Visual sequencing is the ability to organize visual impressions in a certain order. This is an important prerequisite for good writing, reading and arithmetic. Children who have difficulties with visual sequencing often exchange letters while writing or have difficulties with writing down numbers. Today we are offering a freebie containing various exercises to train visual sequencing.
While browsing the web we came across this story:
I looked forward to reading with my daughter. We would cuddle together with a stack of books, and she would say, “Again, again, again,” and we would lose ourselves in our favorite stories.
I was shocked when that never happened. What is it about reading to children, I thought, that’s so complicated? Reading together is overrated.
Because, with her, she had only a passing interest in books. When we did sit together, she pulled the book out of my hands to flip through pages at random. Beginning, end, middle. Whatever. Done.
We were most successful with books filled with random words and images, such as cat, dog, horse, and cow. Why did so many books have stories?
Today’s freebie offers you lots and lots of worksheets to practice letters. Print out the worksheets, and if you feel like it, cut out the cards and laminate them. Children can practice all upper-case and lower-case letters. They have to recognize which letters are correct. Sometimes the letters are mirrored or standing upside down. These exercises will help your child to better recognize single letters, which helps them become a better reader.
It’s been a while, but today we offer a new freebie: Spirals – Tracing and recognizing. The first two pages are for warming up: Trace the spirals, use different colors, and draw your own spirals. On the 3rd page, you have to recognize the different spirals and trace them in the given color. These exercises train attention, hand-eye coordination, and visual and spatial perception. While the children are tracing the spirals, you can also check how they are holding the pen. For younger children: Let them trace the spirals with their fingers first, so they get a feeling for the form.
Embracing Dyslexia is a thoughtful and moving exploration of dyslexia from an insider’s perspective, weaving together interviews with parents, adult dyslexics, researchers, educators, and experts to provide an accurate portrayal of a learning difference that affects between 15 and 20% of the population.
Parents share emotional stories of their frustration over failing to understand why their children were struggling with reading, writing, and spelling, and the life-altering impact the word dyslexia had on their lives.
Adult dyslexics courageously open up and speak candidly about their dyslexia, sharing their struggles and successes they had in school and in their adult lives.
Experts and educators define what dyslexia is and illustrate why early dyslexia screening for all children is vital. They also share how effective tutoring, classroom accommodations, and recognizing and fostering the natural gifts and abilities of a child with dyslexia can take them from feeling stupid and experiencing failure on a daily basis to believing in themselves and knowing that they can be successful.
Watch the complete movie at www.embracingdyslexia.com
Embracing Dyslexia – The trailer:
Fluent readers are readers who not only sound good while they’re reading, but who also understand what they’re reading. And by “good,” I mean that when they read, they sound natural and conversational, not choppy or disconnected. We all know how hard it is to listen to non-fluent reading, and we all know how fluent reading should sound. But how do we help them get from non-fluent to fluent? What should parents do when their kids are not fluent readers? And more importantly, what can parents do to help their children read more fluently? CONTINUE READING
Will you be welcoming a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) into your classroom this fall? If this is your first experience having a child with ASD in your classroom, you may be a tad nervous (well, likely more than just a tad). You may be wondering how in the world you are going to meet this one child’s needs while balancing the needs of the other children in your classroom. How will you handle the behaviors? What do the parents expect? Children with ASD often come with a barrage of service providers such as Speech/Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Behavioral Consultants, and sometimes a 1:1 para-professional– how are we all going to be working together? You may be worrying about your lack of training in autism and be unsure if you are equipped to meet the needs of the child. Well, take a deep breath. With the proper perspective and some planning and preparation, this may be the most rewarding experience of your teaching career. CONTINUE READING
Krokotak offers all kinds of ideas for parents and children to be creative: printables, recipes, drawing, experiments and many more ideas. How about making some windmills, rain mandalas, a car made from an egg carton, or monster cards? Go visit krokotak and be inspired!
“Best Kept Secret” is a documentary worth watching about a teacher in New Jersey who works with autistic students to help them prepare to live in the world once they graduate from school.
The students attend JFK High School in Newark, a public school for students with a wide range of special needs. Administrators there answer the phone by saying, “This is John F. Kennedy High School, Newark’s Best Kept Secret.”
The documentary follows Janet Mino, who has been teaching young autistic men for four years at the school, and several students for a year and a half before they graduated in 2012. Newark Mayor Cory Booker has visited the high school and met the students featured in the film. READ MORE HERE
