All My Children

Learning to read, so basic to all academic achievements, illustrates not only these parallels, but their importance if intellectual subjects are to be learned well and to attain deep personal meaning. The child who through playing games of progressively greater complexity has mastered the knack of controlling to some measure the largely chaotic tendencies of his unconscious and that of harnessing its energies for largely conscious and reality-oriented purposes will find it relatively easy to apply the same skills to the learning of reading. Continue Reading »

Norm-Referenced Tests

Most ’standardised’ tests have at their core an assumption that abilities are evenly distributed across a population, such that an equal number of cases will fall above and below a statistical mean. Tests are constructed so that children’s scores will spread out across this range. In using a standardised measure we expect half the children to whom it is applied to be below average. Continue Reading »

Some schools have a policy of placing twins in separate classes, others feel that whatever the relationship between twins, they should always be together. Most leave it up to the parents.

This may be the most important decision that parents make. Often otherwise trouble-free twins may have problems at school caused by unequal ability, unequal division by the twins of educational tasks, language difficulties and unequal teaching, to name but a few.

Sometimes there is no choice, particularly at first schools where there may only be a single form entry. Continue Reading »

This section should not finish without a thought for the older brother or sister of twins.

If there is a very positive relationship between the older child and the twins, there may well be no problem. The older child may be proud of having ‘his’ twins at school and show them off to his friends, or he may lead a completely independent life.

However there are some children, particularly those who are close in age to the twins, who may feel overshadowed. Some twins report back to the parents when the older child misbehaves, so that he feels as if he’s being constantly watched. Even though parents may sometimes find these reports useful, they should be discouraged, as with reports about the other twin. The older child is entitled to his privacy. Continue Reading »

Enriching language

Before attempting to encourage your child to learn to read, be sure that you are giving him lots of enriching language experiences. Talk to him as much as possible, involve him in conversation, teach him new words, and tell and read stories to him. Show him that reading is an enjoyable experience so that he learns to love books. While sitting on your lap looking at the pictures of a story he will eventually begin to notice the words and may recognize some of them. Involve him in the story by encouraging him to ask questions and tell you what is coming next. Children like the same story repeated over and over again.

Action songs, finger-play stories and rhymes

By being actively involved children understand the meaning of words, and sentence constructions are enhanced. Songs, too, often introduce children to new words and help them to hear the sounds in words more easily. Continue Reading »

There will be many occasions during your child’s life when you will need to determine her body temperature as accurately as possible. Even though the touch of your hand might suggest that your child is “burning up” or “cold and clammy,” this impression based on surface temperature can be very misleading. Most fevers below 102^°F cannot be detected this way, and children who feel warm to the touch are as likely to have a normal temperature as an elevated one. Plastic liquid-crystal strips placed on the forehead aren’t much better and may miss a fever entirely. To obtain a reliable core temperature measurement, your best bet is to use a thermometer in one of these locations:

Rectal temperature most accurately and reliably reflects core temperature, especially in infants and young children. It is typically 0.9^°F (or 0.5^°C) higher than oral temperature. Measuring temperature rectally is specifically recommended for infants under three months of age, for whom significant medical decisions may hinge on the numbers that are obtained. Continue Reading »

`I spy‘ in the Garden or Park or Looking at Nature

AGE 2 TO 3 YEARS

How it helps your child

This game is familiar to everyone but it is particularly good for preparing children to listen for sounds in words. If you get your child used to the phonic sounds before he is taught them in isolation it will be easier.

What you need

Just to be in the garden or park to play the ‘I spy‘ game.

A box of objects, such as a cat, a dog, a pen, a cup, etc. for the other game. Continue Reading »