National Parent & Teacher
Choice Award
And
The National Parenting
Product Awards
The
ABCs of Learning Issues is
a critically acclaimed resource for
parents, educators, and service providers. This book describes how to identify,
recognize, and rectify learning issues
“The ABCs of Learning Issues provides parents
with a valuable tool that increases their understanding of learning issues,
offers a framework in which to identify and incorporate effective strategies
when helping their children, and assists them in learning how to work directly
with their school in a cooperative and collaborative manner.
“As an educational diagnostician
for more than three decades, I work with families to help them to fully
understand the results and interpretations of formal evaluations. I also help children to develop their
academic skill set preparing them for their next educational crossroad. With an
in-depth background in learning disabilities, I provide a wide array of
academic recommendations and interventions to parents and professionals.”
--Dana Stahl, M. Ed.
In
the United States, as many as 1 in 5 children experience learning issues.
Learning, attention, and anxiety issues adversely affect students from reaching
their social-emotional and academic potential. The ABCs of Learning Issues, explores
24 learning issues providing clinical and educator’s definitions, behaviors
parents may observe at home, effective strategies for both the home and school,
and a list of professionals that can help students feel successful.
The ABCs of Learning Issues: A Practical
Guide for Parents,
by Dana Stahl., M.Ed. (Palmiche Press, Trade Paper, $39.99, 172 pages, ISBN:
978-0-9968461-0-7), is an educational consultant and learning specialist of 35
years. Her practice focuses on educational advice, advocacy, and school
placements. Dana helps parents to further their understanding of various
learning issues that parents observe at home, and educators observe at school.
Here
is an interview with Stahl, a client for the public relations firm that I work
for:
1.
Dana, what
inspired your writing of The ABCs of
Learning Issues: A Practical Guide for parents? I wrote this book
to help parents understand the behaviors that their children with identified
learning issues may experience in school and at home. Every industry has a
specific language. The language of learning issues that educators use is
specific to the world of teachers, educational administrators, child
psychologists and psychiatrists, social workers, speech and language
pathologists, pediatric neurologists, and occupational and physical
therapists. Without understanding the
precise terminology common to these professionals and to this industry, parents
are at a disadvantage in grasping key components of specific clinical
definitions, effective teaching strategies, and techniques they can incorporate
at home to help them accept and support their children who experience learning
issues.
2.
How would a parent
know if his or her child has a learning or behavioral issue? For first- time
parents, it is difficult for them to understand if their child has a learning
or behavioral issue. Most parents however, have friends and family to which
they can observe how their children are doing comparative to their peers.
Pediatricians, teachers, and daycare providers can also help parents to view
their children with a more observant lens. The
ABCs of Learning Issues, will help parents further their understanding of
various learning issues and behaviors they observe at home and hear about from
their children’s teachers. The information presented empowers parents to
identify, recognize, and deal with specific learning issues that are described
in formal evaluations on standardized tests, and within school environments.
3.
What should a
parent do to properly diagnose and assess a child’s abilities or shortcomings? Parents can
develop a more efficient relationship with their child’s teacher by securing a
home-school partnership. This partnership can be developed by reinforcing what
is being presented in school, and in knowing what is going on in class.
Continued contact with your child’s teacher regarding parental observations in
homework, test preparation, social interactions with peers, or difficulty in
attention, learning or academic anxiety all help to foster a close home-school
relationship. The ABCs of Learning Issues
provides parents with a valuable tool that increases their understanding of
learning issues, offers a framework in which to identify and incorporate
effective strategies, and assists them in learning how to work directly with
their school in a cooperative and collaborative manner.
4.
What challenges do
most parents experience when dealing with academically challenged students? There are numerous
challenges parents face when dealing with academically challenged students.
They span the gamete from repositioning their academic expectations of their
children’s school experience, production and performance to learning to
negotiate and navigate their way through the legal and educational side of
being parent advocates. This requires maintaining an open line of communication
with the schools, learning the language special education, the process by which
children are formally evaluated and diagnosed, as well as what are their
children’s rights once they receive a diagnosis. Terms such as a 504 Plans or
IEP’s (Individual Education Plan) may be foreign, as well as push-in and
pull-out services. But understanding how to be an effective parent advocate is
invaluable.
5.
How do teachers
need to help parents to rectify or address social behavior problems? Teachers can help
parents to rectify or address social behavior problems by providing them with
some concrete strategies. These strategies are most effective when they are
implemented and coordinated at home and at school. Consistency is crucial for
children, and while they understand that every action has a reaction, the
response from the adults in their world needs to be anticipated and reliable.
Home-school communication is imperative to partnering together to help
children. Parent-Teacher conferences, and or Child Study Team meetings are the
perfect venue to address social behavior problems, create a plan that includes
intervention (including professionals that can help), monitoring progress
(behavior charts, written observations), and revisiting stated concerns in
follow up meetings.
6.
Is there agreement
amongst educators, therapists, doctors, and parents on how to treat specific
learning issues – or is there disagreement, confusion, and a misunderstanding
of things? Fortunately,
children with disabilities are guaranteed specific interventions and
accommodations under the Individual and Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This
Act provides assistance for all children with disabilities. Part B includes
provisions related to formal grants that assist states in providing a free
appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment for
children with disabilities ages three through 21. There are 14 stated
disabilities that schools on a federal level are required to abide by. Once
children are identified with a specific disability, schools work as a team with
service providers and parents help these children succeed to their full
social-emotional and academic potential. In this venue, professionals agree
upon the implementation of IDEA and FAPE.
7.
What are some of
the more common learning issues and how can steps be taken early on to combat
them? Early
intervention is the key to steps being taken to combat common learning issues.
Learning, attention, and anxiety issues exhibited by students are what
educators experience in their classrooms and parents observe from their
children in their homes. Some common learning issues include areas of reading
writing and math. Others include areas of academic anxiety or attention issues.
And some, center on executive functioning, processing, and memory. But,
whatever the issues are, early intervention is essential in taking steps to
identify, recognize, and rectify specific learning issues. Once learning issues
are brought to the parents or school’s attention, the Child Study Team (CST)
meets to formally discuss their observations and put a plan in place.
8.
What steps can be
taken to improve a child’s reading rate? Reading rate is the speed at which
a person reads a written text during a specific unit of time. It is generally
calculated by the number of words read per minute, but is influenced by a
number of factors, such as a reader’s purpose, level of expertise, and the
relative difficulty of the text. Effective teaching strategies that can be
taken to improve a child’s reading rate include:
·
Partner
with your child to read books and plays. Select characters and increase reading
rate and expression with short passages.
·
Select
reading material that is easy. Focus on developing automaticity, appropriate
phrasing, and intonation.
·
Expand
your child’s vocabulary and increase their reading rate by fostering
familiarity with the text.
9.
What can be done
to address students who struggle with academic anxiety? Anxiety may be a
normal part of life, and it can also be maladaptive if excessive feelings of
fear, worry, or nervousness interfere with everyday life. Anxiety levels are
linked to interval pressure that students may place on themselves, as well as
how they perceive their family members’ and teachers’ expectations. For
students who exhibit academic anxiety with regard to performance, steps can be
taken to help them feel less anxious. Create learning environments that
encourage students to independently negotiate and navigate their work. Teach
students to ‘smash the task,’ or break it down into manageable components.
Students develop a sense of ownership in accomplishing small segments of
assignments, which lowers their anxiety and allows for successful completion.
DON”T MISS THESE!!!
How authors get their
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Authors cannot succeed
without the right attitude
So what is needed to
be a champion book marketer?
Should You Promote
Your Book By Yourself?
The Book Marketing
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Resource: 2019 Toolkit For Authors -- FREE
Brian
Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas
expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or
anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and
email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when
discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog
©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His
writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.
This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the
top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best
resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.
