes next. It brings us comfort and security and makes us feel like we are in control of our circumstances.

Routines are the tasks or chores we regularly do. They are the typical or everyday activities that have little afterthought. Your workplace has a typical routine. (Think about what you do in your job, or what are the normal procedures you follow without really thinking about them.) I do laundry on Fridays, always lock the door when I leave the house, and start with long tones when I practice my Euphonium.

Your children need routines, too. In Kindermusik, we always start with the hello song and end with the goodbye song. Routines in the classroom allow children to feel safe and secure, and then learning can happen naturally.
Routines help babies solidify their eating and sleeping patters; routine transitions and rituals help preschoolers feel in control, and knowing what to expect enables them to act independently.

There is an interesting difference between routines and rituals. According to Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, a ritual is a detailed act or series of acts carried out by an individual to relieve anxiety or to forestall the development of anxiety.

That makes perfect sense. My morning tea ritual gives me a moment of peace before I enter the hectic pace of my day. It grounds me. The routine of the hello and goodbye song in a Kindermusik class becomes a ritual when we sing the same song each week. The familiarity and consistency of these songs lets the children know what’s coming, and so they eagerly ready themselves for fun and learning.

Rituals and routines shape a child’s behavior and development in a stable, secure and loving manner. Think bath time, cleanup time, bed time, family nights, Sunday morning waffles, summer vacations to the lake. There is no shortage of research to suggest that routines and rituals are vitally important to the well-being and positive mental health of any child.

We can never underestimate the affect of the emotional imprint of loving routines and rituals in a child’s life, and the positive feelings they evoke in years to come. There is no shortage of research to suggest that routines and rituals are vitally important to the well-being and positive mental health of any child. What are some of your favorite memories of childhood? They likely involve a ritual or routine, which you may have repeated with your own family.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who now knows that her morning cup of tea is not really about the caffeine; it emotionally prepares her to face the day. So, drink up!

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tags: babies, kindermusik, learning, Miss Analiisa, parenting, preschoolers, toddlers

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Mar
21

Understanding Your Child (Boring title, important idea.)

Posted in Child Development, Education, Family, parenting

I’ll be right up front and tell you that tell you that I don’t pretend to understand your children. Seriously, I have three of my own. All complete opposites. I have enough to do, thank you very much, without worrying about your kids.

Don’t believe that? Okay. Truth be told – I’m a teacher through and through. I strive to appreciate every child I work with, and if you ask me about your child, (as some of you have), I’m happy to give you my observations. I really do want you help you be successful in the art of parenting.

I can also share what I’ve learned about how to really get to know them. And why would you want to get to know them? Besides the obvious fact that you like your children, of course! Your children are born with unique personalities, skills, gifts, talents, learning styles, and characteristics. It’s our job as parents to support our children as they mature.

Understanding your child will assist you to guiding them as they grow. For instance, knowing your child’s learning style (In order to understand concepts, do they need to see it, hear it, or do it?) will tell you how to help them with learning to read, tell time, or grasp their addition facts.

Children arrive with some prewiring. I don’t mean that they can’t change and grow, but they aren’t blank slates, either. How my 3 children behaved in utero was how they acted after they arrived on the outside. One was a poker – he’s 13 and he still “pokes” at me verbally if he wants my attention. One was a roller – I looked like a pregnant Sigourney Weaver from the movie Alien. He still is a whole body mover. He needs to move to learn. He moves when things get emotionally difficult to deal with. He rolls on the floor a few times in the middle of a particularly intense violin lesson, and then gets up and is ready to work again. My two boys will always be pokers and rollers.

The best way to understand your children is to simply observe them. Playing, working, sleeping, eating. What are the character traits that continually show themselves? Are they introverted or extroverted? What are their favorite activities? Those things are your child’s “normal”. Most of the time, your child’s “normal” is perfectly okay. And you need to be okay with it, too.

You don’t like going to the zoo every weekend, but your daughter begs, rain or shine? Think about what clues that gives you. Nurture that love of nature. If you don’t want to go to the zoo again, find new museums, take a field trip to the vet’s office, check out library books about reptiles for your visual learner. Get a pet for your “doer” to take care of.

Want to get to know someone? Ask a lot of questions! So, ask your child open-ended questions. (Those questions that require more than a yes or no answer.) Instead of asking your child who they played with in school, ask them what they played.

Miss Allison (a great observer of children) gave me some more ideas to pass along to you:

When you read a book to them ask them what their favorite part was… who their favorite character was…

Have a verbal child tell you a story. You’ll discover a lot about what they think about, and feel, are scared of… wishing for…

Watch how they play with small pretend play manipulatives: people toys (like action figures and Polly Pocket type things) and anthropomorphized animal toys, too, plastic animals or dinosaurs, small stuffed animals. Large motor pretend play is usually done with other children, but small motor pretend play is often done alone, so you only see what your child is interested in rather than what they are willing to compromise on.

Pay attention to the skill sets that confuse them or make them frustrated. Those activities are pointing you toward the areas the child isn’t as comfortable with, may be stuck with, or toward personality traits such as perfectionist, or short tempered.

Make a point of playing with your child in different areas of development. Do a puzzle one day, take a nature hike the next. Ride bikes, or work on pedaling, build with blocks, color and do a craft, sing a song, tell a story so that you can see where your child is gifted, where they struggle and most importantly, where they are growing and where they are not growing.

With lots of observation and interaction, you’ll have the knowledge of what tools and toys to provide, to assist them in reaching their next level of maturity.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who sees so many of her sister’s and mother’s traits in her daughter that it’s more than a bit freaky.

Image: Naypong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tags: brain, learning, listening, Miss Allison, Miss Analiisa, parenting, physical development

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Feb
19

Giddy up horsey… go, go, STOP!

Posted in Child Development, Music and the brain, Our Time, Things to do

We’ve been working on self-control in our Our Time classes. Can you do that with 2 year olds? Actually, yes! You can teach self-control, even to toddlers. Of course, the concept takes a while to master (I’ll be the first to admit I have limited self-control around Godiva sea salt dark chocolate, but I’m working on that.)

There are two parts to self-control. The first is inhibitory control, which is the ability to stop what you are doing and wait. (The other part is impulse control, which is the ability to stop an idea or thought from becoming an action.) But as inhibitory control develops first, we’ll begin there.

In class, we’ve been playing with a chant called Giddy Up Horsey. You can do this at home, too. Put your child on your lap on the floor, and say this chant and as you bounce:

Giddy up horsey, giddy up horsey, giddy up horsey, go, go, go! Bounce your child up and down.

Giddy, up horsey, giddy up horsey, giddy up horsey WHOA!! When you get to the whoa, stop bouncing, and lean back with your child and stop. Wait quietly for a moment. Keep repeating the whole thing until the giggles subside.

Then in class, we’ve been getting up and riding stick horses around to the same chant, stopping our ponies and waiting to be told to “go” again, (the inhibitory control part) after the whoa.

Miss Allison had an interesting observation this week. She said that because the grownups were in charge of the child’s body during the bounce, they were showing the children how to control their bodies (how to stop at the appropriate time). The grownups were teaching the children the pattern and the how of the going, stopping, and waiting.

When the children got up on the stick horses, they were more ready and able to control their own bodies. They were familiar with the pattern, and could anticipate the whoa. Miss Allison said that in classes that did the bounce first, before the pony riding, the children had a much higher success rate of demonstrating inhibitory control when in charge of their bodies during the pony ride, than the ones who just did the ride.

That fits with what we always say – You are your child’s first and best teacher.

So, do a little bouncing this week. And keep your eye on the blog. I’ve got an idea about how to make a really adorable stick pony to practice the riding and stopping and waiting (cleverly disguised inhibitory control practice). I just need to get the idea out of my head and take some pictures of the process. I promise – under $5 and NO sewing!

Oh, I almost forgot. For a fun stop and go game at home or in the car, check out this cute idea.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who will practice some pony riding every time she’s having difficulty practicing either inhibitory or impulse control around that Godiva sea salt dark chocolate.

Tags: brain, kindermusik, language development, learning, listening, Miss Allison, Miss Analiisa, physical development, Things to do, toddlers

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Jan
25

Neighborhood Kids Club

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Things to do

As parents, one of our most important jobs is to help facilitate our kids’ ideas. Not that I’m always good at deviating from my adult routines, which all too often dominate. But once in a while, I find myself caught up in their vision, and it makes for memorable, important experiences for us both.

On such moment was the neighborhood kids club my daughter decided to host. She was around 8 years old at the time. We often had families with younger children visit, and she had an interest in these little ones. Her girlfriend who lived next-door was also, and one day they hatched the neighborhood kids club idea.

They created elaborate plans which they excitedly showed me. A permission slip was designed. Lists of games prepared. A detailed schedule constructed, including when the children would take a potty break and have a nap. The 5 children invited ranged from 2 to 4 years old.

We chose a date, and the girls called each of the parents. The children were thrilled to have been invited to “Katie’s house.” The mothers’ reaction was much the same. And so the plans were set.

The girls worked hard to get everything ready. They refined their lists. Got out the age-appropriate toys. They enthusiastically shopped for snacks and juice boxes at the store. They could hardly wait.

The moms and kids arrived and signed in their children. Smiles were on all faces as these young girls took charge of these delighted little ones. Much to my surprise, most of the moms actually left, which tells you how desperate mothers can be for time away!

For the next hour and a half, the budding teachers cared for their little charges. They played Ring around the Rosie, and toss the balloon. They had a snack and played outside. They read a story. They also chased around little boys who wouldn’t sit in a circle, or play a game, or do anything they were told to do. They learned that sometimes the schedule doesn’t work and that kids do what they want to do and you can’t make them do what YOU want them to.

At the end of the club, the mom’s picked up their children, who got hugs and kisses before they reluctantly left. The teachers were not so reluctant to see them go. They were exhausted!

“Mom, that wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be,” said my tired daughter.

“Well, let’s talk about that,” I responded. “What did you learn?”

A lot, we concluded. Little kids don’t sit in circles very well. They like to play outside the best. Some kids don’t like to color. Snack time was a success.

“I think stations for coloring and snack would be a good idea for next time,” she concluded. “And we’ll play more games outside too.”

And they did. The next club was better than the first. But she was still pretty tired at the end. Reality.

I’d recommend encouraging your interested kids to host a neighborhood kids club. It was a great experience for my daughter and didn’t take much planning or extra work for me. We had all the resources at home. The kids made the entire plan. I played a supporting role and enjoyed it.

I’m not sure if my daughter is destined to be a teacher or not, but I know that she learned a lot, not only about kids, but about having an idea and seeing it come to life, imperfections and all. And isn’t that what life is about.

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who sees how having older children interact with younger children is a win for everyone.