Tag Archives: problems with learning

November 17, 2014 · 9:38 pm

Tuition Tip – Student Burnout

A sports coach knows the signs when he sees them – decreased ability to concentrate, confusion, decreased motivation, increased irritability, grumbling, quarrelsomeness, over sensitivity to criticism, anxiety, depression.

A good coach will recognises the signs of over-training and give his athlete a break before burn-out sets in. A great coach will not let these signs develop because he knows how to pace his athlete to bring them to their peak without demoralising them.

Burn-out can occur in any one of any profession and of any age, children included. Many parents do not realise they may be setting their child up for burn-out later in the year because they, as their child’s coach, have not planned their activities so that their academic athlete may peak at the appropriate times (exams).

It is with the best intentions that many parents will fill almost every minute of their little one’s waking hours with sport, training for sport and transport to and from sport. I am amazed at how many children are undertaking more than one sport a school term. If you are a parent who is building a champion please remember three things.

  1. Training and playing sport is very tiring. That is why great coaches do not over-load their prized athletes. They allow down time for recovery and for their protégés to spend time doing non-competitive recreational activities.
  2. A tired student will find it difficult to concentrate in class.
  3. In today’s world a person has a much better chance of achieving a high income with good grades than becoming a highly paid athlete.

If the situation has developed where a student may require extra tuition to assist with their education then a choice has to be made with a view to prioritising. It may be necessary to drop another activity for a while as the student regains their academic confidence. It is best to not load up an already over-loaded timetable.

As for being a great coach and preparing for the next season we will be running a pre-school program in January to ease our students back into their academic year.  Contact us for more details.

1 Comment

Filed under Learning, Posts

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

November 4, 2014 · 12:42 am

HYPERACTIVITY & ADD IN A NUTSHELL

Kinaesthetic learner, Attention Deficit Disorder or hyperactivity, it doesn’t necessarily help the situation when you have a name for a particular behaviour.  In fact some people resign from any responsibility for their actions when they are labelled.  The problem is what can be done?

According to Henry Osiecki (B.Sc. Grad. Dip Nutr. & Dietetics) some symptoms of ADHD are similar to those of essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiencies.  Behavioural and learning problems, tantrums and sleeping disorders are common to both.  Supplementing with omega 3 has been shown to improve learning and concentration behaviour.

Other Nutritional Deficiencies in Learning – if your diet is inadequate then consider a quality multi-vitamin

B Complex

The functions of the B vitamins in mental alertness and energy are well established.

EFA – Omega 3 & Omega 6

Introducing fish oil into a youngster’s diet may do wonders for concentration.

Zinc

The functions of zinc and the immune system have been known for over 100 years.  Knowledge of its other functions is relatively recent. Low levels of zinc are associated with low alertness, inability to think along abstract lines (learn a language e.g. English), mood and memory problems.

Magnesium

One of the most deficient minerals in the modern western diet.  Low brain magnesium gives unrefreshed sleep, causes easy fatigue (important for the Krebs Cycle of energy production), poor concentration and daytime sleepiness.

Of course nothing replaces a good healthy eating habit.

Leave a comment

Filed under Learning, Nutrition & Study, Posts

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

October 30, 2014 · 12:40 am

Sometimes There Might Be Learning Difficulties

I don’t know where this statistic arises from but I read that about 5% of public school children suffer from a learning disability.  The difficulties experienced by students include language, reading and mathematics.  At times social skill, emotional and behavioural problems are associated with learning disabilities. As a parent what can you do?

There are many services available to help parents with children who have learning difficulties but, according to Henry Osieki [B.Sc. (Hons.) & Grad. Dip. Nutrition and Dietetics], one of the prime causes is malnutrition.  He suggests certain factors as possible causes to learning disorders include:

Heavy metal toxicity – in the past lead toxicity has been associated with learning problems.

Nutritional Deficiencies – The most common nutrients associated with difficulties with learning are B-vitamins, iron, iodine, magnesium, and zinc.  This can be linked directly to a poor diet.  Here is an example diet for you to consider:

  • Breakfast – bowl of low nutrient cereal; or nothing (because the parent has not prepared a breakfast for their child).
  • Morning tea – nothing.
  • Lunch – hot dog and can of soft drink; or nothing.
  • Afternoon tea – junk food purchased from local shop on the way home or nothing as both parents work.
  • Dinner – sausages, vegetables and gravy with ice cream for dessert.

A child of any age is growing pretty rapidly and is in need of food for energy and nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals) to help supply the body with the building blocks to allow the cells to multiply and the body to grow.  If the dinner from the above example was to become the breakfast you would have an alert, bright student sitting in the class until about lunch time.

Impaired hearing – inner ear infections or inflammation of the ear drum from allergies will hamper the early learning stages of pre-schoolers.  I am talking about your toddler here who is doing their best to learn a language so they may communicate with the world.  Parents need to be vigilant when it comes to ear infections at this stage.  Image the problems caused with learning a language when a child hears only the first part of a word the first time and the last part the next time.  To them they are hearing two separate words relating to the same subject.

Osieki states that dyslexic children tend to have a higher concentration of copper in sweat and hair and this may be reduced by taking zinc and vitamin C.

Leave a comment

Filed under Learning, Nutrition & Study, Posts

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

October 28, 2014 · 1:26 am

Is It Worth Being A Student Who Plans?

Quite often students begin the year in a casual stride and who is to blame them? After all they have just come off holidays (about  1½ month’s worth). I come from a sports training background and I can tell you that an athlete who wants to perform well will not take two months off their training year. The repercussions are too great as they will lose too much form and have to work way too hard to get back to square one.

A dedicated rugby player will take one month off and during that time will be maintaining his/her aerobic level of fitness with moderate exercise. When January comes around he/she is ready to start full swing on improving their strengths, building on fitness and working on skills. That is how you stay ahead of the pack.

I often wonder why students don’t undertake the same planning when it comes to academic performance. Most students and parents of students are willing to let the achievements of the final months of the previous year disappear through resting the brain after the school year. The brain does not need that much time to recover. In fact that length of time of recovery is detrimental. The last month of knowledge learned prior to exams has been lost and has to be relearned in the first month of the new year!

During long Christmas holidays many students maintained their academic conditioning by attending the Tuition Room at Ferny Hills.  They used their academic coach (their tutor) to work on their weaknesses from last year while others used the time to get a head start on the subject matter they knew was coming this year. These guys were staying ahead of the pack. Is it worthwhile? You bet it is. They will go into the new year confident and stress free. They have locked in with their coach who is helping them to perform at their peak

Leave a comment

Filed under Learning, Short Story

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

October 23, 2014 · 1:28 am

I Forgot To Tell You How To Improve Your Memory

“I just don’t get this!” is a cry for help from a student of any age.  Here is the first thing about the learning process – if you don’t get it you won’t remember it and you won’t learn it. A student must understand a concept, in their own words, to be able to learn it.

So the first step to learning something effectively is to understand it.  If you do not understand it then ask your teacher or instructor to explain it another way.  You will not be the only person not understanding and it is your teacher’s job to see that you do understand.

Once you think you understand it then write it out in your own words, this will help to put it into short term memory.  This is where most students stop and then wonder why they cannot remember material.  Short term is good for a few minutes, hours or days, after that it is gone.  You have to take the next step to move it into long term memory.

Recitation (saying something over and over again) has been proved to be the most effective way of placing information into long term memory. And by long term I am talking about a life time.  Reading something quietly over and over again to yourself or writing it down a number of times is not as effective as reading the material, in your own words, over and over again ALOUD.

Leave a comment

Filed under Learning

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

October 21, 2014 · 12:03 am

“LET ME SEE, I’M A VISUAL LEARNER!”

visual“Let’s look at this differently”, “I can’t see the big picture”, “See how this works?” – stand back here comes a visual learner and a future artist, builder, inventor or musician, that is if they can get through our education system.

These right hemi-sphere thinking (that’s creative thinking) students are not wired to produce written reports on the thoughts they visualise in their mind, at least not until they learn how.  They think and learn in multi-dimensional images.  Our education system is more geared to teach left hemi-sphere thinking auditory learners who think and learn in words rather than images.

A visual-spatial learner may be good at spelling and lousy with names, needs a quiet study time, likes colour and is good with charts, maps and diagrams.  They remember pictures and are good with direction.  They will always have trouble remembering verbal instructions and have to learn by taking notes.

As a parent you can help by explaining a project you wish them to do by explaining why you want them do something, because they need to see the big picture first.

1 Comment

Filed under Learning, Posts

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

October 6, 2014 · 11:41 pm

LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! I’M A KINAESTETHIC LEARNER

mechanicTYPES OF LEARNERS – 

Type ‘student’ into clipart and you have fifty-one pages of cartoon pupils sitting quietly at their desk diligently working away.  DREAM ON.  We know all students are not alike because all children are not alike.  In a (teacher’s) perfect world all students would be just so, but …

Approximately 15% of the population are kinaesthetic learners and that means there will be no such thing as a quiet classroom.  Kinaesthetic learners just want to touch and feel everything.  Their friends are bruised because these learners just have to thump their mates.  Their homes are a mess because they have to pull everything apart, just to see how it works.  Does that sound like someone you married?

You can picture this in your husband, but how about your little one?  How do you know you have a kinaesthetic learner on your hands?  Well for starters their teacher will probably be calling you in to complain about how disruptive they are in class.  This student finds it difficult to learn through reading and writing.  They need the hands on approach so they do better in chemistry experiments, sports and acting.  They may not even be aware of their own movement and are easily distracted by the movements of others.

By the age of 6½ they are generally classed as under-achievers or worse still hyperactive.

What can you do with this learner?  For starters accept them for who they are. There is nothing wrong with them rather it is our education system that is not geared to accept 15% of the population.  As a parent, give them down time after an active session, and reward them for the tasks they perform.  These guys may be reward driven.  Kinaesthetics learn best with images so paint them a picture of what you want from them. (For more information visit www.educ.uvic.ca )

Leave a comment

Filed under Learning, Posts

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

July 5, 2014 · 12:56 am

The Giant Trap! – by Abbie (aged 10)

little girlGeorgina rushed into the veterinary surgery when the sun was rising. The grand-daughter of Uncle Tom, she was a pretty girl but she was always into mischief.  Uncle Tom was a good old man who loved his grand-daughter but he had many secrets that he never told people.

With a wild yell, Uncle Tom rushed into the veterinary surgery but he could not see Georgina anywhere. He got out his blue phone and started to call her but he couldn’t get hold of her.

“Thump! Thump! Thump” heard Uncle Tom. He looked behind him and ‘Bang!” he was gone!  A little while later he found himself in a black dark room where he found Georgina.

“How did you find me?” said Georgina.

“Well, I heard you scream because I was next door at the sports shop,” he replied. Uncle Tom had something secret in his mind.

Two hours later…

“Who were those people who made me scream?” asked Georgina.

“My boss, the man I work for,” said Uncle Tom.

‘So you knew all along and you did not tell me,” said Georgina in surprise.

“Well I saw you running along the fields and I rang up my boss and said that we should frighten you so I did,” said Uncle Tom, being proud of himself.  Just then ‘bang!” Uncle Tom was hit by a frying pan. The person who threw it was Georgina’s mother!  Georgina was so proud to see her. Her mother put down the pan and they all went home to bed.

Abbie (aged 10)

This story was the result of a creative writing game played at our tuition room during the school holidays.  The process for the game may be located under Creative Writing Game on our Study Tools page.  Our maths Tutor participated with Abbie on this exercise.  You can read his story – Caught! 

Leave a comment

Filed under creative writing, Learning, Posts, Short Story

Tagged as , , , , , ,

July 5, 2014 · 12:34 am

Caught!

This was the result of a creative writing game we ran at our tuition room.  You can see how the game was run on the Study Tools page under Creative Writing Game.  The following result was the final product of our maths tutor, Peter.

Neither Uncle Tom nor Georgina were ever able to explain how they got themselves locked in the Veterinary Surgery overnight.

old_manUncle Tom was a confusing old man who wore round spectacles on a round face on top of a round body.  A lot of him moved when he laughed at his own jokes.  Georgina had known him all her life and at five years old that was a long time.  Her short fuzzy red hair and chubby pink cheeks made them look like a pair of clowns when they walked down the street.

In total terror she now clung to her uncle’s large leg while all around dogs howled, cats hissed and parrots screeched.  The room was totally black and smelled of anti-septic.  The noise was deafening and would surely wake the dead thought Georgina.  Now she had something else to worry about.  She squeezed tighter on her uncle’s leg.

‘This is going to be a long night’ thought Uncle Tom, holding Georgina close to him as they huddled under the Vet’s table.  This adventure was not going as he had planned.  All night long they huddled and shivered and the animals screeched and cried.  Not once did they or the animals sleep.  Georgina kept vigilant in case any of the dead were also awake.

From somewhere outside the safety of the vet’s table came a loud thump, and the darkness disappeared.  Victor the Vet stood in the doorway, ‘That should teach you a lesson not to sneak into the animals sleeping room again Tom!’

‘So you knew all the time!’ cried Tom in amazement.

‘Yes we did.’ Bellowed Margaret, Tom’s wife and Georgina’s aunt.  ‘That should cure both of you of sneaking out at night.  How do you feel now Thomas?’

‘You better get out a bottle of your parsnip wine mother, I’m going to need it.’

Leave a comment

Filed under creative writing, Learning, Posts, Short Story

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

June 21, 2014 · 12:48 am

How Important Is Handwriting?

Handwriting“Does handwriting matter?  Not very much according to educators.  The Common Core standards, which we have adopted in most states, call for teaching legible handwriting, but only in kindergarten and first grade.  After that, the emphasis quickly shifts to proficiency on the keyboard.”

“What’s Lost As Handwriting Fades” – by Maria Konnikova

I have just finished reading this article and you can follow the above link to access it.  The article suggests evidence is emerging of a greater link between handwriting and learning.  It appears children learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand.

A 2012 study by Karin James at the Indiana University supported the association between handwriting and learning.  Children who had not learned to read were presented with index cards with a letter or shape they were to reproduce.  They could either:

  • Trace the image on a page with a dotted outline;
  • Draw it on a blank sheet of paper;
  • Type it on a computer.

A study of their brain waves as they reproduced the shape or letter showed an area of the brain, active when an adult reads and writes, was highly stimulated when the child drew the letter on a blank sheet of paper.  The activation was significantly weaker through the other two processes.

Learning is a complicated process.  When we reproduce letters, or anything else, by hand a plan is required before executing the action.  The end result is highly variable in that it will not exactly represent the original.  Learning to identify variable representations is important to decoding letters when reading.

The research by Virginia Berninger, a psychologist at University of Washington, indicated that when a child who composed text by hand (either printing or cursive) “They not only consistently produced more words more quickly than they did on the keyboard, but expressed more ideas.”

There is also a suggestion of different neuro-pathways being developed in the brain when a child progresses on from printing to cursive writing.

Research at the University of California have reported laboratory and real-world studies of students learning better when they take notes by hand than when they type on a keyboard.

So is it time to throw away the pen and paper and adopt the technology and the keyboard?  Was it time to give up walking when we invented the car?

 

Leave a comment

Filed under creative writing, Learning

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,