Teaching a child with dyspraxia can be a frustrating experience due to the wide range of symptoms they may present. However, while dyspraxia is a neurological condition that commonly causes movement and coordination issues, it does not affect intelligence. Children with dyspraxia are perfectly capable of learning alongside their peers, they may just need some extra attention and support from time to time. Awareness is the first step and can make all of the difference…
Dysgraphia is a language-based learning difference that affects a student’s ability to produce written language. In the early grades, students with dysgraphia may have difficulty with consistent letter formation, word spacing, punctuation, and capitalization. In later grades, they may have difficulty with writing fluency, floating margins, and legible writing. Students with dysgraphia are often labeled “sloppy,” “lazy,” or “not detail-oriented” in a classroom setting, but students with dysgraphia are often trying very hard (if not…
The first time you hear that your 7-year-old is weak in “executive functions,” it sounds like a joke. No kidding—that’s why they’re a first grader, not a CEO. But executive functions are the essential self-regulating skills that we all use every day to accomplish just about everything. They help us plan, organize, make decisions, shift between situations or thoughts, control our emotions and impulsivity, and learn from past mistakes. Kids rely on their executive functions…
We most closely associate dyslexia with difficulty learning to read and with other language and reading skills like writing and spelling. Dyslexia, however, goes beyond letters, spelling, and learning to read and write. Dyslexic students are more likely to have difficulty comprehending what they read, and even what they remember. It can also cause students to have difficulty following directions. Somewhere between 60 and 100% of people with dyslexia experience difficulty learning math. Dyslexic students often…
Many students struggle with math and math anxiety, but for those with dyscalculia, math classes and tests present seemingly insurmountable obstacles that can affect academic success and lower self-esteem. People with the math-related learning disability dyscalculia have a deficit in the brain’s ability to process number-related information. They may have trouble with math operations, memorizing multiplication tables and understanding math concepts. In a broader sense, they have difficulties with sequencing information, budgeting time and keeping…
Like kids in so many cities and towns around the globe, the overwhelmed students in Michigan’s Van Buren Intermediate School District have been through a lot these past few years. The pandemic continues to disrupt classrooms, sicken friends and loved ones, and has left some district families jobless and homeless. In this district alone, there were three student suicide attempts since in-person school resumed in fall 2021, along with two student suicides last year. But…
The troubling school enrollment losses that districts reported last year have continued this fall as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt public education across the country, an NPR investigation has found. They compiled the latest headcount data directly from more than 600 districts in 23 states and Washington, D.C., including statewide data from Massachusetts, Georgia, and Alabama. They found that very few districts, especially larger ones, have returned to pre-pandemic numbers, and most are now…
To understand the pandemic’s impact on middle-schoolers, picture the pain of lunchtime. A bunch of uncomfortable adolescents are navigating social distancing rules while figuring out when and if to take down their masks. It’s not going well. Some have given up eating lunch entirely, which worries Phyllis Fagell, a school counselor and author of the book, “Middle School Matters.” She knows this age group. And she knows all this anxiety is not just about masks.…
Many school districts, and many parents, say they don’t want classrooms to close again, but can American public schools really handle omicron? Several major school systems have said they would not shift districtwide to remote learning, or would do so only if forced to by public health officials. But the looming Omicron wave could challenge the rickety infrastructure that has kept schools running this year. Some classrooms are closing temporarily, as more people test positive…
Student stress is ever on the rise, and schools across the country say they’re seeing an uptick in disruptive behaviors as students are returning to classrooms. Some are obvious and visible, like students trashing bathrooms, fighting over social media posts, or running out of classrooms. Teachers report that others, however, are quieter calls for help, like students putting their heads down and refusing to talk. Alyssa Rodriguez expected a rocky readjustment this school year. The…
