Category Archives: Gifted Children

Gifted Children — But Gifted in What Way?

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Gifted Children — But Gifted in What Way?

Today’s Learning Curve with Roger & Virginia explores the many aspects of the ways in which children can be gifted and how you can benefit your child by knowing this; and what to do about it.

Our expert guest and friend today is Francie Alexander, the Vice President and Chief Academic Officer for Scholastic Education.  This is a return appearance for Francie; her last show with us addressed how to prevent your child from losing recently learned material in what is referred to as the “summer slide.”  (Click here for our June 6, 2012 show)

Francie reveals there are many different areas in which a child can be gifted.  A parent needs to appreciate this and the various many ways in which the child can express it.

Parents can too often be concerned that their child “is not academically gifted” and fail to see what particular gifts the child has and work to facilitate and strengthen those gifts.

Is your child gifted academically, socially, physically, artistically?  If academically, what particular part or subjects?

Learn how parents should focus on their child’s strengths and enhance them; not overly fret over apparent “below expectation” levels of skill or ability.  Validating what the child does well actually lifts all other aspects of the child’s endeavors.  But stressing and fretting over the child’s apparent lesser abilities only drags down the child’s confidence and self esteem and damages their overall achievement.

Learn why and how parents should keep their gifted children engaged and moving forward.

Learn about the extensive resources available at Scholastic, Inc., for parents to use with their variously gifted children.

Be alert to the possibility that your gifted child may have difficulty collaborating with other children; and the fact that gifted children need to be taught just as much as “regular” children.  But most important: let your gifted child follow the line of interest it has its attention on.

Learn the traits of gifted children:

  • Language development
  • Questioning and probing
  • Integrating advance words into their conversation
  • Focused on the pursuit of a purpose
  • They love to learn
  • Physically, they have good eye-hand coordination
  • Love to play and excel at a sport
  • Able to take any object (crayon, pencil, clay, cloth, etc.,) and create something from it

CLICK HERE TO HEAR FRANCIE ON GIFTED CHILDREN: 

092412 Gifted Children

Roger and Virginia at The Learning Curve

 

INEQUALITY FOR ALL: The Challenge of Unequal Opportunity in American Schools

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INEQUALITY FOR ALL:  The Challenge of Unequal Opportunity in American Schools.

Why Can’t We “Get it Together”?

That’s what Virginia and I were left wondering after this interview with Dr. William Schmidt, the author of the exciting new book: INEQUALITY FOR ALL:  The Challenge of Unequal Opportunity in American Schools.

No, it’s not about rich versus poor or disadvantaged versus privilege.  It’s a revelation of the fact that our schools, even within the same districts, cities and States do not have comparable curriculum content and standards on the same critical science and math subjects.  And the greatest variations are in middle-income school districts; and it happens even within the same school.

In other words there is no equivalence between classes of the same Grade on the same subjects.  And this results in many kids being short-changed or otherwise graduating with different knowledge than other kids who’ve done the “same” subject Grade classes elsewhere in the system.

Dr. Schmidt reveals that some teachers are not properly equipped or competent to deliver the math and science curriculum—and that is part of the problem.

Compared to this, the nations that are bettering us overseas have national standards of common core material that all kids are exposed to.

By “common core standard” is meant what is to be taught: not how it is to be taught.

Parents will ask: what to do?

The answer is go to the Common Core Standards website http://www.corestandards.org/ and see what their child should be learning at each grade, and take the action needed to have the material delivered to your child.

This is important because math is the language of technology and the information driven society we now live in.

Click here for more information on INEQUALITY FOR ALL:  The Challenge of Unequal Opportunity in American Schools.

If that link doesn’t work go to http://promse.msu.edu/ and look in the “what’s New” section.

William H. Schmidt is University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University and co-director of theEducationPolicyCenter.

 

Click here to Listen: Dr. William Schmidt — INEQUALITY FOR ALL: The Challenge of Unequal Opportunity in American Schools

 

Roger & Virginia at The Learning Curve.

Did You Know Most Kids Lose a Lot of What They Recently Learned in School While on Summer Break? Teachers Call it the “Summer Slide.”

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Did You Know Most Kids Lose a Lot of What They Recently Learned in School While on Summer Break?  Teachers Call it the “Summer Slide.”

Nowhere is the adage: “If you don’t use it, you lose it” more accurate than in the case of young minds and the reason behind the “summer slide.”

In today’s Learning Curve Francie Alexander explains how you can protect your child’s learning and advancement.  Learn how you can easily prevent the “summer slide.”

Francie Alexander is Vice President and Chief Academic Officer for Scholastic Education. Francie has taught at all levels, was a district reading consultant for Pre-K through high school, and has authored professional articles for educators as well as 25 “Books Kids Can Read” for children.

In today’s Learning Curve we reveal:

  • What the “Summer Slide” is.
  • The fact that teachers typically need 4 to 6 weeks in the fall to re-teach material students have forgotten!
  • The importance of “summer reading in beating the summer slide.”
  • The wonderful treasure trove of tools and resources available at the scholastic.com website.

Learn of the many initiatives and tools Scholastic has made available to you so you can beat the “summer learning loss” and also help your child in everyday learning.

  • Scholastic Summer Challenge a program where students can win prizes by logging their reading minutes online or using a new mobile app. called The Scholastic Reading Timer.
  • Scholastic Reading Timer kids can set personal reading goals, using the built-in stopwatch to reach their target number of reading minutes.
  • Storia® is a free eReading app specifically designed to support kids’ reading
  • Sushi Monster, Scholastic‘s newest free math fact fluency game available on the iPad.
  • Summer book packs for all age groups.

Get tips for parents from Francie on how to keep kids learning over the summer

For teachers, the Scholastic website is an equally wonderful resource.  Their website has been set up to serve as the content and e-Commerce hub for everything a teacher needs most for use in the classroom.  Each week, more than 1.6 million visitors to Scholastic.com access over 100,000 pages of free content and teaching resources.

This show is one of the most enjoyable Roger & Virginia has done on the Learning Curve.  And the material it makes available to parents, teachers and students is truly valuable and quite amazing.

Scholastic, Inc., is a publishing and educational industry service company whose mission is stated as:

“The corporate mission of Scholastic is to encourage the intellectual and personal growth of all children, beginning with literacy, the cornerstone of all learning. With more than 90 years of experience supporting the learning lives of children, today Scholastic remains committed to providing quality, engaging educational content in digital and print formats for the next generation of learners, and the families and educators who guide them.”

But the big surprise to Roger is that Scholastic are also the people behind bringing the Harry Potter series to America!  So it’s not all serious academics at Scholastic.

 

Click her to listen to:  June 11, 2012 Francie Alexander

Roger and Virginia at The Learning Curve.

 

How to Repair a “Failing” Student’s Ability to Learn

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The Learning Curve July 11, 2011

How to Repair a “Failing” Student’s Ability to Learn

This week’s Learning Curve is important for all parents who have children who are failing at school or who have the consideration that they are “slow,” “dull,” “can’t learn” or “learning disabled.”

Roger and Virginia take you through the process that handles and restores a student’s certainty that they can learn.  It demonstrates to the student that learning is an ability we all have; and the procedure restores to the student their certainty that they can exercise it and actually, successfully learn anything they apply their attention to.

Last week we and our guests from www.3DLearner.com debunked the notion that dyslexia is a “disability.”  We showed that dyslexia is not correctly understood; and that, instead, these folks are what can be called “right brain learners” who exhibit quite remarkable abilities not enjoyed by others.

This week we take on another of the myths held by the educational establishment.

At the end of Chapter One of our book: How to Learn-How to Teach: Overcoming the Seven Barriers to Comprehension, (http://www.howtolearneasily.com) we have a section dealing with how to recover the ability and certainty for your child that they can learn and succeed one-hundred percent at their school studies.

This week’s program reveals some of that important information.

For the full discussion of the material, folks who have Kindles or Nooks, can obtain the Parent’s & Student’s Edition of How to Learn-How to Teach: Overcoming the Seven Barriers to Comprehension, from either Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/How-Learn-Overcoming-Comprehension-Parents-ebook/dp/B004RR1QPA/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1)

or Barnes & Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-learn-how-to-teach-roger-e-boswarva/1030457406?ean=2940012187093&itm=2&usri=how%2bto%2blearn%2bhow%2bto%2bteach)

Alternatively, you can download the Nook or Kindle application to you computer and read it there.

 

Click here to listen July 11, 2011 Roger & Virginia

For more information go to http://www.howtolearneasily.com

send any questions you have to questions@howtolearneasily.com

How Do You Recognize if Your Child is Having Difficulty in School Early Enough to Properly Help? What to Do and How Do You Find the Help You Need?

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The Learning Curve March 5, 2012 Dean Larson

How Do You Recognize if Your Child is Having Difficulty in School Early Enough to Properly Help?  What to Do and How Do You Find the Help You Need?

Too often parents fail to recognize their child is having difficulty and by the time they spot it, too much damage and loss has occurred.

Even when parents are astute enough to recognize the struggling student in their child, they still have the problem of what to do to help and where to go to get proper professional help.

Today, on The Learning Curve with Roger & Virginia, we have the return of Dean Larson, Director of Access for Knowledge Learning Centers.

Dean has a wealth of experience in both preventing student difficulty in his own students and remedying the struggling conditions of students brought to him.

Hear Dean describe how you would first observe, and then proceed to handle, indications of your child having difficulty at school.

His first, critical word of advice is that a parent must stand back and examine the facts of the situation . . . don’t dub-in emotion or opinion.

Look for trends in grades and behavior; a change in friends and a change towards the family.

Write down only the facts.  Just gather data.

You must use “reflective listening” with your child—you must ask, and listen: not tell and assert your belief.

Kids don’t have enough life experience to yet be able to understand all the emotions and feelings they go through.

You’ll hear Dean explain how all this is done, and give you the key question to be asked:

  • What are the possibilities of change?
  • Are there medical conditions (hearing, eyesight, biochemical) behind the trouble?
  • What about tutoring services?  How do you evaluate the options?

Dean brilliantly and clearly answers all these questions . . . .

 

Click here to listen  Dean Larson 3-5-12 redo of e too large 

What Goes on in a Child’s Mind? What are the Keys to Childhood Successful Performance at Home and at School?

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The Learning Curve January 9, 2012 Anne Maxwell  #1

What Goes on in a Child’s Mind?  What are the Keys to Childhood Successful Performance at Home and at School?

Today’s guest is Anne Maxwell, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and founder of The Child and Family Therapy Play Center.  She also founded the childfamilyplaytherapy.com website.

Anne has had extensive experienced dealing with “troubled,” “disabled” or “disadvantaged” children in her clinical career — but something was discovered by her: many of these disturbed or troubled children were, in actuality, highly gifted children who’d been misdiagnosed with one of the many fashionable designations used nowadays to try and fit the too sharp kids into the very dull system that is the US educational assembly-line.

Many of these kids mislabeled with any one of the acronyms ending with “D” for disorder were actually very bright youngsters driven into displaying symptoms of boredom, rebellion, disinterest or distraction due them not fitting into a system that isn’t geared to deal with exceptional talent and doesn’t know how to correctly cater to them.

These gifted kids get stressed-out because they end up feeling they are not being heard or understood . . . but who doesn’t suffer when that occurs to them!

Out of this experience Anne has developed a system of tools and game playing routines that enable all children: gifted, normal or “different” to have the best brought out in them.

In this show Anne discusses how you can “get it right” with your child.  The things you can do, the tools you can use, to help your child develop its full potential and reap the rewards in life it is due.

Learn the characteristics of a gifted child.

Learn the Three Stages of Student Decline that affect all kids, but particularly affect the gifted child in the current system.

The Federal Education Act requires that every child’s needs are to be met.  Much has been done to concentrate of the “disabled” . . . it’s time to demand the needs of the gifted child be met.

 

Click here to listen January 9, 2012 Anne Maxwell #1

Roger and Virginia at The Learning Curve

 

 

How Can You Best Help Your Kids Get Good Grades? How Can You Ensure You Win at Learning in Life?

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The Learning Curve July 25, 2011

Roger and Virginia discuss how Virginia uses the secrets of the Seven Barriers to Comprehension when tutoring adult learners in her evening classes at Literacy Partners in New York.  http://www.literacypartners.org

Hear how Virginia discovered the secret to her own learning style and also overcame the learning problems she had as a child in school.  She found that it wasn’t her fault — it was the fault of the teaching style and practice that actually prevented her from “getting it.”

Is your child being impeded by the teacher?  Is your child being falsely labeled “slow,” “inattentive” or even “learning disabled” when in fact it is the teacher or educational practices that are to blame?

This is a must hear show for parents who truly care about their children winning at school and in life.

After all, all of life is a learning curve!

 

Click to listen July 25, 2011

For more information go to our website at http://www.howtolearneasily.com 

send any questions you have to questions@howtolearneasily.com

 

What Are the Higher Level Abilities of Children (and Adults) Who Are “Right Brain Learners” but Labeled Dyslexic? What Indicators Can Parents Use to Recognize This in Their Children? How Can They Benefit From This Condition Our Guests Reveal Thirty Three Percent of us Have.

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The Learning Curve July 4, 2011

Roger & Virginia interview Mira and Mark Halpert of 3DLearner.com. Mira is a practicing school teacher who has been featured on CBS showing her revolutionary answers to the “learning disabilities” experienced by those labeled as being “dyslexic.” What people see as a disability Mira sees as a learning difference, and she proves it with her success handling students as revealed by the CBS program.  See http://www.3dlearner.com/parents

What we reveal in this show are the extraordinary abilities and true potential these children (and adults) have along with how to best harness and take advantage of what conventional wisdom mislabels as “disability.” We also discuss how these children excel in later life and in business when they are away from the stifling structure of the conventional school system.

These folks (children and adults) are holographic in their thought processes, and learning style, which mode of action actually gives them huge advantages in real life. Listeners will be able to benefit not only from getting a correct understanding of these phenomena, but learn how a correct address to them both in the learning process and in life can yield superior results.

Listeners will learn the symptoms by which they can correctly recognize this phenomenon in their children (or themselves). This is part two of our show with Mira and Mark Halpert of  3DLearner.com.

 

Click here to Listen July 04, 2011

For more information on this important subject, visit Roger & Virginia at our website http://www.howtolearneasily.com.

Send any questions you have to questions@howtolearneasily.com

Dyslexia is Not Correctly Understood — It is Not Really a Disability but May Well Be the Expression of a Higher Level Ability.

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The Learning Curve June 27, 2011

Roger & Virginia interview Mira and Mark Halpert of 3DLearner.com.  Mira is a practicing school teacher who has been featured on CBS showing her revolutionary answers to the “learning disabilities” experienced by those labeled as being “dyslexic.”  What we reveal in this show are the extraordinary abilities and true potential these children (and adults) have along with how to best harness and take advantage of what conventional wisdom sees as a “disability.”  Mark and Mira reveal a statistic of thirty-three percent of students are being labeled as “disabled” for having what they refer to as being “right brain learners.”  In actuality, these folks are holographic in their thought processes, and learning style, which mode of action actually gives them huge advantages in real life.  Listeners will be able to benefit from hearing how a correct understanding of these phenomena along with a correct address to them both in the learning process and in life can yield superior results.  This is part one of a two part show with Mira and Mark Halpert of 3DLearner.com.

 

Click here to listen June 27, 2011

For more information go to http://www.howtolearneasily.com

Send any questions you have to questions@howtolearneasily.com

 

What Children Need to Learn to Read

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The Learning Curve May 23 2011

Michelle Vallene is the author of What Children Need to Learn to Read

This is a very inspiring story of what a dedicated, loving parent can accomplish, both for herself and her child.  Michelle’s daughter who is now 19 years old was the inspiration for her to start her endeavor, develop her classes, and write her book. Her daughter was very low in reading in 2nd grade so Michelle developed the reading classes and within 6 months her daughter went up 2 grade levels in reading. Her daughter is now a freshman in college working toward an English degree with an emphasis on creative writing.

Click her to listen  May 23, 2011

Her book What Children Need to Learn to Read is available on Amazon  http://www.amazon.com/What-Children-Need-Learn-READ/dp/0982285604/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273011810&sr=1-1

Michelle has a website http://www.LearnersLane.com

Check out her Learners Lane YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LearnersLane

Become a fan of Learners Lane on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Learners-Lane/116020068425096?ref=sgm

Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LearnersLane

For more information go to http://www.howtolearneasily.com  send any questions you have to questions@howtolearneasily.com