Health & Wellness for Kids
26 Winter Dishes and Holiday Treats for Kids
26 Winter Dishes and Holiday Treats for Kids
written by Cathy Jacobs, posted on The Spruce Eats
When kids have time off from school in the winter, they love the break—but then after a day or so, they often complain of boredom. This winter holiday season, why not keep the kids in your household busy by inviting them into the kitchen to help you cook up a batch of Christmas cookies, festive candies, or yummy comfort food? They’ll not only assist in making some kid-friendly winter recipes and fun treats, but they will also be able to eat and enjoy all of their hard work.
You’ll find everything from a hot dog potato puff casserole you can serve at a playdate to Rudolph’s nose cookies for Santa’s cookie plate. Many of these recipes are also great gift ideas for family, friends, and neighbors.
Kindness is Like Snow…
To Test or Not to Test Privately?
To Test or Not To Test Privately?
written by Dr. Liz Matheis, published on Psychology Today
You know your child is struggling academically, whether he’s not reading at the same level as the other kids in his grade or she’s struggling to write her thoughts on paper.
You’ve spoken to your child’s teacher, who is on board with you and confirms what you see and know. With that said, what’s the next step?
The natural next step is to reach out to the child study team (CST) of your school. From my experience during the last three years, there is often redirection back to the general education arena for an intervention and referral services plan (IRSP), which includes the accommodations to be implemented for 4-6 weeks.
Teachers are asked to offer more differentiated instruction and try more strategies before the child can be referred for a child study team evaluation.
Where does this leave our struggling child? Waiting. Waiting for intervention while more time in the school year passes by. During that time, the gap widens, and remediation opportunities are lost.
I speak from both personal and professional experience. This means that both you and your child are frustrated and flailing.
What’s another option? The private psycho-educational evaluation.
Is My Child or Teen Anxious?
Is My Child or Teen Anxious?
written by Dr. Liz Matheis, posted on Psychology Today
Does my child have a gastrointestinal issue? Is he an insomniac? Why is she struggling to get to school each day?
It’s not always easy to understand or identify when your child is struggling with anxiety. Sometimes it looks like a crabby kid, a kid who is melting down because he didn’t get “his way,” or a teen who is being disrespectful.
Sometimes, it’s even easy to mistake anxiety for a learning disability or an attention deficit disorder. For example, your child may think that he’s not good at math. Each day when it’s time for the math lesson, your child may complain of a stomachache in anticipation. He may ask to go to the school nurse. He is then missing the lesson and will struggle to complete the worksheet that is now being sent home for homework. Sometimes anxiety can look like your child is struggling with that particular subject but it is the thought that he can’t do math that leads to losing out on instruction rather than a true learning disability.
Being preoccupied with thoughts can also look like a focus issue because anxiety draws our kid’s attention inward. That is, your child or teen may be internally distracted because she is worrying about her safety or your safety. He may be nervous about being called on in class and not having the right answer or not being able to produce an answer quickly enough. Your child may also be worrying about another child who excludes him or makes fun of his hair or sneakers.
Finding the Joy in Small Things…
Build Your Child’s Executive Functioning Skills
Build Your Child’s Executive Functioning Skills
written by Dr. Liz Matheis, posted on Psychology Today
As parents, we want to give our children the tools they need so they can be successful. Unfortunately, when our children enter late elementary or middle school, there isn’t a class to teach them how to organize their materials and plan ahead for their assignments, projects, and tests.
When my son and daughter started middle school, they were overwhelmed with how many responsibilities their teachers now expected them to juggle. They weren’t prepared to handle the demands of each class with a different teacher, a locker, so many notebooks to carry, and the weekly array of quizzes, tests, journals, and so on. Throw in a pandemic, and the result is that many kids lost out on building these skills during a critical time.
For children and teens with ADHD, it’s OK if parents need to coach and mentor with a more hands-on approach. Many parents even continue to coach their young adult children while in college, and that’s OK. Keep in mind that each child’s journey is going to be unique. The goal is to make progress without the pressure (on you and your child) to achieve a certain goal by a specific age. That will only serve to frustrate the both of you.
Reasons for Behavior
The Best Way to Explain Learning Disabilities to Your Child
The Best Way to Explain Learning Disabilities to Your Child
written by
A parent once called my special education school to request an admissions visit for her and her son, who was struggling mightily in school. She asked a strange question in her initial phone call: “Does the school have any signs or posters displayed that identify the program as a school for kids with learning disabilities?”
I asked her why she wished to know this. She replied, “My son doesn’t know that he has a learning disability, and we don’t want him to know.” He knows, Mom. Believe me, he knows.
I have long been puzzled by a parent’s reluctance to discuss a child’s learning disability diagnosis with him. The knowledge that he has an identifiable, common, measurable, and treatable condition often comes as great comfort to the youngster. Without this information, the child is likely to believe the taunts of his classmates and feel that he indeed is a dummy. The truth will set him free!
If a child does not have a basic understanding of the nature of his learning challenges, it is unlikely that he will be able to sustain his motivation in the classroom. Because he is puzzled about the difficulty that he is experiencing at school, he is unlikely to be able to commit to his studies.
“Please Let Him Make Just One Friend.”
“Please Let Him Make Just One Friend.”
written by Mary White, posted on Attitude Magazine
This back-to-school season, I implore you: Please talk to your kids about disabilities. Yes, we need to have conversations about physical disabilities — wheelchairs, braces, missing limbs, hearing aides — but let’s not forget to talk about the hidden disabilities that are so often missed entirely. Just because a child looks normal doesn’t mean there is not a battle going on in their brain, and that is so important for everyone — teachers, friends, relatives — to understand.
Here is what I’d like my child’s teachers and classmates to know about my son: He may say or do things that seem strange. Sometimes these things will make him a target for ridicule, judgments, and being left out. He may be “too extra” for the other kids: the extra energy, extra emotions, extra funny, extra loud, extra caring, extra attentive, etc., means he is bullied by some while other kids steer clear of him to avoid the same.
If your child is like my son, you avoid asking about if he made any new friends. Had he made a friend, the excitement of finally being accepted would be beaming across his face; we would already know our kid had exciting news.