What Is School Readiness and Why Is It Important?

The capacitY TO FORM POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS is an essential aspect of healthy child development. Children’s relationships and daily interactions with their parents contribute to developing a set of skills that help children succeed in the classroom once they start kindergarten. Collectively, these skills are referred to as “school readiness.” They generally include children’s language and literacy…

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Fearless Advocacy

Pro Tips for School Team Meetings   FOR MOST PARENTS, school team meetings provoke dread, anxiety, and frustration—especially when you’re still new at this. Some of us charge into the meeting like the mighty lioness defending her cubs. Others feel more like the baby rabbit staring helplessly into the headlights of a speeding car. Having…

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Smartphones in School? A Voice for Change

AS A PARENT COACH AND TEACHER TRAINER, I deal with the challenges created by electronic devices and social media on a daily basis. Parents struggle to set appropriate limits, kids have a hard time regulating their usage, and educators need to manage the balance between using these devices as tools and the unintended consequences they…

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ADHD and Criminal Justice, Part One: The Punishment Mindset and School Discipline

INDIVIDUALS WITH ADHD or similar disorders have brains that function differently, in some respects, from the brains of neurotypical individuals. To many readers of this magazine, that is well known and understood. These are our children, our students, our siblings, our parents, and even ourselves. But there are many people who interact with individuals with…

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Engagement: Making Educational Content “Stick” Through Technology

ENGAGEMENT. IN MY YEARS as a speech and language pathologist working with students with a wide variety of learning issues, I have learned that engagement is half the battle in facilitating success. Students with attention difficulties must struggle with immersion in educational environments not necessarily designed for their needs, in which the material they are intended…

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Everything I Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Eight Tips for Teachers from CHADD’s 2016 Educator of the Year   EVERY PARENT IS A BETTER PARENT WHEN THEY HAVE FRIENDS TO HELP THEM through the challenges of raising a child with ADHD. Mine was a kindergarten teacher, Alicia Solano, who eventually was named the 2016 CHADD Educator of the Year. In an interview,…

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