Getting Ready for the Summer Holidays

1. Prepare Children – Prepare children for the summer holidays while they are still in school. Classrooms often have a countdown to summer, but including one in the home also is helpful. Discuss summer holidays with children including when they will go back to school and what they will do over the holidays. Read books about summer, and school holidays.

2. Make Cards – If children are concerned about not seeing their friends and teacher, have them create cards for everyone. The cards can have memories from the school year or a simple message, “Have a nice summer. See you in September.” Cards are a great way for children to share their feelings and learn about giving.

3. Don’t Forget School – Arrange summer play days with classmates before school ends so children know they will see their friends soon. Use the class photo as a way to discuss and remember classmates, or make a book about the past year, “Malcolm’s Year in Mrs Smith’s Class.”

4. Maintain Structure – The school day provides a significant amount of structure for children. A transition from a full day of planned activities to one with little structure can be very difficult for children. Have a routine so children have consistency in their lives. Set times for waking up, going to bed, eating, and other activities so children know what to expect during the day. If children have a routine with different activities on different days of the week such as swimming lessons Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and library time on Tuesdays, make a calendar showing these activities with words or pictures so children see the day’s activities. Some children may benefit from a very structured schedule. If children use a visual timetable at school, ask their teacher how to implement it at home. Besides including structured activities, remember a schedule can include periods of choice and free play while still providing support and structure.

5. Keep Activities Handy – Keep materials for art activities (paper, paints, buttons, glue, magazines) handy. Art activities develop fine motor skills and encourage creativity. Cooking lunch or snacks is a fun activity for children and it encourages reading, basic numeracy (fractions, counting), and turn taking.

6. Start Summer-Long Responsibilities – Give children activities for the summer. Gardening activities such as a small plot in the garden or a herb garden are a great opportunity for children to watch plants grow, care for them, and see the fruits of their labour. If children are not interested in gardening, give them responsibilities with a family pet (brushing, feeding, walking) or another household activity. These activities can be expanded upon by reading about the topic.

7. Ask the Teacher – If you have concerns about a child’s transition from school to summer, ask their teacher for suggestions. The teacher may have specific ideas for your child’s needs or they may know about activities your child would enjoy. They also can provide ways to help your son or daughter prepare for the next school year.

Ways to Increase Communication and Language

There are a variety of ways to increase communication depending on a child’s age and ability level. Below are some ideas for increasing language and communication throughout the day.

1. Expand Sentence Length – When children answer a question or request an item using one or two words, increase their sentence length by repeating their answer with an expanded phrase. For example, if you ask a child, “Would you like orange juice?” and they answer “Yes,” model a longer response. “Yes, I would like orange juice.” Then have the child repeat the phrase.

2. Use Books for Language - Reading stories is an excellent way to incorporate language into a fun activity. Ask questions about the pictures, the story, and the characters. Even very young children can identify colours, gender, words, or concepts (e.g. the boy that is the tallest/shortest) by pointing to pictures. Ask the children to predict what is going to happen next throughout the story. After finishing the book, review what happened in the story.

3. Create Situations that Promote Language - Favourite toys, clothes, and foods can motivate young children to use language. Store favourite items in eye sight, but out of reach, so children have to use their words to request the items.

4. Provide Choices – Give children choices in activities, stories, toys, and foods so they communicate their preferences. You can create an opportunity for communication even if you know a child is going to select a favourite story or game.

5. Find Time to Communicate – Many children like being entertained by technology, but opportunities for communication are lost when families spend a good deal of time watching television and playing video games. Turn off the television during meals and refrain from using portable video games in the car. Time spent together at the dinner table and in the car are wonderful opportunities for learning about a child’s day and increasing communication and language skills.

6. Be Supportive – Children are more likely to communicate if they feel valued. Encourage language by listening attentively to children and asking them questions. If children answer questions incorrectly, teach them the correct answers using kind, supportive words. Repeatedly asking a question a child does not know how to answer or condescendingly correcting them can hurt their feelings and decreases the chance they will answer questions in the future. Instead, encourage them to say, “I don’t know,” and use the situation as a learning opportunity.

7. Be a Role Model – Children learn from the adults around them. When adults speak in full sentences, use correct grammar, and articulate well, children hear and are reminded of how words and sentences should sound.

New Course Dates Announced

Dyslexia Day Course

Wednesday 25th April 2012
The Big Sleep, Wellington Street
Cheltenham, GL50 1XZ

Thursday 26th April 2012
Holiday Inn Express, Norwich Sports Village
Drayton High Road, Norwich, NR6 5DU

Monday 30th April 2012
Holiday Inn, Woolston Grange Avenue, Warrington, WA1 4PX

Wednesday 2nd May 2012
Rougemont Hotel, Queen Street, Exeter EX4 3SP

Wednesday 9th May 2012
Premier Inn, The Haymarket, Bristol, Avon BS1 3LR

Friday 18th May 2012
The Collier Room, St Hild and St Bede’s College,
Durham, DH1 1SZ

Monday 21st May 2012
Holiday Inn Lancaster,
Caton Rd, Lancaster, LA1 3RA

Friday 25th May 2012
National College for School Leadership
Triumph Road. Nottingham, NG8 1DH

Monday 28th May 2012
Toby carvery, Nottingham Road, Chaddesden, Derby,
DE21 6LZ

Wednesday 20th June 2012
Fownes Hotel, City Walls Road
Worcester, WR1 2AP

Thursday 21st June 2012
Holiday Inn, St Quentin Gate
Telford, TF3 4EH

Social Stories Day Course

Tuesday 1st May 2012
Best Western Leicester Stage Hotel
299 Leicester Rd, Wigston Fields, Leicester, LE18 1JW

Monday 14th May 2012
Holiday Inn,
Caton Rd, Lancaster, LA1 3RA

Tuesday 15th May 2012
Novotel, 4 Whitehall Quay
Leeds LS1 4HR

Wednesday 16th May 2012
Holiday Inn Express, Vicar Lane, Bradford BD1 5LD

Thursday 17th May 2012
The Source @ Meadowhall, 300 Meadowhall Way, Sheffield, S9 1EA

Tuesday 29th May 2012
Toby carvery, Nottingham Road, Chaddesden, Derby,
DE21 6LZ

Thursday 31st May 2012
National College for School Leadership, Learning and Conference Centre
Triumph Road, Nottingham, NG8 1DH

ADHD Day Course

Friday 11th May 2012
Holiday Inn, Peartree Interchange
Oxford, OX2 8JD

Wednesday 23rd May 2012
Toby Carvery, Aigburth Road
Liverpool, L19 9DN

Thursday 14th June 2012
Holiday Inn, Hull Marina
Castle Street, Hull, HU1 2BX

Autism Asperger Day Course

Tuesday 22nd May 2012
Toby Carvery, Aigburth Rd,
Liverpool, L19 9DN

Wednesday 30th May 2012
Holiday Inn Tadcaster Road
York YO24 1QF

Promoting Positive Behaviour Day Course

Thursday 24th May 2012:
Gateshead Swallow, High West Street, Gateshead,
Tyne and Wear, NE8 1PE

Tuesday 19th June 2012
Holiday Inn Express
65 Lionel Street, Birmingham B3 1JE

All courses run 9:15 – 3:30

Not in your area? Get in touch and we'll see what we can do

Using Activities in the Community to Develop Social Skills

Community activities are diverse, fun, and provide a wide range of opportunities for social skill development. Meeting people, maintaining conversations, collaborating with peers, following directions, and problem solving are a few social skills to practice in a community setting. Below are a few ideas on incorporating social skill development into your community activities.

1. Story Times and Plays – Community libraries, bookshops, and theatres often have book readings or short plays for children. These events are opportunities to practice attending, following directions, maintaining personal space, and asking and responding to questions in a group setting. For children working on attending, find out how long the event lasts, if there are frequent breaks, and if the event is interactive. Attend shorter, more interactive events then gradually increase the length of time so children are successful and are engaged in the event.

2. Parks - Although primarily thought of as a place for exercise, parks are a wonderful place to learn conflict resolution, problem solving, and communication skills. Children can practice asking to join an activity, helping peers, and working with friends to create and resolve game rules. Patience can be practiced waiting for a swing or the slide.

3. People of Authority in the Community - The ability to socialise with people of authority is important for school, community, and future work environments. Doctors, dentists, and teachers are examples of people who should be addressed more formally. Use these interactions as opportunities to practice formal introductions, greetings, conversations, and good-byes. Prepare children by letting them know who they will be seeing and practicing short conversations.

4. Frequent Interactions – Addressing people at a shop or n eighbours involves less formal interactions. These meetings are an opportunity for greeting someone by name, asking questions about their interests, and ending the conversation appropriately. Practice at home in advance and remind children, if necessary, how to respond when they see the person. For example, ‘Alex, you remember Mrs. Smith who lives across the road and has a dog called Buster.

5. Leisure Centres - Leisure centres frequently have summer team activities such as football or netball. These teams are opportunities for children to learn good sportsmanship, meet with children their age, and learn to follow rules and regulations associated with an activity. Other activities offered at community centres, libraries and museums include art and storytelling which teach fun skills while providing social interactions. Children learn to work collaboratively with children their age on projects or share materials for completing activities.

Marking Guidelines and Suggestions for Making Marking More Effective

Praise and target
Marking is about gaining a balance of setting and guiding future progress and building self-esteem based on children’s achievements. A good marking policy should reflect this. Children should be made aware of what they have done well, any achievements or successes they have made. However, more importantly, to facilitate their future progress they need to be given targets on where to go next with their learning. In some cases they need to be sensitively told they are getting things wrong.

Only praise
Like all things, in marking there are exceptions to the rule of praise and target. If a child is particularly proud of a piece of writing for example, it may not be helpful to set a target or point out any errors as this may be counterproductive. It may be better to praise only, ignore any areas for development until the next time that child is working on a similar piece. In this instance the target could be set at the beginning of the piece, based on the areas for development in the previous piece and addressed in a very positive way such as “You remember that lovely piece of writing you did? Wasn’t it great? Now you’re older I bet you could do an even more amazing one if you …….”

Only target
Sometimes children (and adults) don’t do their best, other times they do very little. In general, children like to know where they stand when it comes to expectations. If you are marking a piece of children’s work and you can’t find anything good to say about it, that is probably because there is nothing good to say about it. So be honest with the child, set their targets and then, instead of scrambling around trying to refer to something good in the piece in front of you, use the praise element to refer to some previous submission i.e. “You are usually really good at extended writing, perhaps we should have another look at the recount you wrote about the school trip last week, that was very well written” (personal retrospective praise).

Is the marking focussed to the objective?
Have a balance of focussed and unfocussed marking. It is often helpful for the child if they are aware of what is being marked, for instance; using apostrophes. Indeed, it is useful for a teacher to have a clear focus and can make marking a lot quicker. However, we are back to the magic f word in education; flexibility. If you notice any glaring errors, particularly repeated, don’t be afraid to break the rules and mention them. Even more importantly, if you notice that a child is attempting something to extend their learning i.e. using colons in sentences, mention it.

Don’t over mark,
Are the teachers writing too much? Are the teachers up all night marking? Praise and target marking is hard work. If there are three pieces of work in a day per child in a class of 30, that is 90 pieces of marking. At two minutes each (conservative estimate), that is three hours’ work Consider how much written marking that a teacher is doing in a day. Even two pieces would take two hours. Marking is a crucial part of a teacher’s role, but should only be a part of the role. Maybe we should only thoroughly mark one piece in a day. Furthermore, some marking should be done with the learner during the day, allowing them to address their targets immediately.

Have the children read it? Have you made time for the children to read it? Do they understand your feedback?
Make time to analyse the marking with the children. Just because you have marked and annotated a piece doesn’t mean that they will read it. In a busy curricular ethos here may not be time to read it in class. Sometimes, they may read the feedback but not understand it. A good marking policy is an essential part of the overall academic plan. Therefore time to reflect should be integrated into the timetable, this can be done sensitively as a whole class activity, in small groups or in certain circumstances one to one. Just because we set a target, doesn’t mean it will be acted upon. Under these circumstances provision is made for next steps.

What does the child think?
Ask the child what they would do if they were the teacher. “Imagine that you are the teacher. What would you say about this piece of writing? What is good about it? What needs improving next time? You will be astounded at how insightful many children can be given the opportunity.

Correct Date For Cheltenham Dyslexia Training

Please note the correct date for Dyslexia Training at the Big Sleep in Cheltenham is:

Wednesday 25th April

Thank you

The Dyslexia Team

Teaching Young People to Understand and Respond to Feelings

Young people often struggle not only with understanding their feelings, but also relating to other people’s feelings. These skills are critical for personal well being and building relationships. This post includes steps for teaching children to understand and manage their feelings as well as identify and respond to other people’s feelings.

1. Identifying Feelings – Teach children to recognise when they have a specific feeling. Whether happy, sad, or angry the first step in coping with a feeling is identifying it. Help children identify feelings by discussing emotions when they occur. If a child is angry say, “I see you are angry. You have your arms crossed and are stamping your feet.” Another tool is to role play times when specific emotions surface. Use novel examples as well as recent experiences for the child. Discuss and write about different feelings in a feelings journal. Use the journal to write about events and the emotions, responses, and consequences the events elicited.

2. Planning for Strong Feelings – Help children cope with intense feelings by creating coping strategies. Have a quiet place for children to take a break when angry or sad. Give children tools and teach them how and when to use them such as a stress ball or a trampoline. These tools help children release energy in a positive way. Encourage children to use words or write about their feelings. Establish a phrase the child can use to remove themselves from stressful or upsetting situations. The phrase gives children a way to politely excuse themselves, regain control, and then return to the situation. Select a short phrase that can be used in a variety of situations such as, “Excuse me. I need a minute to think.”

3. Recognising Other People’s Feelings – Learning to empathize with other people and respond appropriately to another person’s feelings, is an important skill for building relationships. Show pictures and drawings or role play situations to discuss the words, body language, and experiences that indicate a person’s feelings. When discussing a child’s own feelings, incorporate the concept that peers and adults have similar feelings in the same situation. This helps children develop empathy. Read stories where characters experience events that are happy, sad, surprising, or frustrating. Discuss why the characters felt the way they did and what they said or did to indicate their feelings.

4. Responding to Other People’s Feelings – Not only do children have to identify other people’s feelings, but they also need to learn how to respond when someone is angry, sad, or excited. Teach children appropriate responses through role play and reviewing past events. Discuss how different people in the role play feel, how their body language and words show their feelings, and the best response for the situation. Also discuss how the child would feel if this happened to them and how they would like other people to respond. This helps children learn to empathise with other people.