Reasons Why Children Struggle in Math

Reasons Why Children Struggle in Math

I am writing this from the perspective of a math specialist in the United states.  Cultural and linguistic differences will influence specific struggles in any given country.  One example is on the counting system and writing numbers.  In English, children often...

Foods that Do and Don’t Contain Gluten

Foods that Do and Don’t Contain Gluten

Once you understand what gluten is and how it affects your body, especially if you have an intolerance to it, it is time to figure out what exactly you can eat. This is a new lifestyle, so don’t treat it like something you only do when convenient. If you think it will...

About Gluten Intolerances

About Gluten Intolerances

When my son was diagnosed with autism in 2003, we heard the term "gluten" for the first time.  When trying to go gluten free, it was very hard to find substitutes and even harder to bake.  Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), these days gluten is as common of a term...

The Benefits of Going Slow

The Benefits of Going Slow

​The brain is not designed for continuous learning, but needs some down time to process and “digest” what it is trying to learn.  Throughout the day, our brain has natural lows and highs.  Each cycle lasts approximately 90-110 minutes, and constant focused attention...

The Emotions of Learning

The Emotions of Learning

“Learning is easier to store, remember, and retrieve if it has an emotional base,” (Oberparleiter, 2004, in Lengel, & Kuczala, 2010,  p. 19 ).  Students who feel safe and respected are more highly motivated to learn and are more likely to be intrinsic learning. ...

A Bit About Memory

A Bit About Memory

Short-term memory includes both immediate and working memory, each with very restrictive time and capacity limits (Sousa, 2008).  The hippocampus uses “sensory input from the thalamus, movement coordination in the basal ganglion and emotions in the hypothalamus to...