Art and craft activities help children with learning disabilities

Art, crafts or drawing are creative activities which help children in learning disabilies. Being an art/crafts teacher I have noticed that these activities are very helpful in skill development, which helps children in other subjects.

Learning Disabilities and the Arts

The arts are more than a fun, superficial way to keep kids occupied. Art activities can help children with learning disabilities begin to overcome the challenges they face in learning in many different ways. Of course, having a learning disability does not necessarily mean that a person has an exceptional artistic talent. However, music, art, crafts and dance can give students with learning disabilities a chance to express themselves through different media and gain confidence along the way.

Unlocking Confidence
A feeling of self-worth - the knowledge that you can do something - is a critical part of the learning process. Children with learning disabilities often come to think they are incapable of learning because of their ongoing difficulties in school. A paintbrush, a costume, a drum or paper, scissors and glue can be new tools for self-expression that boost confidence while providing opportunities for learning and practice.

Learning Through Art
The arts can open the world of learning to students who have trouble with traditional teaching methods. The arts are intellectual disciplines - requiring complex thinking and problem solving - that offer students the opportunity to construct their own understanding of the world.

* Drawing and painting reinforce motor skills and can also be a way of learning shapes, contrasts, boundaries, spatial relationships, size and other math concepts.

* Music teaches children about rhythm, sound and pitch. Beats can help children learn rhymes and other features of reading such as phonological awareness. Using repetitive songs to learn academic facts (like the alphabet song or multiplication tables) can make the learning experience easier and more fun.

* Dance provides children with a social way to learn about sequencing, rhythm and following directions. While developing coordination and motor control, students can also learn counting and directionality, which can enhance reading and writing concepts - such as understanding the difference between similar looking letters (like p/b/d/q) and telling left from right.

* Performing plays is an opportunity for children to immerse themselves in a theme and learn about it in a profound and personal way. Acting out historical or literary figures and events gives students a sense of ownership about what they've learned, allowing them to acquire a deeper appreciation of the subject matter.

* Crafts offer children the opportunity to express themselves in two- and three-dimensional ways. Students can develop vital problem-solving skills without having to rely on areas of expression that may be more challenging.
Arts as a means of assessment

Timed tests and take-home reports are traditional means of academic assessment that can be especially difficult for individuals with learning disabilities. Creative projects offer these students the freedom to show what they know without the constraints of printed text. Offering students art projects or multi-media presentations as a way to demonstrate an understanding of material they've learned can be an excellent alternative.

Because a person has difficulty learning through hearing alone or seeing alone does not mean they cannot learn. The arts offer individuals with learning disabilities dynamic ways of learning, and just as importantly, a way to fully discover their own self-worth.

Article is courtesy of "National Ceneter for learning disabilities"
- source link

"Ld Online"- A site helping us learn about learning disablities

More than 2.9 million school-age children in the United States – approximately five percent of the student population – are diagnosed with learning disabilities. Many more struggle in school but never receive a formal diagnosis.


LD OnLine is world's leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD. "LD OnLine" provides the parents and teachers of these children with accurate, authoritative information about learning disabilities so they can obtain the help they need.  It is serving more than 200,000 parents, teachers, and other professionals each month.


LD OnLine seeks to help children and adults reach their full potential by providing accurate and up-to-date information and advice about learning disabilities and ADHD. The site features hundreds of helpful articles, multimedia, monthly columns by noted experts, first person essays, children’s writing and artwork, a comprehensive resource guide, very active forums, and a Yellow Pages referral directory of professionals, schools, and products.


LD OnLine also serves adolescents and adults with learning disabilities. The site offers information and resources on the transitions from school to college and from school to the workplace, and on the issues faced by adults with learning disabilities.


It also offers three other comprehensive educational sites:
-ReadingRockets.org,


-ColorinColorado.org
and
-AdLit.org.


* Whether you're a general or special education teacher, principal, specialist or paraprofessional, you play a vitally important role in helping children with learning disabilities achieve their full potential.
LD OnLine has gathered many resources to assist you in your important job!
- educators


* Parenting a child with learning disabilities or ADHD is a challenge. To assist you, LD OnLine has gathered the following information to help you get started in understanding what your child needs, your rights and responsibilities in working with the school, and ways to support your son or daughter at home.
- parents


* KId's section has "art gallery", "your stories", "books" and "e-card" sections:
- kids


* Sign up to receive news and information about key issues in reading, learning disabilities, and other areas of learning. All of our publications are available at no cost.


- sign up link

A "Child and Family Web Guide" about child development sites

There are many search engines, site which help teachers, parents or students in search for learning or learning related web sites. Because searching at a search engines can take hours to search for the specific information.

"Child and family web guide" is a directory of the sites rated by experts from "Tufts University" which is one of the premimier universities in the United States. It is non-profit resource, based on parent and professional feedback.

Child and family web guide evaluates, describes and provides links to hundreds of sites containing child development research and practical advice.

The goal of the WebGuide is to give the public easy access to the best child development information on the Web.

Who is the WebGuide for?
The WebGuide is an online rating and review guide for a broad range of audiences, from those familiar with the topic of child development who are seeking answers to relatively sophisticated questions, to those with minimal background who are seeking a basic understanding of a topic. Audiences that the WebGuide is intended to serve include:

* Parents of children from infancy to adolescence
* Professionals who work with children, such as teachers, pediatricians, counselors, day care providers and others
* Professionals whose work concerns children, such as government officials, social policy experts and journalists
* Students studying child development -- at the high school, undergraduate and graduate level

What you can get from the WebGuide?

There are five main categories of information:
- family/parenting,
- education/learning,
- typical child development,
- health/mental health, and
- resources/recreation.

The first four categories contain sites with research-based information. The fifth category, resources/recreation, contains sites with information about specific programs and things to do. The resources/recreation sites, which were added at the request of parents, do not contain research-based information.
The WebGuide also offers an option of searching for sites that are especially relevant to a particular age group :
topics by age offers several features requested by parents (e.g., ask an expert sites; research news sites).

- Medical pages provides links to child related medical sites.
WebGuide provides search engine boxes for searches.

Internet as a useful tool for learning

Most of the people search the web for the sake of information. Internet has provided lots of help in education sector. It would be interesting to know for teachers that
internet can be used as a source of quick information source helping us in learning and teaching. Students, teens are increasingly using internet for their school or college projects.

Pew Internet and American Life Project an initiative of the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit organization, that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world, explorinh the impact of the internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care and civic/political life.

"The Pew Research Center" provides a survery and research based report about the use of internet in education.

"The Internet and Education"

The Internet has become an increasingly important feature of the learning environment for teenagers. Research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in November and December 2000 shows that teens use the Internet as an essential study aid outside the classroom and that the Internet increasingly has a place inside the classroom.

The Project surveyed 754 online youth ages 12-17 and their parents. Teens and parents report that Internet is vital to completing school projects and has effectively replaced the library for a large number of online youth. 71% of students report using the Internet at their primary source for their last major project, and they also report accessing online study aids like Sparknotes or CliffNotes. Beyond legitimate assistance with studies via websites, or email or Instant message communication with teachers, students also take advantage of the Internet to cheat, with 18% of students reporting knowing someone who used the Internet to do so.

Source: report

Craft activities improve student learning skills

There is a strong link between crafts activities and skill development among children of all ages. I am also a craft teacher and noticed it very often that many kind of crafts help in skill development which as a results produce good learning outcome in their other subject areas. Let's have a look at some research based studies and reports in this connection:

"The Academic Value of Hands-on Craft Projects in Elementary Schools"

Conducted in 2001 by ROCKMAN ET AL, an independent educational research and consulting company, the study revealed the following key findings:

* Student learning improves when classroom lessons incorporate hands-on craft activities.
* Students develop greater curiosity about the subject matter when craft projects are included.
* Student behavior and socialization skills improve when crafts are undertaken.'

Teachers regularly use craft projects to teach the core subjects and link the projects to state and national curriculum standards.
Teachers say learning through craft projects accommodates students with different learning styles.

Focus Group Research

In 2005 teachers from two different U.S. cities, Paramus, NJ and Cleveland, OH, participated in two focus group studies. Key findings of these studies include:
Crafts can enhance the lesson and the learning process and in many cases are vital to the learning process.
Crafts can be a break from some of the serious and boring academic activities
Through the use of crafts, teachers gain a better understanding of the child’s thought process
Teachers agree the average amount of time for a craft activity in the classroom is thirty minutes.
During the fall of 2001, the Hobby Industry Association (HIA) contracted [with] an independent educational research and consulting company, to study the impact of hands-on craft projects as an instructional method within the core curriculum. Additionally, they wished to determine ways this teaching technique links to state and national education standards.

As the only large-scale study of its kind, and one of the first efforts to investigate the area of hands-on projects and academic learning, this study found that a significant number of teachers use hands-on projects linked to core curriculum content to advance standards-based learning. Teachers said hands-on projects enhance the instructional process and help students learn both basic information and more complex ideas. Additionally, students develop important learning skills and the abilities to articulate complex ideas, to use appropriate and sophisticated terminology, and to integrate the ideas they have learned into their continuing learning efforts. This belief was confirmed by student data evidence collected in this study.

KEY FINDINGS

Student learning improves when classroom lessons incorporate hands-on craft projects.

Students who spent a greater proportion of their classroom learning time engaged in hands-on projects scored significantly higher on writing and drawing knowledge application tasks. In classes that spent almost half of instructional time on hands-on projects (48%), students scored an average of 83 out of a possible 100 on the knowledge application task. Comparatively, students whose classes devoted a low percentage of class time to craft projects (11.8%) scored an average of 75. The creativity and level of detail students demonstrated on the application tasks also indicated that the hands-on projects left many students with vivid and lasting understanding of both facts and concepts.

Teachers regularly use hands-on craft projects to teach the core subjects and link the projects to state and national curriculum standards.

Almost three-fourths (72%) of the participating teachers indicated that they explicitly and intentionally link their instructional units involving hands-on projects to state or national standards. In addition, writing, research and presentation skills are typically incorporated into the projects.

Students develop greater curiosity about the subject matter when hands-on craft projects are included.

Ninety-six percent (96%) of teachers agreed that students exhibit greater curiosity about the learning unit when hands-on projects are included in the instructional approach. Teachers also reported significant differences in learning behaviors when students are involved in hands-on projects. They reported increases in student motivation, willingness to ask questions and volunteer information, enthusiasm, and attention to assigned tasks.

Teachers say learning through hands-on craft projects accommodates students with different learning styles.

While 46% of teachers viewed hands-on projects as an effective learning technique for all students, 54% said this approach is particularly well suited for students who learned more effectively in non-traditional approaches, such as visual or kinesthetic learners, slow readers or writers, or non-native English speakers.

Student behavior and socialization skills improve when hands-on craft projects are undertaken.

Teachers reported enhanced cooperation, responsibility, dedication, confidence, and time management skills when students participated in hands-on projects. Eighty-five percent (85%) of the teachers said students work cooperatively on handcrafted projects, while only 50% of the teachers said they do so in non hands-on projects.

CONCLUSION

The study concludes that hands-on craft projects are an effective means of teaching a standards-based curriculum and that students develop both a greater appreciation for and understanding of what they are learning.

Hands-on projects appear to function as learning anchors that organize and integrate various classroom-learning activities.

By making the learning experience concrete, the dynamics of these learning anchors inspire students to enjoy learning, accomplish goals, take pride in their achievements, and persevere in their learning.

For the full 45 page PDF report: Download for FREE

Help your child learn to be organized

Children learns first from parents, teachers or from the envirenment. So if you want your children to be organized then you should be a model for them. We parents are the first school for our children. Learnig to be organized is very important as it can save us from many headaches during our lives.

These tips which are courtesy of "Saving Secrets", are very helpful for our children to learn organization skills.

ORGANIZE YOUR CHILDREN AND SAVE YOUR SANITY

When children are old enough and capable, they have a responsibility to take care of their own belongings. This includes (but not limited to) toys, clothes, bathroom items, sports equipment, and of course school books and supplies.
It should not be the parents' responsibility to clean their child's room, or pick up their wet towels off the bathroom floor. How is this teaching children to be responsible for their own belongings?

If we teach our children HOW to be organized, this will lead to a more productive and hopefully a more responsible child in school and at home. However take note, if you expect your children to be well organized, you must also do the same to provide a good example, or "model", for them. As the saying goes "practice what you preach" :-)

For the time being, we will focus on ideas to help organize your children's plethora of gadgets, toys, clothes, games, and whatever else may be piled up on the closet floor or under the bed.

Color Coordinate Everything
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The most important idea to incorporate in your family lifestyle is to color coordinate everything. Regardless of how many children you have, assign each one a specific color ie: green, red, yellow, orange, etc...

The color you assign each of your children will go on every item that belongs to them. You will need to get a permanent marker in each of your kid's colors so you can mark/dot each and every item they own.

Here's a list of the most common items you'll want to start out with. Use this list as a starting point to help harvest ideas that are relevant in your family's lifestyle.

- clothes
- toys
- towels
- bathroom utensils
- closet
- shoes
- games
- puzzles
- sports equipment

With their items, simply put a small colored dot/mark in an inconspicuous area. For example, socks-dot the toe or heel; shirts-dot the collar tag; puzzles-dot the back of each piece; toothbrushes and towels- purchase these in each of your children's assigned color.

Once everything is color coded, you can then quickly scan rooms and bathrooms and see which one of your little angels has left things out of place.

To quickly reinforce this new organization method, simply make the rule that if you find items haphazardly strewn about, you'll deduct 25 or 50 cents from their allowance. If that isn't relative, they can always earn additional work like washing a dish per item that is left out or "doggie clean-up duty". After a few times, your children will start picking up after themselves since they hate to lose money and play time, right?

** Again, these are merely suggestions. Adapt and change these practices as you see fit.

Organizing Their Closet Space and Room
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's face it, children are learning by trial and error unless they have someone or something to model after. So naturally, they are going to make their choices and decisions on what they think is best.

If your child(ren) haven't had much success maintaining an organized closet, maybe it would be best to start from scratch. However, before you clear out their closet completely to start reorganizing, first observe what seems to be the problem area. Are their clothes scattered on the ground? Are toys out of place, thrown here and there? What seems to be the messiest?

Each child will have different needs that have to be addressed in order to have a clean, organized closet/room. Just like you wouldn't ask a guitarist to play the guitar with only two strings, you can't expect a child to put his/her things away unless he or she has an actual "place" or container to put the stuff in.

Take the time to teach your children where their "stuff" goes. If they have trouble remembering, label the containers or areas as needed. You may need to buy some rubbermate containers from BigLots (PicNSave). Better yet, you can often find containers for a dollar at the 99cent store or the Dollar Tree (if you haven't been to one of these stores yet, you are missing out on a ton of deals!)

Weekly Review
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once you have organized, color coded, and explained the new procedures/laws that will now be enforced, have a "weekly review" time where you can sit down with your child(ren) for 5-10 minutes. This would be the time when you go over what you liked throughout the week, and areas they may still need to work a little bit on.

Keep in mind that children will need to be reminded about the procedures you expect them to follow, so don't get frustrated if they do not do a perfect job the first week or two. This is a process that may take some time to internalize, but once it's learned, your life, and your children's lives, will be much more fluid and organized.

Source: link

If you are able to organize right down to the smallest detail, then not only will you save yourself countless panic headaches, but you will have more time on your hands allowing yourself to be more productive and get more accomplished.

Teach your children budget and saving money

As a parent this is our duty to teach them or show them the life skills by being a model yourself or simply teach them about money, budget and savings. From the very early age they should know what is budget and saving, because these lessons would work for them in a long run. An important step towards training of money saving is to teach them "not to be impressed by advertised products". Here are some tips which can be helpful in this connection:

HOW TO GET YOUR CHILDREN "BRAND FREE"

Those of you that have children know what an excursion to the local mall or supermarket can be like. If you're not careful, this simple trip can easily become a wallet draining experience.
How often have you heard:

"I want Luchables because EVERYONE eats them at lunch!"
"Come on mom, these cool pants only cost $80."
"Dad, everyone has a Playstation II, I need one too!"
"I need 2 sodas and 2 bags of chips everyday!"

Certainly, we as parents want to make our children happy and not deprive them of a delightful childhood, but who's to say that you must give in to every one of your child's requests.

Why must you work twenty overtime hours just so your son can have a new video gaming system? Why must your grocery bill be over $200 just so your children can have the latest cereal, ice-cream, snacks, candies, and sodas available?

Truth About "Brand Names"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brand names cost money. Quite a bit of money. Especially when you add them up over time. The reasons these brands must charge more money is to cover their enormous advertising and marketing costs.

Since children are constantly bombarded with advertisements on the television and amongst their peers at school, they are most likely going to ask you for these same products.

No one really enjoys telling their children they can't have something they want, however looking at the bigger picture, what lesson are we teaching our kids if we simply give in to their every request?

For one, they are not learning the value of money and the role it plays in our lives. Secondly, they are not learning about the importance of conservation and how to properly budget their money.

Learning to budget and save money at an early age will really come in handy especially as they grow older, start driving, and get offered tempting pre-approved credit cards through the mail.

If they are not careful and able to budget their money effectively, this new found freedom may drain all the money from their pockets.

Teaching The Importance of Conservation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not only is this the perfect opportunity to get your children "Brand Free" and away from the expensive, trendy stuff, but it's also the perfect opportunity to teach them the value of money.

Here's one way you can approach this.

Explain to your children that the money you spend on clothes, food, toys, etc, depletes the amount you are able to save for future needs.

Explain that starting today, only the NECESSITIES will be purchased. No more ice cream, chips, soda, candy, lunchables, except maybe on special occasions. Toys and games will need to be earned and will no longer be given away for free. Etc...

For example, you could state that you will only be purchasing Cheerios (or another low priced cereal). If your children want to have Captain Crunch or Cookie Crisp, they will have to buy them using their own money.

Same principal for their lunches. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tuna fish, apples, oranges, carrots, and raisons. If they want Lunchables or some other type of non-nutritious fast food, they will have to buy it with their own money.

Soon, you will have your child(ren) deciding "Is a Quarter Pounder Meal worth $4.50 out of my savings?" or "Do I really need that new video game that cost $50?".

This "brand free" approach can be applied to all other shopping areas aside from the supermarket example.

When you are shopping for clothes, ONLY buy the necessities. Ignore the most expensive and most popular items. Only buy what you, or the children, absolutely need, ignore all the rest.

Regarding toys and games, you can make it so that your children ONLY get "free" toys on Christmas and their birthdays. If they want something additional, they must purchase the item with their own money.

Taking These Ideas One Step Further
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once you have inspired your children to participate in this money saving, "brand free" lifestyle, it's time to MOTIVATE them to help increase their success.

As with everything in life, having a goal to strive for greatly increases the probability of success.

Goals help us stay focused on the task at hand. Goals help the individual strive for something tangible that's meaningful or important to them.

A runner's goal may be to shave 10 seconds off their lap time. This runner will then practice, workout, and time themselves, striving to run a lap 10 seconds faster than before.

In our "brand free" exercise, you may want to come up with a goal that you and your children can strive towards. For example, you could establish a short term goal that states, if your children can eat healthy and not ask for any "brand name stuff" for two months, you will take them to any movie they want to see.

Here are some more ideas for the various goal ranges:

Short Term: 1-3 months
picnic, trip to beach, movie of their choice

Medium Range: 3-8 months
new game, doll house, Chuck-E-Cheese trip

Long Term: 8-12 months
Disneyland trip, Water Theme park, day at the carnival

Sticking To Your Plan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Regardless what your decide to implement, remember that this is your plan. You are the parent, so you decide what's best for your children. Don't take any negative remarks or any bad mouthing from your kids in regards to this new lifestyle. Stick with it!

Just keep in mind that these exercises and lessons will benefit your children in the long run regardless of what they may think of it at the moment.

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Tips to develop your child’s language and communication skills

Every year few children enter in nursery class, with inadequate language and communication skills. One or two to them have speech or language impairments which need professional help. As a parent or teacher we can help our children in developing language and communication skills.

But how to do it?

Literacy trust.org provides tips and guidance in developing these skills.

"Literacy trust" explains it:
“Talking and listening to young children helps them develop good language and communication skills, which enables them to express themselves, listen, learn, read, write and socialize better. It also helps children feel valued, builds their confidence and helps parents and children to bond.”

The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity, and all the resources or information from the site are FREE.

Mission:
Their vision is that within 10 years They will have facilitated a positive cultural shift so that all children receive from their parents and careers a stimulating language-rich start to life.

MOre about the site:

It started in January 2003, to provide a one-stop shop for information, advice and downloadable free resources on early language and communication to support early years professionals and inform parents.
They have raised some very specific issues to campaign on, such as the need for pusher-facing pushchairs and buggies and the need for the topic of language acquisition to be taught in schools.

Sign up for quarterly email newsletter

sign up link

There are a lot of useful links, articles and information at the site, so as a parent or teacher, my advice is to book mark this site and take time to search the whole site.

As 2008 is named the "National year of reading" we can participate in this Campaign by encouraging our young ones and involving ourselves in reading and talking with them.

More links:
* A guide for talking to school age children