inspiration

How Can We Build Resilience in Children During the Pandemic?

soisystems

Coronavirus is being a spoilsport of 2020 so far for everyone – be it children, adults or the elderly. It has taken the world by surprise and nobody knows how long will it continue like this. When we are faced inevitable adversity like this in life, to achieve our intended goals and finding happiness, a person’s ability to cope and resilience play a very important role. The ability to thrive despite these challenges arises from the skills of resilience.  The good news is,  parents can teach resilience skills to their children.

Building resilience — It is the ability to adapt well to adversity or even significant sources of stress. We can help our children manage stress and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. Resilience should be developed from an early age, and we should proactively help our children develop it as well. Following are tips for building resilience.

  • By lending a helping hand: Encourage your child to help others, because children who may feel helpless can be empowered by helping others. Parents should encourage the child in age-appropriate volunteering work.
  • Have a daily routine: Daily routines help children to complete their task and is comforting for them, especially younger children who like structure in their lives. Encourage your child to develop his or her own way of a daily routine
  • Unstructured time:  Build in unstructured time during the day to allow children to be creative and inquisitive. Make sure that your child does not have a hectic schedule of his or her life with no “downtime” to relax.
  • Every child should be taught self-care: Teach your child the importance of eating on time and eating properly, exercise and rest. Caring for oneself by having fun will help your child stay balanced and better deal with stressful times.
  • Try and maintain a hopeful outlook: Even when your child is facing a difficult situation, help him look at the situation in a broader context and keep a long-term perspective. Although some children may be too young to consider a long-term look on their own, help him or her see that there is a future beyond the current situation and that the future can be good. An optimistic and positive outlook enables children to see the good things in life and keep going even in the hardest times.
  • Acceptance  – change is a part of life: Change often can be very scary for children and teens. Help your child see that change is part of life. New goals can replace some goals that have become unattainable. In school, point out how students have changed as they moved up in grade levels and discuss how that change has had an impact on the students.

Always remember, children also take cues from adults around them, so maybe we can incorporate some of these in our lives as well, to remain a positive, calming influence in our children’s lives. Stay safe, stay resilient!

Written by: Ambereen Pradhan, associate SOI practitioner. Ambereen, along with her husband, founded Energia SOI. As of 1st June 2019, they have work with 950+ education centres in 92 cities and 700+ schools.

SOI News

SOI Regional Training Registration is OPEN!

soisystems

 

After talking with many of you and getting your feedback, we’re excited to announce our travel dates for next year! Jody and Lauren will be traveling to the locations above to offer SOI-IPP training and to host an SOI conference. We hope to see a lot of you there!

Please note that in order to make these trainings a possibility, we’ll need at least 5 attendees at each location.

If you would like to attend, please register as soon as possible! Select your location below:

DALLAS-FORT WORTH

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

CHICAGO

GENERAL SOI CONFERENCE

Available to SOI practitioners of all training levels. We’ll share new products, tips on SOI profile interpretation, have question and answer sessions, and more.

This conference is also open to anyone interested in learning more about SOI.

$150 per person  |  certificate of hours upon completion

SOI-IPP TRAINING

Complete your SOI-IPP certification in just two days! Learn how to administer IPP assessments, input data into the management software, and conduct the IPP exercises.

In order to complete the training in 2 days, we have designed a brief “prep” course for attendees to complete before the training. It is designed to familiarize you with the specifics of IPP.

$400 per person  |  available to those already trained in SOI

 

learning skills, soi-ipp

How SOI Helps Non-Readers

soisystems

“Dyslexia” is not synonymous with “non-reader” — and it is misleading to use the two as interchangeable.  There maybe many reasons for an inability to read, and dyslexia is only one of them. Applying “dyslexia” too loosely is more than semantic misuse; it may actually preempt interventions that are more appropriate and less expensive.

What are the intervention therapies for a non-reader?

INTERVENTIONS BEYOND STANDARD INSTRUCTION

If students are beyond the third grade and have still not learned to read, we must assume that they have already encountered all of the standard reading instruction — whether it is phonics, whole word, language experience, or any other method — so, we can reasonably assume that more of the same will not be an answer.

CONVINCING STUDENTS THEY CAN READ

For non-readers beyond the third grade, there is an additional problem — they first need to be convinced that they can read.  They have confronted the non-reader label over and over again, so they begin to identify as a non-reader, and they become less motivated to keep Continue reading “How SOI Helps Non-Readers” →

certified learning

2017 – 2018 Certified Learning Report

soisystems

INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION AND SOI CERTIFIED LEARNING

Individual Instruction — personified by the image of a tutor working one-on-one with a student — is the gold standard in education. Tutoring is superior instruction because it allows students to work at their own pace while the tutor is constantly monitoring progress and is available whenever a student needs help or guidance.

This type of teaching is especially important in the formative years (kindergarten to grade three) when children first encounter the world of formal education, and are most susceptible to learning difficulties. Early failures, if unobserved or otherwise unaddressed, become fissures in the students’ foundations for learning. They are very difficult to repair and almost always compromise further educational development.

Unfortunately, individual instruction is not the Continue reading “2017 – 2018 Certified Learning Report” →

SOI News, training

New Product Launch: SOI Memory Handbook

soisystems

M = My   

E = Everyday   

M = Memory  

O = Often   

R =  Refuses to   

Y = Yield Information

Does this definition of MEMORY sound familiar?  Do you forget why you walked into a room? Where you left your car keys? A neighbor or friend’s name?

Memory is a major concern for many people. It doesn’t matter if you are 8 or 80; we all need memory training to keep our brain sharp.  Visual and auditory memory is the backbone of school and career advancement. Dr. Mary Meeker recognized this deficiency back in 1977 when she designed and published the Memory Handbooks I & II.

Today we have incorporated those two brain training exercise books into one: the SOI Memory Handbook. It works to improve all areas of memory, including: figural, spatial, place, symbolic, and verbal. Using this handbook will increase your ability to Continue reading “New Product Launch: SOI Memory Handbook” →

soi-ipp

IPP in the Panoply of Learning

soisystems

There are three broad stages in human learning.

Humans, unlike almost all other creatures, are slow in developing the capacity to learn appropriate to their environs.  Most creatures come into life pre-wired with almost all they need to survive and thrive — humans have a greater need, and a greater capacity to learn, but they are not completely pre-wired — they need to learn how to learn.

The first stage is so elementary that it was not even identified until the last half-century.  It is called “patterning”. It occurs when babies first start to explore their environment by crawling and otherwise controlling their bodies in exploring the outside world.    This “motor learning” seems so natural, that it is commonly not considered “learning”, but for whatever reason, some children miss developing important aspects of this development, so they Continue reading “IPP in the Panoply of Learning” →