Learning Disabilities: Productive Ways You Can Help Your Child
Does your child or grandchild have a learning disability, or is perhaps a slow learner? Would you like to know some productive ways to help your child learn? In today's post, I will share with you my favorite tip for helping struggling learners, whether you know that they have a learning disability or not. When I teach, I always try my best techniques that will probably reach ALL learners first! That way, if a child has a learning disability, he or she may just get through the year in my class without even falling behind! And some of them even wind up AHEAD! That's because a learning disabled child is often a very intelligent child that simply has to be taught in a different way in order to blossom.
So how can you best help a child that is struggling to learn? This is the question that riddles so many dedicated parents, grandparents, and teachers that want to see these wonderful children learn and succeed in school and in life! In my own experience, I have found that children that struggle to learn are often the sweetest, kindest, most creative little individuals in my classroom! And once I become attached to these little ones, I feel like I would do just about anything to help them, including stand on my head, produce a dog and pony show, or let someone video tape me singing and dancing in order to help them learn just one word! :)
Many educators agree that for children with learning disabilities, simultaneous multi-sensory lessons are the key. This means that you will need to involve as many of the senses as possible in the learning process all at once in order to get the message into your child's head and hold it there. Kids need to see, say, hear, and move- all at the same time- in order to learn best. If there is not a movement associated with whatever your child is trying to learn, then just make one up! You could also use sign language, too.
So here is an example: Let's say that you want your child to learn a new sight word. You'll need to get him to do these things all at the same time:
1. Look at the word.
2. Say the word, and spell it aloud.
3. Hear someone else also saying and spelling the word.
4. Do a motion that represents the word, (such as sign language, or any other gesture you might make up. The more engaging and fun you make it, the better!)
5. If there is any music you can add to this mix, then that's even better!
Here is an example of how I teach sight words to all of my students, whether or not they have a learning disability. The only difference between my learning disabled students and my students with no disabilities is the amount of repetitions it takes to learn the word. Otherwise, they can all learn together in the same class! In fact, this is an example of when "mainstreaming," (putting children of all abilities together in one class) makes good sense, because when kids are boogieing to the music, you really can't tell who has a learning disability and who does not! But you CAN tell who has rhythm, ha ha! Often times, the low achievers really SHINE during music and movement lessons such as this!
This is what it looks like when the children all join in! This is a lesson to teach the word "down" from Sing and Spell Volume 2!
One thing that parents and caregivers at home will need to do is make sure that they replay the song on the DVD several times, and make sure that they ask the child what the word was when it was finished. Have him or her find a flash card with that word on it, and touch it and spell the word aloud. Have him hold the card while singing and touch the letters and as they come up in the song. Do you understand what just happened in this scenario? The child saw, said, heard, and moved all at the same time. Learning usually takes place when that happens, because if there is some kind of learning block in the brain, as there would be in a learning disability, the child's brain has another pathway to take. If you only have the child only looking, or only saying, or only hearing, or only moving, then if the child doesn't learn that way, you just wasted your time and frustrated your child. Combine the methods that work for your child, and learning should take place.
What if the song is too fast?
If the song is too fast, first put on the DVD. Then you, (the adult,) learn the words and movements for the song. Then turn off the DVD and either sing the song more slowly with your child, or play it on an mp3 player, etc. There is also a neat app called Slow Tunes you can use that will take an mp3 song file and play it back for you more slowly without changing the pitch! So you can easily download the songs from iTunes and then play the songs back more slowly to help a child that needs to sing it a little more slowly to be successful.
What if there is no song to help us learn?
Now let's try to apply this method to teaching your child something that doesn't have a HeidiSong at the moment. For example, let's think about teaching your child place value. Remember, place value is what we call it when we teach that the ones place is on the right, then comes the tens place, and then the hundreds place, as in the number 153. We know that we need to have the child see, say, hear, and do something, all at the same time, and repeat this process many times in order to cement the learning.
I would try this:
1. See it: (write down what you want the child to learn, as I did below.
2.
3. Then read it aloud to your child, pointing to the words. Have your child read it back with you, saying the words out loud with you, so that he is hearing, seeing, and saying the words all at the same time.
4. Now all you need to do is add some movements! Any movements will do, but you can try these for some ideas.
5. Now put it all together! Have your child see it, say it, hear it, and do it, all at the same time. Repeat as many times as necessary! And if you can put some rhythm into it, or even turn it into a song, that's even better! Make sure that you repeat it with lots of different numbers.
6. Don't forget with math concepts especially, children need to really experience these concepts and try them out for themselves in order to truly understand. So get out some counters, beads, or something that will help your child understand what you really mean. You'll need something that represents one hundred, something that represents ten, and something that represents just one thing (that's the easy part!) Most teachers use "Base Ten Blocks" for this. These are sold at educational supply stores, and I also found this set on Amazon for $29.35.
7. These are "Base Ten Blocks." Teachers use them to help teach children about large numbers and how to regroup (borrow and carry) when adding and subtracting. The large one represents 1000, the flat ones are 100's, the sticks are tens, and the singles are the ones.
So there you have it! This "multi-sensory soup" is my very best trick for getting kids to remember ANYTHING! Try it! It almost always works, given enough time and repetitions! And HeidiSongs has TONS of resources to help you along the way for sight words, math, phonics, alphabet, counting and number recognition, learning to sound out three letter words, and MORE!
-Heidi :)
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So how can you best help a child that is struggling to learn? This is the question that riddles so many dedicated parents, grandparents, and teachers that want to see these wonderful children learn and succeed in school and in life! In my own experience, I have found that children that struggle to learn are often the sweetest, kindest, most creative little individuals in my classroom! And once I become attached to these little ones, I feel like I would do just about anything to help them, including stand on my head, produce a dog and pony show, or let someone video tape me singing and dancing in order to help them learn just one word! :)
Many educators agree that for children with learning disabilities, simultaneous multi-sensory lessons are the key. This means that you will need to involve as many of the senses as possible in the learning process all at once in order to get the message into your child's head and hold it there. Kids need to see, say, hear, and move- all at the same time- in order to learn best. If there is not a movement associated with whatever your child is trying to learn, then just make one up! You could also use sign language, too.
So here is an example: Let's say that you want your child to learn a new sight word. You'll need to get him to do these things all at the same time:
1. Look at the word.
2. Say the word, and spell it aloud.
3. Hear someone else also saying and spelling the word.
4. Do a motion that represents the word, (such as sign language, or any other gesture you might make up. The more engaging and fun you make it, the better!)
5. If there is any music you can add to this mix, then that's even better!
Here is an example of how I teach sight words to all of my students, whether or not they have a learning disability. The only difference between my learning disabled students and my students with no disabilities is the amount of repetitions it takes to learn the word. Otherwise, they can all learn together in the same class! In fact, this is an example of when "mainstreaming," (putting children of all abilities together in one class) makes good sense, because when kids are boogieing to the music, you really can't tell who has a learning disability and who does not! But you CAN tell who has rhythm, ha ha! Often times, the low achievers really SHINE during music and movement lessons such as this!
This is what it looks like when the children all join in! This is a lesson to teach the word "down" from Sing and Spell Volume 2!
One thing that parents and caregivers at home will need to do is make sure that they replay the song on the DVD several times, and make sure that they ask the child what the word was when it was finished. Have him or her find a flash card with that word on it, and touch it and spell the word aloud. Have him hold the card while singing and touch the letters and as they come up in the song. Do you understand what just happened in this scenario? The child saw, said, heard, and moved all at the same time. Learning usually takes place when that happens, because if there is some kind of learning block in the brain, as there would be in a learning disability, the child's brain has another pathway to take. If you only have the child only looking, or only saying, or only hearing, or only moving, then if the child doesn't learn that way, you just wasted your time and frustrated your child. Combine the methods that work for your child, and learning should take place.
What if the song is too fast?
If the song is too fast, first put on the DVD. Then you, (the adult,) learn the words and movements for the song. Then turn off the DVD and either sing the song more slowly with your child, or play it on an mp3 player, etc. There is also a neat app called Slow Tunes you can use that will take an mp3 song file and play it back for you more slowly without changing the pitch! So you can easily download the songs from iTunes and then play the songs back more slowly to help a child that needs to sing it a little more slowly to be successful.
What if there is no song to help us learn?
Now let's try to apply this method to teaching your child something that doesn't have a HeidiSong at the moment. For example, let's think about teaching your child place value. Remember, place value is what we call it when we teach that the ones place is on the right, then comes the tens place, and then the hundreds place, as in the number 153. We know that we need to have the child see, say, hear, and do something, all at the same time, and repeat this process many times in order to cement the learning.
I would try this:
1. See it: (write down what you want the child to learn, as I did below.
2.
3. Then read it aloud to your child, pointing to the words. Have your child read it back with you, saying the words out loud with you, so that he is hearing, seeing, and saying the words all at the same time.
4. Now all you need to do is add some movements! Any movements will do, but you can try these for some ideas.
5. Now put it all together! Have your child see it, say it, hear it, and do it, all at the same time. Repeat as many times as necessary! And if you can put some rhythm into it, or even turn it into a song, that's even better! Make sure that you repeat it with lots of different numbers.
6. Don't forget with math concepts especially, children need to really experience these concepts and try them out for themselves in order to truly understand. So get out some counters, beads, or something that will help your child understand what you really mean. You'll need something that represents one hundred, something that represents ten, and something that represents just one thing (that's the easy part!) Most teachers use "Base Ten Blocks" for this. These are sold at educational supply stores, and I also found this set on Amazon for $29.35.
7. These are "Base Ten Blocks." Teachers use them to help teach children about large numbers and how to regroup (borrow and carry) when adding and subtracting. The large one represents 1000, the flat ones are 100's, the sticks are tens, and the singles are the ones.
So there you have it! This "multi-sensory soup" is my very best trick for getting kids to remember ANYTHING! Try it! It almost always works, given enough time and repetitions! And HeidiSongs has TONS of resources to help you along the way for sight words, math, phonics, alphabet, counting and number recognition, learning to sound out three letter words, and MORE!
-Heidi :)
----------------------------------
Follow me! Did you enjoy this post? Do me a favor and share it with your friends! And follow this blog by signing up for my email updates here, or follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on TPT! I'm also on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, too! Don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter for special deals and promo codes that you won't find out about anywhere else.
