LD Podcast » parents

Show #108 Dr. Stuart Brown Part II- Success, Practice, and Grandparents

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:45:00 +0000

In today’s show, I talk a little bit about the importance of working memory, and then we hear the second part of the interview with Dr. Stuart Brown, as we finish our discussion about the importance of play and imagination in developing critical thinking and social skills.

I’ve also recently reworked my Guide for getting Good Grades into a PDF, available here for download.

The picture to the right is from our recent trip to the newly renovated Smithsonian Museum of American History, where they have a fantastic exhibit on science, invention and play. We have to remember that so much of an adult’s later success can depend on what interests they developed in childhood. Our children, even if they struggle in some aspect of school, have many talents and areas where they are special. We need to find these, but moreover, give our children the opportunity to find these things on their own- to try, to experiment, to fail and to try again on their own.

That’s what we can all learn from play, aside from the true joy it brings to our lives.

Click here to listen to Show #108- Dr. Stuart Brown- The Importance of Play

Show #106- Dr. Russell Barkley :Understanding ADHD

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:30:00 +0000

This show features the second half of my conversation with Dr. Russell Barkley. We talk about many critical things parents and educators need to know about ADHD, but the most critical is this:

Kids with ADHD tend to be 30-40% delayed in developing executive functions, and if we can adjust our expectations of our children, setting expectations based not on their age but their developmental stage. By adjusting our expectations to what the child can actually do takes lots of stress, pain and unhappiness out of the often tense situation caused by ADHD and its performance problems.

Dr. Barkley is one of the most respected, internationally recognized experts in ADHD and is well known as the primary investigator in on of the longest continuous studies about ADHD known as the Milwaukee Study, following kids from childhood through age 28 (and the study continues to follow this cohort today.) Dr. Barkley’s full credentials can be found on his informative website -you can find it at www.russellbarkley.org.

I’ve excerpted part of his credentials here for you:

After serving in the United States Air Force Dr. Barkley obtained his Bachelor’s Degree with Honors in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1973. He then attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio where he received his Masters Degree in 1975 and his Ph.D. in 1977 in Clinical Psychology, receiving the Distinguished Dissertation Award for his research on the effects of medication on children with ADHD. He then attended the Oregon Health Sciences University for internship training in developmental, learning, and behavioral disorders of children. Thereafter, in 1977, he joined the Department of Neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCOW) and Milwaukee Children’s Hospital where he worked in the Child Neurology Division and eventually founded the Neuropsychology Service at MCOW. He served as its Chief and as Associate Professor of Neurology until 1985. Dr. Barkley then relocated to the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he served as the Director of Psychology and as a Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology (1985-2002). While there, he established the research clinics for both child and adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders. In 2003, Dr. Barkley relocated to the Charleston, SC area where he became a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina. In 2005, he joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at the SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY.

Dr. Barkley has been awarded a Diplomate (board certification) in three specialties, these being Clinical Psychology (ABPP), Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and Clinical Neuropsychology (ABCN, ABPP). He is a clinical scientist, educator, and practitioner who has authored, co-authored, or co-edited 20 books and clinical manuals. He has published more than 200 scientific articles and book chapters related to the nature, assessment, and treatment of ADHD and related disorders (see Publications). In 1993, he founded a bimonthly newsletter for clinical professionals, The ADHD Report (Guilford Publications). He has created seven professional videotapes on ADHD and defiant children, three of which have won national awards, including the 1992 and 1994 Golden Apple Award for educational videos from the National Education Association. Dr. Barkley has served on the editorial boards of 11 scientific journals and as a reviewer for numerous others. He was the President of the Section of Clinical Child Psychology, Division 12, of the American Psychological Association (1988), and was President of the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (1991).

Also in today’s show:

Please check out the dysTalk website, a UK based website dealing with dyslexia and other learning disabilities. Donna, a listener, particularly recommends the video on the Emotional Side of Dyslexia, and I have to agree that it’s wonderful. Please send your recommendations, ideas and the like to us at LDpodcast@gmail.com and I’ll feature them on the show!

Click here to listen to show #106- Dr. Russell Barkley, Part II

Show # 99- Elaine Weitzman, Hanen Centre

admin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:47:00 +0000

In this episode, I talk with Elaine Weitzman from the Hanen Centre. The Hanen Centre is an international organization focused on helping parents and educators enhance the language and literacy skills of young children. The programs they have been developed are research-based and the information they offer parents is practical, easy, every day things we can do to truly enhance how our children learn.

The Hanen centre has come out with a yearly calendar that gives parents and teachers a month by month, week by week resource of how to specifically help build critical language skills for young children. This is a straight-forward, easy to use guide to doing simple things that can have a big, long term impact on your child’s education and literacy.

To give you some perspective on how important this is, a recent show entitled “Going Big” on This American Life by Ira Glass featured a segment regarding the Harlem Children’s Zone, an ambitious program focused on helping parents help their children in the same way the Hanen Centre does- and it’s working miracles in terms of improving children’s scholastic outcomes.

It’s simple things, like reading to your child, asking them questions, talking about emotions, answering those endles “Why?” questions that help spark your child’s curiosity about the world and encourage them to develop these critical skills necessary for later literacy and academic success.

Please contact the Hanen Centre through their website at www.hanen.org. The calendar for 2009 is now available, and sample months are available on their website.

Click here to listen to Elaine Weitzman, Hanen Center- Developing Early Language Skills with your kids

Show # 86 Jenifer Fox- Your Child’s Strengths

admin — Thu, 22 May 2008 01:44:00 +0000

This week’s show features the second half of my interview with Jenifer Fox. Jenifer’s new book, Your Child’s Strengths is one of the best books I’ve read this year, and it provides a blueprint for changing your child’s experience in school. This seems like a radical notion at first, but very small changes, such as looking at your child’s true strengths and giving them opportunities to do what they do best can change the way a child sees themselves and the world.

The Search for Strengths

One of the first steps in finding a child’s strengths starts by talking to them, listening, and looking for some patterns in their natural interests. Jenifer and I talk about how to find out more about your child, and how unstructured time can sometimes be a great place to begin looking and observing your child’s natural interests and proclivities. While there’s a trend to make sure children have structured play and are adequately supervised at all times, this doesn’t give them a lot of time or choice to really discover what makes them special as individuals.

This also means allowing your child to be disappointed and learning how to deal with that- positive psychology and reinforcement is NOT about making their lives perfect and happy all the time, but helping them develop a sense of solving their problems and be willing to take the risks necessary to learn and grow.

If we make our approach in schools more “project-based” (and please, no, I am not recommending any more posters or dioramas on the Book Report for the month…) meaning that children learn from examples and by doing as much as possible, we may be able to make the education they receive more meaningful. By the way, the case-based or project-based learning approach is one used in graduate schools, from business schools to law schools, currently. We just need to begin to apply this to younger students!

We need to collect specific information about what a child does well-this is essential to finding ways to build on the successes, and clues to other talents that might be hidden otherwise.

We also talk about what to do when teacher- student relationships are rocky, and how to go about trying to reach some sort of working relationship- what Nancy Hennessey from the IDA calls “Dystechia” It’s tough, but sometimes it seems we do have to teach our kids how to work the system or play the game. We also talk about the difference between entertainment and engagement, and how teachers need to be able to parse the difference, as do parents.

Recommended books and links in this episode:

The Unhurried Child

Dr. Bob Brooks- Raising a Self-Disciplined Child; Raising Resilient Children

Affinities Program at Purnell School

The Gates Foundation Report on High School Dropouts

Sara Lawrence Lightfoot- The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn from Each Other

BBC Article on Basic Sums Stressing Adults

ooVoo- online interactive chat (free service) for up to six people at a time

The Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia and Chris Lehmann- His blog is Practical Theory

Click here to download Show #86- Jenifer Fox

Show # 55 Conversation with Anne Ford and John Richard Thompson Part II- Helicopter Parenting, Families and Siblings

admin — Thu, 24 May 2007 22:23:00 +0000

In this show, I continue my conversation with Anne Ford and John Richard Thompson. Their new book, On Their Own: Creating an Independent Futrue for Your Adult Child with Learning Disabilities and ADHD has just been published by New Market Press. We talk about how hard it is to let your child succeed or fail on their own accord, and how our involvement with our children with disabilities effects other members of the family as well.

Congratualtions to our winners so far – Kim Mansk, Tracey Bowes, Sue Penicka and Shelly Head! Your books on on their way!

We still have a few books to give away- Please send an email to ldpodcast@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at (206) 666-2343 to win!

I have also recently added a chapter from my book-in-progress, in PDF format, if you are interested. If you click on this link, or the home page link to your left, you’ll see it listed as How Learning Works- It’s about the basics of brain and cognitive development in kids, presented in a “Bill Nye The Science Guy” way for parents. For me at least, it always has been helpful to know what part of a child’s issues might be developmental (They’ll get better over time as they get older) and which parts are hard-wired (this is something in their basic makeup and unlikely to change much). I am eager to hear what you think- if you do read it, please send you feedback to me at ldpodcast@gmail.com. Any and all feedback, positive, negative, indifferent- it’s all very helpful to me- think of yourselves as editors!

Click here to download Show #55: Conversation with Anne Ford and John Richard Thompson Part II: Helicopter Parenting and Siblings

Dale Brown, Part II

admin — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 01:41:00 +0000

In the second part of my conversation with Dale Brown from LD Online, we talk about using professional coaches for ADHD and other learning disabilities, when positive reinforcement works best, and the latest goings on at LD Online.
Dale knows from personal experience what it was like growing up with learning disabilities, and how hard it is to get the help you need. As parents, we need to know how to help our kids learn these self-advocacy skills, because they need to take charge of their learning issues. And there’s no one better to learn from than Dale, who has not only advocated for herself, but has been instrumental in helping others learn to advocate for themselves in the workplace.

Click here to listen to Show #39: Conversation with Dale Brown, Part II