Child Development Institute Parenting Today

Learning Zone – Info on Learning Styles, Learning Disabilities
Plus Reading & Homework Help

Parenting articles on learning psychology to assist parents in helping children and teens to succeed in school and in life.  Help for reading problems & dyslexia, learning disabilities and homework.  Learning style information helps parents encourage creativity and academic success.

Parents should be each child’s first and favorite teacher.

Child Development Institute provides information on child and teen learning styles along with guidelines and tools to enable parents to provide the input and activities children need at critical stages of development.  The timing and appropriateness are key to children learning important skills.

Children may have difficulty mastering certain developmental tasks or academic subjects.  We also provide suggestions on how to help kids when they are struggling.  We offer expert help for new readers or struggling readers including dyslexia, math, language plus study skills development and homework help. We also provide recommendations for educational toys and games and programs to improve reading and other study skills.

Read To Succeed: Tips for Improving Reading in Children and Teens  Reading skill is essential to learning all other subjects taught in school. The better the reading skills children have and the earlier they have them determines how rapidly and how well they will achieve in school. Failure to be able to read at grade level by 8 years old is predictive of future learning and behavior problems. There is no reason why a child with average intelligence cannot achieve this goal with early and appropriate reading instruction.

An educational survey showed that 44% of the 4th Grade children nation wide are not able to read at or above the basic, or partial mastery, level on the National Assessment of Education Progress test. The extent of the problem ranged from 27% in Maine to 62% in Louisiana. In California 59% of the students are reading BELOW the minimum established proficiency level for reading.

The ability to read is essential to being able to learn any subject taught in school. In our high tech society, proficiency in reading is a must to compete favorably in today’s job market. The information age is upon us. You can expect greater demands to be made upon reading ability.  As parents, it’s up to us to make sure that our children can read, write, spell and pronounce words correctly.

Recommended programs to launch new readers and help struggling readers:

• Click N Kids – Reading & Spelling for Young Children - A trusted, affordable way to help beginning, emerging or struggling readers from 4 to 10 years old. Used in homes and in many school districts. Online reading instruction that is both fun and effective.

• Reading Horizons – Help for Struggling Readers & Dyslexics - Based on the time tested, research supported Orton-Gillingham method of intensive phonics, this software provides an affordable, effective approach to helping struggling readers and children with learning disabilities and/or dyslexia overcome their challenges and become accomplished, avid readers. (Best for children and teens 10 and above).

 News & Research Related to Learning

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Feature Article

Learning Disabilities and Extreme Patterns of Thinking    In addition to classroom challenges, one of the challenges facing students with learning disabilities or challenges is learning to curtail extreme thinking patterns. Child Psychologist, Dr Thomas Achenbach has used the term “Externalizer” to refer to children who anger easily, deny or lie about their wrongdoing, blame others for their problems, or minimize the seriousness of what they did.  Hence, Externalizer refers to the child’s tendency to externalize the blame for their problems, as opposed to accepting responsibility for them.  Interestingly, these children appear to have no difficulty accepting responsibility for the good things they do.  So, if they do a good deed, they deserve credit, to their way of thinking.  On the rare occasions that they will admit they did a bad deed, they will either blame someone else for having “caused” them to do the bad deed, or to be caught doing the bad deed.  Continue reading →

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