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Showing posts from September, 2016

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
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Higher Order Language Skills: A Bundle of Remedial Tools

Some students struggle academically for the first time when concepts move from concrete ideas to abstract ways of thinking. This happens because they have weaknesses in higher order language skills. Higher order language skills, also called higher level language or metalinguistic skills, refers to advanced language processing that is an expected competence in middle school and high school. It requires both abstract and deductive verbal reasoning skills as well as the understanding of advanced vocabulary, and word relationships. What are the Common Difficulties Associated with Higher Order Language Skills? When a student has difficulty with higher order language skills, they may struggle with any of the following: Making connections and associations between words, sentences, or stories Implied meaning or inferences Social pragmatics skills Oral and written comprehension Writing skills Main ideas and details Jokes, riddles, and humor Writing summaries and paraphrasing
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88 Assistive Technology Tools for Struggling Learners

Making sense of the complex weave of assistive technology devices and applications for struggling learners can be a confusing and frustrating chore. This blog talks about 15 different types of assistive technology that can benefit struggling learners with links to my favorite tools. For a more comprehensive discussion of these technologies  CLICK HERE Comprehensive Technologies: Don Johnston Inc. - $. Kurzweil 3000 - $   TextHelp - $ ClaroRead - $ Planning, Time Management, and Organization: iStudies Pro - Free/$ - Remember the Milk - Free - RescueTime - $ Strict Workflow  - Free - Wunderlist - Free - Text to Speech: AnyBook Personal Reader - $ Audible.com - $ IntoWords - $ NaturalReaders - Free/$ Project Gutenberg & Librivox - Free Raz-Kids - $ Read & Write for Google Chrome - Free/$ Read OutLoud - $ Snap&Read Universal - $ Voice Dream Reader - Free/$ Voice Typing - Free Speech to Text: Co-writer Un
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Finding the Best, Online Tutor or Specialist for Your Child

As many of you know, the process of finding the best after school, academic and remedial support for your child is plagued with many challenges. Even if you have a great evaluation that discloses your child’s learning strengths and weaknesses, it is difficult to find a local professional that has the expertise that your child needs. The Lack of Skilled, Accessible Learning Specialists is a Great Frustration for Many Parents: This is a huge challenge for many families in rural areas. What’s more, the costs for one-to-one services can be difficult to manage and many professionals are booked solid. Finally, many parents don’t have the time in their schedule to be driving their children round town from appointment to appointment. But Things are Changing: Every day, more and more trained tutors, learning specialists, and educational therapists have adopted online tools that allows them to provide high quality, multisensory academic and remedial support to our kids through the
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Back to School: Establishing a Routine, Planning, and Managing Time

Having a great school year is largely determined by a student’s ability to plan out their day, manage their time, and stick to a routine. In other words, they need to have well-developed executive functioning skills. Executive functioning, or what I like to call the Grand Central Station of the brain, is the complex cognitive process of managing a crowd of sensory input and output and applying meaning, all while maintaining one’s “train” of thought. Although many teachers and parents can not fathom how apparently simple tasks such as using an agenda or turning in an assignment can be difficult, the truth of the matter is, the part of the brain that manages executive functioning, is not fully developed until individuals reach their early 20's.  14 Common Signs of Executive Functioning Weaknesses   1.   Losing materials. 2.   Forgetting to turn in assignments. 3.   Leaving things to the last minute. 4.   Underestimating the amount of time it will take to complete a t
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