Study: Physical Movement Helps Some Kids Focus

Parents and teachers are often distressed when they see young people squirming in class or during homework time. If a child is tapping his foot, clicking a pen, or wiggling in his seat, he can’t possibly be focusing, can he?

At the Yellin Center, we often tell parents that there are two kinds of fidgeting: the kind that distracts a student, and the kind that actually helps him to concentrate. The key is to figure out what kind of fidgeter their child is. A new study indicates that our advice is on target.

In the experiment, students were asked to perform a task that required concentration while sitting in a swivel chair. The ones who had been diagnosed with attention difficulties did better the more they moved. The typically developing kids, on the other hand, performed more poorly when they spun in the chair while working. The movement, it seemed distracted them.

We explain it like this: Moving one’s body is like recharging one’s “battery.” If a child with attention difficulties is forced to sit still, her battery drains, leaving her little mental energy to work with. Instead of devoting her mental resources to thinking, she’s using them up in her efforts to keep her body still. Dustin Sarver, lead author of the study, offers a similar theory: “We think that part of the reason is that when they’re moving more, they’re increasing their alertness.”

If movement seems to help your child concentrate, it’s important to figure out ways that he can move in class without distracting others. (Supportive as we are of fidgeting, we agree that pen-clicking has no place in a classroom.) Perhaps he can do his work standing at a counter or tall table so he can move his feet. When listening to his teacher, maybe he can squeeze a stress ball, sketch, or roll a wooden dowel under his feet on a carpeted floor. Sit discs and swivel chairs are also helpful to many kids. Here at the Yellin Center, our assessment rooms have a variety of chairs, including stationery and swiveling, to accommodate the needs and  preferences of all the students we see.

Remember, though, that the object is to help him focus. If he becomes so fixated on his swivel chair, stress ball, or sketch that he stops listening, perhaps it’s time to try another technique.

Combating Cyber-Bullying

Lots of adults today can remember being bullied as children. Years later, the sting of an unkind comment or others’ derisive laughter still hurts. But imagine that the witnesses to one’s shame were not limited to those within earshot of the slight. What if hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people, most of them strangers, could see what happened? And what if they could participate in the taunting? Cyber-bullying amplifies bullying to unimaginable levels, making its victims’ lives nearly unbearable.

And who better to talk about the topic of online humiliation that self-described “Patient Zero” Monica Lewinsky? Lewinsky’s scandal was a perfect storm in many ways: It was the most salacious political drama our country has ever experienced, and it happened just as internet technology was becoming ubiquitous. Instead of simply discussing her story among themselves after reading about her in the paper, people around the world could post comments about her for all to see.

Years later, Lewinsky is back in the spotlight, this time by choice. She is campaigning for a more compassionate online community, and she shares some excellent advice in a recent talk . Here are some of her key points, along with some of our own suggestions for parents struggling to help their children navigate these uncharted waters:

• Parents of young children should do what they can to supervise kids’ time online. Consider allowing kids to go online only on a desktop computer in a public place (e.g. the kitchen) whose screen faces the room, not a wall. Stop by often to talk with them about what they’re viewing and participating in. This can be an excellent opportunity to teach kids about dangerous online behavior, like connecting with strangers. 
• Parents who are more internet-savvy than their kids (and we know there are fewer and fewer of those out there) should be sure that they are connected with their little ones on any online network accounts their kids have. Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, following your kids will serve two purposes: First, it will make them think twice about what they post, and second, it will give adults opportunities to talk with kids about what kind of posts they may consider appropriate for public knowledge. (“What do you think could happen if you share your address in your online profile?” “Do you think someone might misinterpret that picture if they don’t have any context?”)

Of course, parents can’t, and shouldn’t, monitor every facet of their kids’ online lives, especially as they get older. Instead, try to help kids see the people at the center of scandals as just that: people.

• ·Avoid talking excitedly about celebrity scandals. Instead of watching shows dedicated to gossip, passing judgment in kids’ hearing about the decisions of perfect strangers, or picking up tabloids, adults should model compassion. Pointing out how embarrassed the subject of a shocking headline must be enforces their humanity and shows kids how to be empathetic. Comment that you’re certainly glad none of your mistakes were shared with the world. 
• Lewinsky urges people to be “up-standers” instead of merely bystanders. Post positive, supportive comments, and make sure kids know you’re doing it. Compassionate responses can mean a lot to victims of online bullying, and your empathy can change the tone of an online thread. And report cyber-bullying when outlets have those options.

Lewinsky says, “We talk a lot about our right to freedom of expression, but we need to talk more about our responsibility to freedom of expression.” Help young people understand that the internet gives them great power, and along with power comes responsibility.

TED Advice for Navigating Educational Technology

We love TED, both the talk series and the blog, and were so impressed by one of their recent education blog posts we had to share it. Called “There’s No App for Good Teaching,” it provides ideas for helping parents and teachers navigate the ever-expanding array of learning technology. Although many apps, online learning opportunities, and tech-y tools can be helpful, educational technology is a very lucrative industry, meaning that lots of programmers are producing content in the hopes of cashing in. The upshot is that there’s a lot of chaff to be separated from the wheat. TED shares this list, based on research, of eight factors to keep in mind when assessing learning technology:

1. Keep learning goals ahead of the technology.

2. Opt for the open-ended.

3. Don’t let tech making learning easy.

4. Take feedback seriously. (This refers to feedback the technology gives to students.)

5. Stay skeptical of individualized learning – for now.

6. Bring in student interests, authentically.

7. Start conversations (i.e. look for tools that get kids talking).

8. Make it open, make it better. (This one, which applies to teachers, suggests that teachers can all benefit from sharing their lessons plans with each other to enhance student learning.)

We enthusiastically recommend reading their post in full for more details on the list.

Our thoughts? Number three caught our attention in particular. We agree that real learning takes time and effort. Young people, and all people, often need to wrestle with new concepts, laboriously considering all angles and trying and failing a few times to truly understand complex material.

But remember to make a distinction between learning and accessing/expressing. Students with disabilities need the opportunity to wrestle with new material just as much as anyone else, but some may need to rely on technology to access that material. A dyslexic child who uses audiobooks is not taking the easy way out; he is using a tool to help him do what other kids can do easily. He still needs to comprehend and interrogate the ideas in the text, which audiobooks certainly won’t help with. Similarly, a child with dysgraphia may need to dictate what she has learned to speech-to-text software to show her teacher the complexity of her thoughts. When other students can transcribe their ideas easily, such software allows her the same opportunities as peers to show what she knows. Our colleagues at CAST do a great job explaining this concept of universal design for learning, or UDL. A visit to their website provides excellent resources, including explanatory videos.

Reading Recovery Works!

The Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) has released a promising evaluation  of Reading Recovery, a popular program used for early intervention with students at-risk for low literacy outcomes. The intensive program pairs low-achieving first graders with a trained Reading Recovery teacher for 30 minutes of one-on-one work over a period of 12 to 20 weeks.

Because of positive results from a previous study, the US Department of Education granted funds to expand the program in 2010, and the evaluation took place during this period of growth. Resources were used to train over 2,000 new Reading Recovery teachers, allowing more than 23,000 students to receive individualized services. In addition, nearly 114,000 children received from whole-class or small-group instruction.

The results were impressive. Reading Recovery students outscored the control group on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) by an average of 14 to 16 percentage points. In addition, ITBS indicated that these students had attained 1.4 months’ worth of reading improvement more than a control group, which was taught using a different curriculum.

CPRE’s findings are even more striking when one considers that the Reading Recovery students were previously identified as being at-risk. Early detection and remediation of reading difficulties is critical, and we’re delighted that this simple program can strengthen the potential of the most vulnerable kids.

Recommended Reads for High-Level Students

Lots of people mistakenly think that success in difficult high school, college, or graduate-level courses is directly related to a student’s intelligence. Others believe it’s all about motivation. Smart, driven young people, the myth goes, are bound to do well, and if a student struggles it must be because she isn’t bright enough or lacks the will power to put in the time and effort.

These misconceptions can be very damaging to students. At The Yellin Center, we frequently work with students who blow us away with their intelligence, yet still struggle in school. More often than not, these sharp young people simply need to learn strategies to help them manage difficult coursework. Many times the strategies are not even especially complicated; they’re simply ways to conceptualize important relationships in curriculum, track their schedule, or organize ideas that a student hasn’t tried before.

Ambitious students who want ideas for new strategies that will help them learn more efficiently and produce high-quality work reliably will find two books tremendously useful: On Course by Skip Downing and Becoming a Master Student by Dave Ellis. Although neither book is inexpensive, both are filled with the kinds of tricks that the curve-wrecking students are already using, often without even realizing it.

On Course starts with a self-assessment tool that students can use to identify behaviors and beliefs that they wish to change. Part philosophy treatise, part bag of tricks, the book helps students understand what causes tendencies they don’t like and guides them through processes for adjusting their habits. On Course is also full of practical tips for taking good notes, improving reading comprehension, studying effectively, and more.

Students should try to get a new, hard copy of Becoming a Master Student, if possible, because many exercises in the book will require them to write on its pages. Like On Course, Becoming a Master Student helps young people to make discoveries about themselves and their habits, since understanding a problem is a critical first step to fixing it. In addition to lots of effective, specific strategies for helping students succeed academically, the newest edition provides information about cutting-edge technologies that make learning, organization, and time management feel easier.

Summer Sun Safety Tips for Young People

According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, just a single bad sunburn in childhood more than doubles the odds that a person will develop dangerous melanoma later in life. Sounds scary, but luckily there are lots of ways to keep your little ones’ skin safe during the summer months when burns are more likely to happen.

The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends using a wide spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 15+ on children older than six months. (Babies younger than that should be covered up, as they’re too young for sunscreen.) Spray-on sunscreens, which should not be applied directly to kids’ faces, are excellent for squirmy toddlers. Remember that everyone is susceptible to skin cancer, no matter how dark his/her complexion, so protect all kids. And although parents often think of sun protection only before trips to the pool or all-day outdoor adventures, remember to use sunscreen before even shorter excursions outside. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - the CDC - notes that, "Unprotected skin can be damaged by the sun’s UV rays in as little as 15 minutes. Yet it can take up to 12 hours for skin to show the full effect of sun exposure. So, if your child’s skin looks “a little pink” today, it may be burned tomorrow morning. To prevent further burning, get your child out of the sun."

When kids and water mix on hot summer days, think about protecting areas that are often overlooked when applying sunscreen, like the underside of children’s chins, noses, and earlobes. Sun reflected upwards from the water can burn just as readily as sun that comes from the sky. Also, be sure to use water resistant sunscreen and to follow the directions carefully. Lots of parents forget to wait between application and swimming and don’t reapply as often as they should when water is involved.

The American Optometric Association reminds us to look beyond kids’ skin at the lake, beach, or pool. According AOA, 25% more UV rays get reflected off water and sand than are already coming from the sky. Because children’s eyes don’t filter out the sun’s rays as effectively, their retinas get blasted with three times the annual dose of UV exposure that adults’ eyes do. So, for summer fun on non-reflective surfaces, be sure to pop a hat with a brim on your little ones. And kids should wear wrap-around sunglasses when they’re on water or sand.

Got a teenager who insists that tan is cool? Help her investigate some of many the tanning lotions and sprays. They’re perfectly safe and will help her resist the temptation to bake in the sun (or worse, a tanning bed).

No matter how vigilant adults are about slathering sunscreen on their kids though, the best thing they can do is lead by example. Parents who bemoan their pale legs or sunbathe doused in baby oil are demonstrating that sun exposure is perfectly safe, and this lesson speaks louder than any carefully worded lecture about sun protection.

Khan Academy Now Offers SAT Prep and College Guidance

Most folks are familiar with Khan Academy as the innovative and free online learning tool that teaches mathematical concepts to students of all ages. However, Khan has been rapidly expanding their team of content experts and growing the wealth of courses they offer. Now students can use the same Khan format that taught them ninth grade algebra to learn concepts in the sciences, history, computer programming and art history.

Starting in 2013, Khan Academy partnered with Bank of America to begin teaching the minutiae of personal finance. As a result, the website Better Money Habits was born, and Khan expanded their library to include courses on microeconomics, entrepreneurship and capital markets. However, strong educational partnerships aren’t new for Khan Academy. Khan has also paired with NASA, MIT, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMa to help bring the educational resources each institution houses to a larger audience for free. Students can log on to peruse famous works of art, or better understand space exploration. Khan has grown into something so much more than a remedial math application. They even have LeBron James asking mathematical questions that the team at Khan answers in their LeBron Asks segments. 

Now, Khan has ventured into the arena of test prep. Khan has once again forged a beneficial partnership - this time with the  College Board - to help make today’s students college ready. The result of this collaboration is that Khan is now offering, for the first time, a free, comprehensive SAT prep course. The Khan+CollegeBoard program offers practice questions, video lessons, diagnostic quizzes, real time feedback and four official, full length practice tests. The Khan SAT prep program follows the same principles that underpin every other course offered by Khan in that it is personalized, adaptive and free. However, Khan’s test prep ventures don’t stop with the SAT. Khan Academy currently also offers free, digital resources to help students prep for the GMAT, MCAT, NCLEX-RN (nursing exam) and CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam).

Khan isn’t just focusing on standardized test prep in order to help make America’s students college ready. Khan Academy has also curated a wealth of resources to help students navigate the intricacies of college admissions. Khan Academy offers content to help students plan during their high school years for college, explore college options, navigate the application process and determine the best way to pay for college. Khan is rapidly expanding, and we are excited to see them keep disrupting the education sector by offering free, educationally sound, high quality learning resources that are accessible to anyone with internet access.

Make Your Own Word Problem Activity

At The Yellin Center, we often work with students who struggle with word problems. The difficulty can come from not being able to identify the salient information that is required to solve the problem. Other times, it can be difficult for a student to understand the language of a word problem, and to decide what “how many more” means in terms of mathematical concepts. Selecting the appropriate algorithm (sequence of steps) to use can also be challenging for some students. Regardless of the challenges, getting an in-depth understanding of how a word problem is constructed and how the language of the problem translates into mathematical concepts is important for students. One way to expose students to the structure of word problems is by having them construct their own. This is an activity I would usually give to primary students, and they would be required to select some of the information to create and solve a story (or word) problem of their own.

My Animal Story Problems activity always followed a lesson with guided modeling on how to create word problems. We would construct several word problems together as an entire class, being sure to clearly define terminology like “how many more”, “how many”, “how much more” and “all together” meant. I would then have students create word problems in small groups or with partners, and provide the opportunity for students to create their own on the board. It was only then that I would give students this activity to try their hand at independently creating word problems.

I have found that this activity gave me a great deal of insight into what areas my students were finding most difficult about word problems. It was often easy to determine if it was the phrasing of a word problem or selecting the right algorithms based on the given information that the student found challenging.

Note that the examples that follow use the metric system. This incorporates the Common Core standards for elementary grades, which incorporate metric measurements as early as grade two.

• Grade 2: “Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes and Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters.”
• Grade 3: “Measure and estimate liquid volumes and masses of objects using standard units of grams (g), kilograms (kg), and liters (l).”
• Grade 4: “Know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz.; l, ml; hr, min, sec.”

An example of a properly constructed addition word problem using the Animal Story Problems handout would be:

If a turtle is 8cm and a pig is 55cm tall, how tall are they all together?

8 + 55 = 63

Materials Needed

One Animal Story Problem Handout

Game Play Steps

1. Model how to construct story problems.
2. Explain activity rules to the students:

• Each student will select some of the information from the Information Section of the handout.
• They will then create and solve one addition problem.
• They will select two different pieces of information.
• They will then create and solve one subtraction problem.

      3. Allow students time to create their word problems.
      4. Gather handouts for assessment of their understanding of how a word problem is constructed.

Extension Activities

• Have your students create more than one addition and one subtraction by giving them multiple handouts.
• Have students create word problems in small groups or pairs to promote mathematical conversation skills.
• Have students create problems but not solve them. Then have students trade their handouts with other students and solve their friend’s equations.
• Have students extend their word problems to include distraction information. 

          For Example:
         If a turtle is 8cm, an own is 13 cm tall and a pig is 55cm tall, how tall are the pig and the turtle all together?   8 + 55 = 63


A PDF Version of the game can be downloaded for free.