Learning Rx is hosting a free informational workshop based on building your child's sense of self and independence through activities promoting a stronger community. Topics discussed will include self-awareness, behavior modification, helping other people in need. Participants will receive take-home materials. This workshop is presented by Laurie Ferry, M.Ed. and is not associated with the Learning Rx program.

November 19th from 7-8 p.m.
LearningRx-Carmel office
12337 Hancock St., Suite 18
Carmel, IN 46032

Increase Your Brain's Processing Speed
Here's an exercise that will actually increase your brain's processing speed. It will also strengthen attention skills, enhance working memory, and build visual manipulation skills. Try it. Many people can actually feel their brains working. This exercise, when done with intensity and frequency, will actually map new neural pathways in your brain. It really will make you smarter!

From left to right, top to bottom, call out the direction the eyes are looking (from your perspective —"down, left, up, right...") Have someone time you. Do it without error in 30 seconds. Keep practicing until you can do it in only 15 seconds.

Try it from the face's perspective (as if you were the face looking out from the page – "down, right, up, left...".) It's harder, isn' t it! You have increased the difficulty by adding a second mental challenge (adjusting for the change in perspective). Don't worry though...your brain can adapt and grow!

Call out the color of each without error in 30 seconds. Get that time down to 15 seconds without error. Not too tough unless you are color blind! (but now comes the fun...)

This time, begin doing exercise 1 (above) but point your finger in the opposite direction each time ("down [point up], left [point right], up [point down]..."). You have added an element that requires divided attention. Once mastered, increase the difficulty by switching (point the direction the eyes are looking and call out the opposite direction) only when you come to a green face.

Try substituting different colors. Keep track of your time and stay with it until each exercise flows quickly and smoothly. You will find yourself not only doing the familiar ones easier, but mastering each new variation faster as well. This is because your brain is growing new connections to handle the challenges!

Dyslexia: The Myths

The Truth About Dyslexia

October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month and what better time to dispel the myths about one of the country’s most common learning disabilities?

Test your knowledge on the following misconceptions...
Myth #1: Dyslexia is about reversing letters.
The most basic sign of dyslexia is not “reversed letters” as many people think, but rather weak phonemic awareness skills. Phonemic awareness and auditory processing skills are the underlying cognitive abilities to hear and remember the smallest individual units of sound in a word.
The word dyslexia actually means “poor with words or trouble with reading.” This could mean reading fluently, out loud, reading new words, and/or pronouncing words correctly.

Some of the most common symptoms include:
1. Difficulty transferring what is heard to what is seen and vice versa.
2. Struggles pronouncing new words.
3. Poor at distinguishing similarities/difference in words (no, on)
4. Weak at letter sound discrimination (pin, pen)
5. Low reading comprehension

Myth #2: Dyslexia is a lifelong label.
Dyslexia doesn’t need to be a permanent diagnosis or condition. It is simply a term identifying a child (or teen or adult) who reads poorly.
As with almost all learning struggles, the most common root cause is one or more weak cognitive skills – the fundamental tools of effective learning.

Myth #3: There’s nothing parents can do to help.
Although intense cogntive training for children who have been diagnosed as dyslexic is the most effective intervention, here are some suggestions for games that parents can do at home to improve their children’s phonemic awareness and auditory processing skills:

• Sound segmenting games:
Say a two-sound word, like bee or tie, and have the child tell you which sounds are in the word (“/b/” and “/ee/” for “bee” and “/t/” and “/ie/” for “tie”). Then start to increase to three-sound words like cat, (“/k/” “/a/” and “/t/”) and tree (“/t/” “/r/” and “/ee/”). This builds auditory segmenting which is necessary for spelling when children get older.

• Phonetics using building blocks:
Help develop analysis skills by using blocks to make up nonsense words starting with two to three blocks. Create a nonsense word, then have the child remove one of the blocks and add a new one while verbally trying to figure out what the new nonsense word sounds like. (If they can’t read, just say the sounds for them, and ask them to try to figure out from hearing the sounds what the new word would sound like when they switch the blocks.)

• Rhyming games:
Say a word and then take turns with your child trying to come up with a new word that rhymes. This develops auditory analysis, which is important for reading and spelling as well as processing auditory instruction.

In fact, according to Science Daily, a new Carnegie Mellon University brain imaging study found that the brains of dyslexic students and other poor readers were permanently rewired to overcome reading deficits after 100 hours of intensive remedial instruction.

Myth #4: Only a special education teacher can screen for dyslexia.
Here are some sample questions for dyslexia symptoms:

1. Does your child misread similar words?
2. Does your child need words repeated when taking spelling tests?
3. Is your child’s oral reading slow or choppy?
4. Does your child make spelling errors in written assignments?
5. Does your child have difficulty sounding out unknown words?

If you answered “yes” to three of more of these questions, consider contacting your nearest Indianapolis LearningRx center for a full cognitive skills assessment. (visit www.learningrx-indy.com)

“A sample profile of dyslexia:

1. Family history of reading problems
2. Predominant in males (8:1, M:F)
3. Average/above average IQ
4. Math proficiency not uncommon
5. No enjoyment of leisure reading
6. Poor visual memory for language symbols
7. Auditory language difficulties in word finding, fluency, meaning, or sequence

Dyslexia: Is There a Cure?

October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month
LearningRx is sponsoring an informational workshop for parents and educators on dyslexia and general reading struggles. We will examine sypmtoms, causes and cures.

Wednesday, October 29 at 7:00 p.m.
12337 Hancock Street, Suite 18
Carmel, IN 46032

Seating is limited. Reserve your seat
by October 27 by calling 317-844-7979.

Test Your Cogntive Skills

Visit the Gibson Test of Cognitive Abilities free online test to determine where your cognitive strengths/weaknesses lie. This 30 minute test will assess each of your cognitive skills. The test is free for a limited time.

Test your child as well, this test can be used for ages 5- adult. Make sure to leave about 30-40 minutes to complete the test. After taking the test, if you want to learn more about our full test battery using the Woodcock Johnson Test of Cognitive abilities call Learning Rx at 844-7979 or contact us at lferry@learningrxindy.net

Gibson Test: GCSTest.com

AD/HD: Adaptations for Learning

When your child has attention issues there are some helpful adaptations your child's teacher can make in the classroom to help them work around the problem. Certainly, training the cognitive weakness solves the problem and the need for accommodations, however, in the meantime, these can be very helpful tools. Many of these can be helpful for homework time as well.

• Break lessons into short chunks.
• Incorporate movement or 'wiggle breaks' into the lessons.
• Cover up extra information. Use a blank sheet of paper to cover up part of the worksheet to avoid those distractions on the page. Use a book mark when reading.
• Use manipulatives when appropriate to teach a concept.
• Encourage computer skills early so avoid the frustration that can often occur with handwriting.
• Use graphic organizers when writing a lengthy paper/story.
• Highlight, underline using color.

These a simple tips that can be incorporated into your child's classroom with minor modifications by the teacher. Approach your child's teacher today to share these suggestions.

Upcoming Informational Workshop on Attention: The Academic Impact

Learning Rx is hosting an informational workshop on Monday, September 29 at 7:00pm at our Carmel location. The workshop will cover the common symptoms of attention deficient. The four causes of attention issues in children and alternatives to medicaiton. The purpose of the workshop is to provide information to parents and educators about attention issues in children. Suggestions will be provided for helping your child cope in the classroom and at home when they have attention issues. This is a workshop for any parent or educator that wants to learn more about this issue and help their child cope through the struggles that attention deficient can cause in school and at home.

Call 317-844-7979 to RSVP today, space is limited.

Back to School: Is it over yet?

As a parent of three school aged children myself (10th grade, 8th grade and 2nd grade), getting back into a routine and a structure that comes with the school year can be a positive. However, this is about the time, a month into the year, when the excitement begins to wane and the daily routine of checking backpacks and signing assignment notebooks can grate on my nerves. It seems that by the time we finish dinner, homework and activities it is bedtime (at least for me). I don’t know how many times in the last two weeks that my 2nd grader has complained about the lack of free time she has after school. Of course she actually says, “What, it is bed time, I haven’t even gotten to watch Spongebob today!” But it is the reality of the world our children live in. The expectations are higher than when we were in school and the stakes are higher. As my academically accomplished sophomore worries about getting into college because her GPA isn’t 3.5, and my 2nd grader has at least an hour of homework a night when I don’t remember even doing homework until high school, I wonder what all this is doing to their self-esteem and academic confidence. I certainly appreciate the fact that once they get into college and life beyond, they will be hard workers but what about the stress it all puts on our kids. Average and above average kids still have to work hard in school these days, but no student should have to work so hard that they feel like a failure or don’t feel positive about themselves as a learner. When the emotional perceptions begin to become negative that is the time to take note as a parent. Whenever your child is avoiding work or makes comments like, “I hate to read”, “I’m not good at tests”, “I’m not good at math”, those can be signs of struggles. We all avoid things that we don’t feel like we are good at, kids do the same thing. If your child begins to avoid or develop negative perceptions about learning, it is time to take a look at why. I hear a lot of parents tell me that their child will mature or outgrow the negative feelings but 9 times out of 10 they don’t. I just encourage you to keep your eyes and ears open to those signs as you move through this school year, because the world our children live in is very different and much more demanding than the world we grew up in, but the signals can be the same.

Back to School: Questions to Ask

1. Question: What is the most common cause of learning struggles?
Answer: While genetics, inadequate instruction and low motivation can contribute to learning and reading difficulties, science confirms that by far, the most common root cause of learning struggles in underlying cognitive skill weakness.

2. Question: What are cognitive skills?
Answer: Cognitive skills are the underlying tools that enable kids to successfully focus, think, prioritize, plan, understand, visualize, remember and create useful associations, and solve problems.
A child’s cognitive skill set is made up of several cognitive skills including auditory processing, visual processing, short and long-term memory, comprehension, logic and reasoning, and attention skills. Each of these can also be divided into identifiable sub-skills. For example, attention is made up of sub-skills such as sustain attention (staying on task), selective attention (ignoring distractions) and divided attention (handling more than one task at a time). Each of these skills and sub-skills play a specific and necessary role, and must work in concert before an individual can learn effectively.

3. Question: What causes dyslexia and other forms of reading disabilities?
Answer: A 10-year study by the National Institute of Health found that 88% of learning-to-read difficulties resulted from weak phonemic awareness – (the ability to blend, segment and analyze sounds).

4. Question: What about kids with ADD/ADHD?
Answer: With the right program, most children who have been labeled as having ADHD, ADD or other learning disabilities can improve from three to five grade levels and about half the students no longer require medication.

5. Question: How do you determine which cognitive skills are strong and which are weak?
Answer: A professional cognitive skills test is the only way to pinpoint the exact cause of learning problems. Call 317-844-RXRX (7979) to schedule an appointment for a FREE cognitive skills test.

6. Question: Is there anything parents can do at home to help?
Answer: Parents and teachers can watch for common traits that children with weak cognitive skills often display, including:
• Difficulty paying attention
• Poor test scores, grades or reading comprehension
• Poor memory
• Difficulty organizing activity
• Poor study and work habits
• Taking a long time to complete tasks
• Disinterest (or dislike) in school
You can take a full online evaluation at www.learningrx-indy.com to help further identify your child’s weak cognitive skills.