August 2008 Blog Posts
In the old days, if a child’s handwriting was messy or hard to decipher, the problem was seen as the child's sloppiness or lack of attention to detail. Today, we know that the cause could be one or more of the following:
· undeveloped fine or super-fine motor skills
· vision problems
· behavioural issues
· dysgraphia (inappropriately sized and spaced letters, illegible writing when copying text or when creating their own text, mixture of upper/lower case letters)
· dyspraxia
· non-visual non-tactile learning style.
(Follow this link to find out more about learning styles.)
While most schools teach handwriting in the first few years of primary education,...
“Responsibility for Homework: Children's Ideas about Self-Regulation” is a fascinating study into children’s attitudes towards self-motivation and homework. Pamela M. Warton’s research confirms what Learning Styles have known all along: some children are more responsible about doing their homework than others.
In Learning Styles, we look at the following elements of the Learning Style Pyramid to determine the child’s attitude to homework:
· internal versus external motivation (also known as self-starter versus awards-driven)
· responsibility
· persistence
· conformity
· teacher authority (the child’s need to please the teacher)
· parental authority (the child’s need to please the parent).
What Pamela M. Warton discovered, however, was an age-related shift...
Some children seem naturally better behaved than others, and it’s easy to put it down to personality or upbringing. However, research has shown that learning styles have a big impact on a student’s discipline in the classroom as well as in the home environment.
To find out more about learning styles, please click here.
Auditory Learning Style: If the child is not auditory, he will find it hard to listen, be it to the lesson or to the rules. You can help him by having plenty of visual and tactile reminders of the rules or of the study material (lists, models, photos,...
I-pods are tiny miracles of modern technology. Teenagers, tweenagers and even younger children use them every day. Recent studies, however, have detected an alarming trend among Generation Y and generation Z: temporary or even permanent damage to their hearing.
If your children have a learning style preference for background noise while they concentrate, or if their learning style is auditory external, they may use their I-pods for longer periods of time than their peers.
Do you know your child’s learning style preferences?
Dr. Patti Huang, an otolaryngologist at The Austin Diagnostic Clinic has this to say about I-pods: “the earbuds preferred by today’s...
Many factors may make it hard for us to concentrate:
· Stress,
· Anxiety,
· Fatigue (mental or physical),
· Boredom,
· Depression,
· Unsuitable diet resulting in yo-yo blood sugar levels.
However, the good news is, our unique learning style can actually help us concentrate, provided we know what our learning style preferences are.
(To analyse your learning style, please click here.)
Many elements make up our learning style:
· Our optimal environment (including lighting, temperature, the amount of chaos, etc.);
· Our preference for the size of team in which we work;
· Our need for detail;
· Our need for variety;
· The senses through which we best absorb information;
· ...
Do...