Processing Speed Therapy For Eye - Maintenance and Reading Fluency

Fluency in reading involves the ability to read words at an automatic pace and the speed and ease used while reading. There is a high correlation between reading words per minute and accuracy. If a child is reading slowly and sounding out each word, the meaning of the text will be lost. Reading must be rapid and automatic to glean meaning and understanding. If a text is on a child's age and grade level the reading process should be automatic.

One common problem that causes slow reading is poor eye-position maintenance. A child must be able to fixate on a word long enough for recognition to take place. This problem can cause a child to take too long to read a word. A long duration time to recognize a word causes physical as well as reading fluency problems. The result of this problem may be: blurring, fatigue, nervousness, hyperactivity, rubbing or blinking the eyes. Reading problems may include: skipping words when reading aloud, slow reading, losing place while reading, reversals and avoidance of reading. The eye must focus on a word for approximately one-quarter of a second in the when reading. Processing training can increase the duration time of fixation on each word to one-sixth of a second, while still maintaining good recognition when reading.

Help for this condition can include a child pointing to the center of a word when reading. Due to common belief it is not detrimental when learning to read to point. Pointing can help stabilize the minuet movements the eye makes that can cause translocations of letters. Once a child can recognize words and fixate on them fast enough this practice will stop. There are other methods a parent can use to help improve the duration time a child focuses on a word. Flash cards can be used by holding up an age appropriate word for a 3 seconds and putting it down...then ask the child to recall the word. In addition, if a tiny dot is placed in the at the bottom middle of the word, the eye will be drawn to the dot and center of the word. This will stop any eye movement when fixating on the word. As the child improves shorten the time the child sees the card to 2 seconds and then 1 second to one-sixth of a second and eliminate the dot. This should be done with a wide variety of words the child is familiar with, such as an age appropriate spelling list. Word flashing devices may also be used such as a tachistoscope or visual computer programs. These programs gradually increase the speed that the words are shown. Visual and cognitive therapists, as well as optometrists in your area, may have some of the computer programs or other devices mentioned in this article.

In summary, for a child to read fluently with speed, comprehension and accuracy, the eye-position maintenance system must steady the image or word so that recognition can take place. Visual and cognitive processing also improves word recognition by improving visualization, visual memory, concentration, processing speed and other essential components of the reading process.

Transitioning the Class of 2013-2014 to Success

As high schools across our nation prepare for the class of 2013-2014 to enter their doors, there must be several components in place in order to ensure a smooth and efficient beginning. Listed below are a few of the recommendations that will enhance the school climate and make the students feel like they are a part of the school's traditions. They include:

1. The culture should be inviting to all grade levels. Not only should the students and staff be a part of the culture, the community must be an active stakeholder. First impressions DO make a a difference in how the community will view the school and in return how it will help make the school a success through resources and volunteers.

2. Freshman should be made welcome well before the beginning of the school year. Invite them to participate in sports, activities and other events so that they will immediately feel as though they are a part of their future school family.

3. Create postcards that are written by the current students and then mailed to the future class of 2013-2014. It explains details about the open house which will take place in September.

4. The school's goals need to reflect a commitment to excellence. Research shows that the most vital time to prevent dropouts is during their freshman year.

5. Have a monitoring system in place so that interventions can be done on a regular basis. Waiting too late will often result in missed opportunities. Keep a close eye on those students that have failed English, and / or Math and also have an attendance issue. These students will most likely be the first to become a dropout.

6. Have an administrator take time to meet with every freshman during the year. The small amount of time that it takes to meet with each student can pay off should there be a difficult circumstance that has to be addressed.

7. Reward good behavior prior to the beginning of the year. Students that are praised for great effort often tend to continue this behavior with reminders that hard work pays off.

8. Make the effort to know the parents before students enter the halls. All too often parents think that since their children are in high school, they don't have to spend as much time as before but on the contrary, this is the most critical time to hear their dreams and create a plan that will map out their high school experience and beyond.

9. Create an Individualized Academic Plan (IAP) that will be monitored and adjusted throughout their high school years. Remember what gets measured gets done and this simple plan is the roadmap to success. Without one, the chances of students falling through the cracks will significantly increase.

10. Find a positive role model. As we all know, one bad decision could lead to a lifetime of regret but having a mentor to discuss issues could thwart off potential problems before they arise.

These simple steps will pay off huge with some planning and adjustments.

Dr. Aaron L. Smith

Applying to Learning Toys

If you are the parent of a child whom you hope to send to a learning center, you will probably have to write quite a few letters and fill out a seemingly inexhaustible number of applications. A tip: good letters can help your youngsters gain admission.

If you plan on sending your kid to a private or public school, you are in one of two situations: either you know which school you want to send him to, or you do not. If you are not sure which one would best suit your child's needs, hie yourself to the public library, ask for suggestions from friends and relatives, or scour your locale and neighboring areas. You can also search the internet for learning toys.

Manuals list most of these learning centers complete with their history, buildings and equipments, the faculty and staff, size of the student body, admission requirements, costs and other pertinent information. Having selected a number of them you would like to know about, your next step will be to write or personally request them for catalogs. The catalogs will give you the same information you found in the manuals, but in greater detail. Keep this inquiry letter brief; there is no need to go into details about your child at this point, since the letter will, in all probability, be thrown out as soon as the catalog is sent.

A simple, one-sentence letter like this should do the trick:

Gentlemen:
Please send me the current catalog for your school.

Sincerely,

After you have gone over the catalogs and selected the learning toys to which you would like to apply, it is time to send a more detailed letter. As soon as you receive catalogs and applications for admissions, read each catalog carefully, paying particular attention to requirements for admission and admission tests required. Check for deposits or application fee requirements. Do not hesitate to consult with your school's administrators if you are not Clearly a matter of application.

preschool exposure can be helpful. You can teach your child to leave the house without having used for a short period of time to learn in a group. If you want to record your child's school to consider carefully. Two or three years should be no more than 10 children in groups. Teachers should be trained in early childhood education. Ask if the staff were trained in first aid, and seek methods of discipline.What do they do, for example, if a child bites other children?

You should be welcome to visit at any time and the rooms and grounds should be thoroughly childproofed. At learning toys, your child should be treated as an individual and given encouragement to learn. They should be progressive by keeping up with the latest educational research, and provide training and development for the teachers and staff. Aside from following a national curriculum, the schools should offer a unique sense of community and partnership with parents.

Non-Profit Donation Request Letter Sample

Asking for donations is in fact a troublesome process, but sometimes, you may need to do so for your non-profit organization. Sending donation request letters to the known persons, friends, colleagues and local business people is the economical way to get donations for your organization. A well-written letter is highly beneficial in getting positive impression about you and your organization. It is therefore always worth to read the sample letters in the net, before starting the letter writing process.

You need to give due consideration to write an attention-capturing caption. You can even add a picture representing the theme of your organization. For instance, if your non-profit organization is aiming to help the poor children, you can set a theme picture like the image of a poor boy and girl. Most of the business people do not find time to read all their mails. They may send many letters to the trash pile, even without opening them. If you want your recipient to open your letter, you need to give some appealing opening. You need to include your contact address in the beginning. You can then start the letter with formal salutation.

The body of the letter is the most important part, which requires more attention. You need to know how to make the recipient regular donors. You can get better idea for framing the body of the letter, by viewing sample non-profit donation request letters. However, the purpose of writing the donation request letter and the recipients are different and so it is advisable to create a letter on your own. You need to remember that the letter must be informative and entertaining. This can encourage the recipient to read the letter fully.

You can describe what your organization is planning to do with the donation amount. You need to specify the purpose in a way that it touches the emotion of the recipient. You should exaggerate anything, as this would spoil the credibility of your organization.

It is advisable to specify the required donation amount in the letter. If you want any equipment like computer, printer etc, you can then make a note of it in your donation request letter. If you use the sample non-profit donation request letter, you can include the necessary amount.

If the recipient gave some donations to your organization previously, you need to say thank you for it in your letter. You can state how the donation amount was utilized effectively. This can help to get better response from the recipient.

It is sensible to use a sample donation request letter for raising funds for your non-profit organization, especially if you are not an expert in letter writing. A donation request letter needs to look professional in order to gain good image about your organization. You can even simply copy the contents of the sample letter into your Microsoft word application, but you need to make it personalized and heartfelt. Make sure that your letter is not over sentimental. It is also advisable to avoid writing long letters. You can compress important details within one or two pages.

Honoring The Elders On Grandparents Day

The first Sunday after Labor Day is Grandparents Day. It had been declared as the national holiday by Jimmy Carter in 1978. Ms. McQuade, a housewife from West Virginia was the initiator of the idea of celebrating Grandparents Day. There are several reasons to why one should celebrate Grandparents Day. One of the simple reasons being they help to raise us and shape us into the men and women we will become. With both parents entering the workforce today, coupled with rising daycare costs, retired grandparents have become perhaps the most dependable source of daily child care. Besides the elderly members are well experienced in doing these as they have already raised their family members and are willing and even eager to take part in their grandchildren care and development.

With Grandparents Day being the first real holiday for the kids in the school year, they too become a part of the activities. The important thing when choosing a craft for your child for Grandparents Day is that it be appropriate for their age and abilities. It should be simple enough that they don't feel as though they are being forced to do something they don't really want to do, while maintaining a challenge or difficulty level that keeps their interest and doesn't make them feel as though they are wasting their time. Crafts of various kinds for the celebration is always welcome. One of the easiest crafts to create is a greeting card. A child can draw his or her own picture and use personal creativity to make a card that speaks from the heart. Besides one can always send an ecard to honor and show love and respect to the elderly members and wish them for the day. Ecard sites like 123Greetings.com and Americangreetings have a huge collection of trendiest ecards to send to the elderly members of the family who have been the pillars of support through good times and bad.

The are a lot of activities that can be arranged for the day. If one's grandparents are not staying near, he can always visit an elderly home or nursing home and spend some time with other elderly members present there. This gives a feeling of contentment to the elderly folks and makes them feel cared for. If the grandparents are staying near then there a lot of ways to provide entertainment to them. Care should be taken that these entertainments doesn't lead them to any sort of disturbances and weariness. One of the best ways to bring joy to them is to spend the whole day with them and remembering the old days along with a walk at the park and serving them with their favorite recipes. It has been often seen that the old people are much more comfortable with pets. Many older people adore dogs, and playing with puppies often literally rids these respected people of depression. If possible, take a puppy with you to play with the residents of the nursing home, and, if pets are not allowed, consider rescuing one or two of these live-ins and taking them somewhere that they can play with these cute ones. Apart from this, one can also make a scrapbook containing photos of the old days of their grandparents and give them as gift which is surely going to bring smiles on their face.

Learn to type Typing Games

For children, the ability of using the computer is becoming fundamental in nowadays, so learning to type is must for them. But most children get bored with any repetitious task and give up or whine and even want to stop, parents or teachers always feel nothing else bother them more than when children face the keyboard and have absolutely no idea where the keys are or how they go about typing. They just "play" with the keyboard. This is a waste of time for them and, worse, children get into the bad habit of typing with two fingers. So parents or teachers have to face how to solve this problem.

As parents and teachers know, whether children want to learn a thing or not largely depends on whether they are attracted by it. Based on this, the typing tutor must be easy-to-use, fun colorful and appealing to children. Once children love and develop interest in it, they will learn to type on their own initiative. Generally, children naturally like to play games, because when playing games, they are always attracted by the colorful interface and pretty music in the games, and above all, they're able to learn something quickly under no pressure. Apparently, the problem for children having no interest in learning to type is solved, they can learn to type when playing games.

There are many advantages of using typing games for typing: First, Games are a welcome break from the usual routine of the typing practice, thus help children learn typing more easily. Second, Typing requires a great deal of effort. Games help children to make and sustain the effort of learning. Third, Games are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging.

There are lots of interesting typing games which also help to make typing fun. GS Typing Tutor is just one. The aim of this program is to make typing fun whilst increasing accuracy and speed. The feature-rich typing software supports 5 typing games: Rats in the garden, The attack of the alien help, balloon and card. The games include 23 lessons each type Basic typing. Among the basic lessons, children can learn to type from your house keys to other keys of the base. The basic exercises also help them be familiar with the keyboard layout step.

Each game is easy to use, fun colorful and appealing to children:

1: The rats in the garden, the children's mission is to eliminate the rats in the garden. Then you should check the letter beforerats escape. If children type the wrong letter or type slowly, the rats will escape under their nose. So they have to type correctly and fast in case the rats escape. The game is fun!

2: Attacks of the alien Children mission is to stop the alien fleets to attack the earth. So they must type letters before the alien fleets through the galaxy into the earth. By playing the game, children type the letters, and can be familiar with the keys. With children accelerating the typing speed, the alien fleets fly rapidly, so they have to type quickly in case the earth is attacked by the alien fleets.

3: Help! A bad man has held a boy under duress. So children must help the soldier to rescue the boy by typing the letter. If their typing speed is slow, the boy's life is under danger. Once children succeed to rescue the boy, the boy will laugh loudly for thanking.

4: Balloon Falling Letters are ruining the balloons. Save the balloons by typing the letters before the balloons land on the ground. Lots of fun! The more children type the more score they get.

5: Card The letters are arranged random based on the keys children choose. Type the letters on the card. This will help them to know well the basic keys.

With playing typing games, the typing program helps children easy master a skill needed in today's computer oriented world. Download it at http://www.typingstar.com/

You Need a Hobby!

One of my eNewsletter subscribers (Jim W. from Tennessee) sent me information on his hobby. I loved his stories and the photos. Jim collects, re-tools, and races Mustangs. His hobby caused him to meet his wife of 40+ years, meet folks who have become friends, bond with younger members of his family, and travel. He tells me that his car hobby has even kept him young! That's good stuff.

Jim closed his letter to me with this: "Mustangs, and the people who love them, are two of my favorite parts of life! Regarding my hobby -- I live it and love it. I hope that everyone can find something similar that they love and are passionate about, and live it, too!"

Wow! Thanks Jim!

Here's my question to you: What's Your Hobby?

Here are some of the benefits of having your own wonderful hobby obsession:

1. It is an important aspect of having a well-balanced life.
2. Because it is something that you enjoy and do voluntarily, you will become happy every time that you find yourself working on your hobby.
3. A hobby will challenge your thinking, and strengthen you mentally.
4. You become better at managing your time (so that you can get to your hobby).
5. Having a hobby will calm you.
6. You will never be caught bored and with nothing to do. Your hobby will always be there to fill your free time.

Your hobby can be anything that you LOVE to do. It doesn't have to be expensive or take away from other important parts of your life. When you find the hobby that is right for you, you will find it to be the perfect friend, ready to be picked up whenever you have a chance.

So again I ask: What's Your Hobby?

If you don't have a hobby or you are looking for another one -- Here is a list of just a few hobbies that you should look over and choose from.

1. Aeromodeling
2. Amateur Astronomy
3. Amateur Radio
4. Animals/pets/dogs
5. Arts
6. Astrology
7. Astronomy
8. Backgammon
9. Baseball
10. Basketball
11. Beach/Sun tanning
12. Beachcombing
13. Beadwork
14. Beatboxing
15. Becoming A Child Advocate
16. Bell Ringing
17. Belly Dancing
18. Bicycling
19. Bird watching
20. Birding
21. BMX
22. Blogging
23. Board Games
24. Boating
25. Body Building
26. Bonsai Tree
27. Bowling
28. Brewing Beer
29. Bridge
30. Bringing Food To The Disabled
31. Building A House For Habitat For Humanity
32. Building Dollhouses
33. Butterfly Watching
34. Button Collecting
35. Calligraphy
36. Camping
37. Candle Making
38. Canoeing
39. Car Racing
40. Casino Gambling
41. Cave Diving
42. Chess
43. Church/church activities
44. Cigar Smoking
45. Cloud Watching
46. Coin Collecting
47. Collecting
48. Collecting Antiques
49. Collecting Artwork
50. Compose Music
51. Computer activities
52. Cooking
53. Crafts
54. Crafts (unspecified)
55. Crochet
56. Crocheting
57. Cross-Stitch
58. Crossword Puzzles
59. Dancing
60. Diecast Collectibles
61. Digital Photography
62. Dolls
63. Dominoes
64. Drawing
65. Dumpster Diving
66. Eating out
67. Educational Courses
68. Electronics
69. Embroidery
70. Entertaining
71. Exercise (aerobics, weights)
72. Fast cars
73. Fishing
74. Football
75. Four Wheeling
76. Freshwater Aquariums
77. Frisbee Golf
78. Games
79. Gardening
80. Garage Sales
81. Genealogy
82. Houseboating
83. Going to movies
84. Golf
85. Go Kart Racing
86. Grip Strength
87. Guitar
88. Handwriting Analysis
89. Hang gliding
90. Hiking
91. Home Brewing
92. Home Repair
93. Home Theater
94. Horse riding
95. Hot air ballooning
96. Hula Hoping
97. Hunting
98. Illusion
99. Internet
100. Jet Engines
101. Jewelry Making
102. Jigsaw Puzzles
103. Juggling
104. Keep A Journal
105. Kites
106. Kite Boarding
107. Knitting
108. Knotting
109. Learn to Play Poker
110. Learning A Foreign Language
111. Learning An Instrument
112. Learning To Pilot A Plane
113. Lagos
114. Listening to music
115. Macramé
116. Magic
117. Making Model Cars
118. Matchstick Modeling
119. Meditation
120. Metal Detecting
121. Model Rockets
122. Modeling Ships
123. Models
124. Motorcycles
125. Mountain Biking
126. Mountain Climbing
127. Musical Instruments
128. Needlepoint
129. Owning An Antique Car
130. Origami
131. Painting
132. Paintball
133. Papermaking
134. Parachuting
135. People Watching
136. Photography
137. Piano
138. Pinochle
139. Playing music
140. Playing team sports
141. Pottery
142. Puppetry
143. Pyrotechnics
144. Quilting
145. Rafting
146. Radio Controlled Trains
147. Radio Controlled Boats
148. Radio Controlled Cars
149. Radio Controlled Helicopter
150. Radio Controlled Airplanes
151. Reading
152. Readings for the elderly
153. Relax
154. Rent Movies
155. The rescue of animals mistreated or abandoned
156. Robotics
157. Rock Collecting
158. Rockets
159. Rocking AIDS children
160. Now Playing
161. Saltwater Aquarium
162. Scrapbooking
163.Scuba Diving
164. Sewing
165. Shark Fishing
166. Skeet Shooting
167. Shopping
168. Singing In Choir
169. Skateboarding
170. Sketching
171. Sky Diving
172. Sleeping
173. Smoking Pipes
174. Snorkeling
175. Soap Making
176. Soccer
177. Socializing with friends/neighbors
178. Spelunkering
179. Spending time with family/kids
180. Stamp Collecting
181. Storytelling
182. String Figures
183. Surf Fishing
184. Swimming
185. Tea Tasting
186. Tennis
187. Tesla Coils
188. Tetris
189. Textiles
190. Tombstone Rubbing
191. Tool Collecting
192. Toy Collecting
193. Train Collecting
194. Travel
195. Traveling
196. Treasure Hunting
197. Turning Business Around
198. Tutoring Children
199. TV watching
200. Urban Exploration
201. Video Games
202. Volunteer
203. Walking
204. War Gaming
205. Watching sporting events
206. Windsurfing
207. Wine Making
208. Woodworking
209. Working In A Food Pantry
210. Working on cars
211. Writing
212. Writing eNewsletters and articles
213. Yoga
214. Yo-Yo