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Showing posts from June, 2012

100 Powerful Learning Specialist and Educational Therapy Materials

This week I wanted to tell you about my online store, Good Sensory Learning. I’m Dr. Erica Warren, and I established this site so I could share all the materials that I have created over the last 20+ years as a learning specialist and educational therapist. When I first began my private practice, Learning to Learn, I had great difficulty finding fun and multisensory materials for my students that were effective and engaging. So back in 2005, I made it my mission to design and distribute high-end, remedial products as well as memorable, motivating lessons that bring delight to learning. If you would like to try a free sampling of my activities , CLICK HERE . How Are the Products Organized at Good Sensory Learning? You can download my Free Printable Catalog or you can browse the site using the grey “search all products” bar in the top right of any page with keywords such as dyslexia, working memory, and executive functioning. What’s more, drop down menus in the red banner allow you t

Fun, Free Activities That Sharpen and Strengthen Language Processing Over the Summer Break

The old saying - If you don't use it you lose it - often describes the cognitive setbacks that many students experience over the summer months. Exercising children's brains with engaging and fun activities is a must. Here are 5 strategies you can use this summer to help your little ones sharpen and strengthen their skills. When watching TV, discuss the commercials. See if they can figure out what product each commercial is promoting and see if they can uncover any inferences or hidden messages. Play with anagrams - Write down a word that has at least 6 letters. In 5 minutes, see how many new words you can create by scrambling the letters. Play catch with a football, baseball or beach ball. When you first toss the ball, call out a main idea such as days of the Week. When your child catches the ball, they have to say one of the days of the week. When they toss it back to you, you say another day of the week. Players can only say each detail once. If a detail is

Do We Need to Reform Education? Why So Many Students Are Struggling With Executive Functioning.

As a learning specialist and educational therapist, I have been overwhelmed with calls from parents claiming that their children struggle with executive functioning.  These students are often described as lazy and unmotivated, and by the time that I meet many of these students they also have a case of learned helplessness.  Although executive functioning weaknesses can manifest in different ways, the majority of my students find it difficult to record assignments, organize their materials, turn in their homework, pull out the salient information, focus in class and employ meta-cognitive strategies. Part of the problem is that we live in a society where we are continually multitasking.    It’s almost impossible to find a quiet, distraction free spot where one can direct ones full attention to an undertaking.    Instead our thoughts are continually diverted to the bleeps, jingles and bings of text messages, phone calls, emails and so forth.    Distractions that often make a 15 min