Dealing with Sensory Processing Disorder

Sensory processing disorder is one in which children experience extreme physical discomfort from everyday sensory input. A sound you may find mildly annoying can make your child sick to the stomach, they may not want to eat food because of the way it feels in their mouth, ponytails may cause pain and lights can cause headaches.

Not only do children who suffer from sensory processing disorder experience physical discomfort from sensory stimulation, their brains are also wired to go straight to an intense ‘flight-or-fight’ response. This means that they react with an emotional intensity that they don’t even understand. Tantrums, screaming and extreme behaviors mean that these children are not able to self-regulate their responses.

These extreme behaviors are traditionally dealt with through punishment and reward, but these will not work on children who suffer from sensory processing disorder. The parents feel judged for the bad behavior of their child and the child’s confidence is undermined.

This disorder can be diagnosed by a professional and, once parents are aware of their child’s triggers, they can help to educate others and teach their children how to identify what is setting them off and regulate their behavior.

The first step is to get the child out of their ‘fight-or-flight’ response. You can’t reason with a tantrumming child, so start by getting them to breathe deeply. You can also teach them other calming techniques like mantras where they repeat comforting phrases like ‘I’m ok’ or ‘everything is alright.’

Don’t try to reason with them. Instead ensure that they are safe, then offer simple commands that they can understand in their panicked state; “Come. Now.” Is better than “If you don’t stop right now I’m going to punish you. I have to get home and make dinner so you had better come here now.”

Visualization is also a wonderful way to get your child to calm down when they are feeling emotional. You can work with your medical professional to find techniques that help your child.

When they are feeling calm, ask them what set them off. Finding the root of the problem can help you to understand your child’s triggers. Because of the extreme emotional response, your child may not remember what set them off, so be patient.

Talk with your child about how they can regulate their behavior. Helping them to identify their triggers and the physical responses will enable them to recognize when they are uncomfortable and regulate their behavior while they still have control of the situation.

Offer praise for any steps in the right direction, but recognize that self-regulation will take a long time; there are no shortcuts. Work with your medical professionals, teachers, students and in-home tutors to support your child in learning to self-regulate their behavior and sensory responses to stimuli.

Remember that you need to take care of yourself too. Ensuring that you can remain calm and fend off frustration means that you have to find ways to relieve your own stress. It can also be tricky for parents to separate the sensory processing disorder from normal kid tantrums, but always trying to find the root of the problem will help you to create healthier and happier children. 

In-Home Tutors Help Students of All Ages

Teenagers can be reticent to ask for help, but no matter your age or the subject, Tutor Doctor’s one-on-one tutors can help. If you feel like you’re sinking and just can’t seem to catch up with the class, then the creative ministrations of our private tutors is just what the Doctor ordered! 

See Alysha Kartz’s story here:

Better Grades by Winter Recess: 4 Ways You Can Help

Personal Creations

Is your child struggling? The longer they flounder, the further behind they will get. When students are falling behind, every passing week compounds their problems, erodes their confidence and makes success seem like an impossible dream. Whether you want your child to catch up and keep up or you want your child to get ahead of the class, there are ways you can help improve grades right now.

Get in the Game

When parents are involved in their student’s lives, they are able to better provide the support their children need. Start by talking with your child’s teachers; get to know them and get their advice on how best to help your child. They have insights that are essential to moving your child to a successful future.

Take a Step Back

For many parents, bad grades have created emotional tension between family members and when they try to encourage their children or help with homework, it results in a fight. This is completely understandable as parents want what is best for their children and emotions run high. If this is the case, it may be time to step back and get an in-home tutor or family friend to help with homework in a more constructive way.

Get Organized

Most students are smart but scattered; they have the potential to succeed, but they forget homework and assignments, have trouble initiating tasks and staying focused and don’t leave enough time for studying. It can be very frustrating for parents until you realize that these skills aren’t innate, they are learned.

Start implementing routines that show your child how to be more organized. Set times for homework where they are free from distraction. Limit screen and social time and help them to plan their days effectively. Ensure that homework and assignments are done and packed the night before rather than running around before school.

Tutor Doctor’s X-skills program teaches these executive skills as part of their one-on-one tutoring program. Every student gets an academic plan which helps them to set realistic goals and create a roadmap to reach them. Tutors spend part of each session going over the upcoming assignments and teaching students how to manage time and plan ahead. Tutor Doctor tutors work with the curriculum and help your children to do their homework so that this is not a daily struggle for you.

Find their Learning Style

Each child is a unique learner who grasps information better when it is presented in a learning style that suits them. Ask your in-home tutor or teacher to help find your child’s learning style. You will see that when you present information, ideas and concepts to them in their learning style, they understand faster and retain information for longer. You can also teach them to convert new information into their learning style so that it is more accessible to them. For example; if a visual learner takes a paragraph of facts from a history text book and creates a mind map, they will be more likely to understand and retain that information.

Tips to Getting your Kids to School on Time

Statefarm

All parents struggle to get back into their morning routines after the long summer holidays, but if every morning is a struggle for you, it may be time to take action and beat that bell. Don’t’ have chaotic mornings that see frenzied searches for missing items, nagging to get kids moving or siblings fighting for bathroom time. Here are a few tips to keep your mornings calm.

Learning Styles

Just as we need to change information to suit the child’s learning style if we want them to absorb information in class, we also have to adapt the way we communicate in the mornings. If your child is an auditory learner, asking them to get up, telling them to brush their teeth and wash their faces will be easy for them to comprehend.

Visual learners, however, may be left wondering what you just said or daydreaming about their day. For these students, making charts with all their morning tasks on it which they can tick off as they go through them may be just the ticket.

Every child is different so try a few strategies like games, rewards and incentives and songs to get them through their morning routines. Find the formula that works for your family and stick to it until it becomes a habit.

Planning is Everything

School days always start the night before, especially for students who have trouble getting ready. Decide on outfits and lay them out, pack school bags and consult diaries to ensure that there are no forgotten assignments or tests.

Review the day ahead and ensure that all books are packed. What afterschool activities are happening? Do you need musical instruments, sports uniforms and field trip permission slips?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The worst way to start your day is getting into a battle of wills with your child. It takes up time, it stresses everyone out and it makes for a really bad start to the day. While we are not always our best in the mornings, we must try to be respectful of each other.

When parents treat children with respect and ask them to do things nicely, it can diffuse some of the morning tension. If fighting is a big part of every morning, either between you and your kids or between siblings, it’s time to change the morning routine.

Start by asking them what they don’t like about mornings and really listen to their answers. You may be surprised about what sets them off. Knowing what makes them upset can help you to mitigate the irritation.

Talking about morning routines and ways to get things to flow smoothly will help your family to work together to make waking up and getting to school a happy and healthy process.
 

What to Do When you Don’t Like your Child’s New Teacher

Filip Pticek

Teachers are professionals who are often under-appreciated and overworked and they should be respected at every turn. But, we are all human and sooner or later you will meet a teacher that you can’t get along with. Perhaps your differences are simple incompatibility or perhaps you disagree on discipline or strategy; whatever your issue, be respectful and kind so your child continues to benefit from their expertise.

The first step is to try to look at the situation calmly and impartially. This may mean admitting that your little angel isn’t perfect, or that you dealt poorly with a situation, but remember that it’s your child’s academic future that you need to support, not your own interests.

Be respectful

Always be respectful when talking to teachers and about them. Negative comments about teachers which your child overhears can cause them to lose respect for that teacher. This will negatively affect their relationship with their teacher whom they still have to see on a daily basis.

Be Professional

Keep the channels of communication open. Ensure that your child’s teacher knows who you are and is able to reach you when they need to discuss issues or concerns. Always keep a professional tone and avoid dealing with issues when you are emotional or angry. Instead, wait until you can calmly and rationally discuss problems. Always talk to the teacher first before consulting a higher authority. Giving them the opportunity to resolve issues themselves will prevent resentment.

Be a Good Listener

When students aren’t performing as well as they should, it’s very easy for them to blame the teacher. If there has been an incident or your child is not getting the grades you would like them to get, give the teacher an opportunity to share their side of the story. They have insight to how your child behaves in class that you don’t. Children often behave very differently in a classroom situation when they are around their peers. Teachers have more experience in dealing with behavioral and academic issues and they have some valuable insights into your student’s behavior. Always endeavor to get the teacher’s side of the story and treat them with the trust and respect they deserve.

Dealing with Issues

Every parent wants their child to have the best possible academic opportunity and if you have exhausted every other option, you may need to move your child to another class. Dealing with difficulty is also a good life lesson. When dealing with teachers and issues, be an excellent example for your children and don’t be too quick to move them. Remember that they will have to deal with people they don’t get along with in other situations; perhaps there are bullies in their school or one day they will have a manager they don’t like. Learning how to deal with conflict and with people they don’t get along with is a great life lesson. 

5 Back to School Habits for a Happier Home

Department of Education

It’s almost time to get back to the books so start a few new habits that will create a happier, healthier home for you and your children. Habits take only a couple of weeks and a little discipline to start, but they will ease the tension in your home, mean less nagging for you and better grades for your students.Mellow MorningsEver have to wake your kids thirteen times while searching for missing text books? Do you find them scrambling to do last minute homework first thing in the morning, conduct daily wardrobe wars or have arguments about what to make for breakfast? If your mornings are messy, there are things you can do to help ease the family into the day.Start by listening. Ask your kids what their five least favorite things are about mornings. You may be surprised! Perhaps they need more bathroom time, or they want to be woken up differently; whatever their issues, get them to write a list for you.When everyone has made their lists, call a family meeting and find ways to overcome the issues. If bathroom time is a problem, set limits, make a schedule or move hair and makeup to a different area to free up some bathroom time.Avoid the morning rush and wardrobe dilemmas by insisting that bags be packed the night before and outfits chosen for the next day.If your children have trouble getting up, institute earlier bedtimes, alarm clocks and other regimens that mean you don’t have to nag.Set Academic GoalsWork with your tutors, teachers and children to set reasonable goals for the coming academic year. When kids know where they are headed, they have more motivation and direction. You can augment motivation by offering rewards for when academic goals are achieved.Extra Mural ActivitiesEncourage after-school activities that help your child to stay healthy, active and creative. Sports and artistic pursuits help students to make friends, learn social skills and become more well-rounded individuals. Support and encourage their interests and hobbies which are sure to add to their lives.Family MealsMake a commitment to eating together at least twice a week. Family meals keep the family connected and foster good communication between family members. Studies show that families who enjoy regular meals together have better relationships.Family Play DatesStart an activity together that gets your family outside and involves being active. This may be as simple as taking a walk, biking or gardening together or a more adventurous family activity like kayaking, hiking or camping. Sharing time in nature and being active is a positive way for the whole family to enjoy each other’s company.
Starting new family traditions is a wonderful way to reconnect with each other and stay connected through the busy academic year.

The Incredible Learning Power of Music

Steve Snodgrass

A great way to improve learning at every age is through the magic of music. You see, certain kinds of music can actually stimulate your child’s higher cognitive functioning and help their development. 

In a phenomenon known as the "Mozart effect", listening to music creates a positive emotional response which, in turn, improves cognitive functioning. Research tells us that listening to certain classics, like Mozart, helps to improve spatial-temporal reasoning in the short term. If Mozart isn’t your cup of tea, you have many other options to choose from. Any kind of baroque music like Teleman or Vivaldi and ambient music that has a tempo of 60 beats per second will help.

Later studies showed that any music with an energetic beat or positive emotional qualities had the potential to stimulate the spatial-temporal functioning.

This is the part of the brain that helps you to understand complex concepts or solve difficult problems. For example, a study by Rauscher, Shaw and Ky (1993) discovered that those subjects who listened to Mozart prior to completing an IQ test scored higher than those who did not listen to music.

Another study in rats found that pregnant rats exposed to Mozart produced offspring that were better at maze learning.

While these changes are temporary, learning music from an early age can have tangible, long-lasting improvements in brain functioning: “It’s very clear from a number of experiments that if you do musical training, you find changes in brain structures attributable to that training. There are experiments that show that changes are greater if you begin musical training by about the age of seven. They’re still there if you begin later, but smaller in magnitude,” says neuropsychologist Robert Zatorre from McGill University.

Neuroscientists from Boston Children’s Hospital found a link between the introduction of musical instruments at an early age and improved cognitive functioning. "Since executive functioning is a strong predictor of academic achievement, even more than IQ, we think our findings have strong educational implications.While many schools are cutting music programs and spending more and more time on test preparation, our findings suggest that musical training may actually help to set up children for a better academic future,” said head researcher, Nadine Gaab.

The greatest impact of music on cognitive functioning occurs when music is introduced before the child turns seven as it creates more extensive connectivity between different parts of the brain and also improves the ability to integrate sensory input.

If your child finds music distracting, try ambient sounds such as whale songs, waterfalls, ocean waves and other natural sounds. Eno's "Music for airports" is specifically designed to relax and calm tired travellers in airports. Eno's background music heightens your mood and occupies those parts of your brain that may cause distractions while you are studying.