My mother has a wooden plaque hanging in her kitchen since my childhood. It says, “If you don’t want your children to hear what you’re saying, pretend you are talking to them.” Children not listening is one of the most common complaints of parents and teachers and also has been the inspiration of countless parenting…
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Chances are if you’re reading this email, it’s because you are one of those ‘ahead-of-your-time’ mamas who understands there is so much more going on beneath the surface of your child’s struggles with learning or behaviour. … and you also likely know there’s a lot more going on than genetics. Consider this… Compared to any…
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Ask any person if they know what ADHD or a learning disability and they have an idea. Parents with children who are struggling with learning and behaviour can tell you more details on other disorders and their differences. Ask what a learning gate is and few people know. I was a teacher and I didn’t…
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Not even 8 weeks into the sensory-motor portion of my program, Jackie called me to tell me that her daughter’s speech, gross and fine motor skills as well as her reasoning had improved. I’m not going to pretend that results always happen that fast. I also want to be clear that Jackie was one determined…
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The other day I talked to a mom whose daughter is in grade 5 and learned that on top of having dyslexia, dyspraxia and mild ADHD, she also has dyscalculia. The daughter was devastated. The mom was working with a tutor, an OT, the family doctor and now wants to hire a math tutor. Mom…
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If I had a dollar for every child I work with who has more than one diagnoses, I would be rich. Rarely do I see a child who just has dyslexia with no other diagnoses or difficulties. Parents almost always come to see me because of one major concern. Usually that concern is either reading…
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It’s easy to feel helpless and that nothing is working when you have paid the money and taken the time out to drive your child to tutoring, believing this will be ‘the fix’ and you see minimal results. Last summer, Lisa told me that her son Isaac must have been misdiagnosed. She explained that she…
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By now almost all of us have heard about how food colouring, especially red dye, can be a nightmare for a child with ADHD. When a child gets the ADHD diagnosis, Moms often know that there are other solutions like nutrition, exercise and adequate sleep before trying medication. Yet when dyslexia is the diagnosis, somehow…
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Dysgraphia is more than just bad hand writing. In my last article Smart Kids Who Hate to Write I described the main areas of breakdown with dysgraphia and what it looks like. Many people, including professionals think that the main issue with dysgraphia is poor fine motor control. Language-Based Dysgraphia Dysgraphia is more layered than…
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