inspiration, learning skills

I Watched But Did Not See | Part 1

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I now realize there were many signs I missed as our bright, funny, clever daughter moved through the first five years of her life.  I loved watching her play.  She was doing 100 piece puzzles at the age of three.  How clever is that?  She loved to draw, but she rejected doing coloring books.  We wanted to expand her drawing ability and we were more than happy to put the coloring books out of the picture.  She loved animals of any kind and her menagerie of stuffed animals was significant because everyone in the family knew of her passion.  Those animals put her on a career path that remains a reality to this day.  

All seemed normal. She was bright, athletic, artistic, creative and out-going.  

She loved to be read to and this was our special time together before bedtime.  She listened intently, but had no interest in following the words.  Our son, three years older, was already reading words before K started.  This made sense to us because we read with him every day.  By the age of four, our daughter still had no interest in reading the words.  We thought it was because she loved to draw things.  She made up her own books with all pictures and would read those to us.   

What we did miss started a direct path to disaster by 4th grade.  

Continue reading “I Watched But Did Not See | Part 1” →
inspiration, soi-ipp

How SOI & IPP Benefit the Deaf Community

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During my many years at the Tennessee School for the Deaf, I was often asked if my deaf students were a challenge because of their deafness. 

I would always reply, “At TSD, my students are great; it’s the adults that drive me crazy”. 

I said that because it didn’t take me long to learn that deaf kids are just like their hearing counterparts in public school. They laugh, play, love, and learn just like any other kid. The deaf child also brings into the classroom the same learning challenges that any other child brings. If there is a difference in the hearing and deaf, we might find the difference in the impact on some of the learning challenges.

Continue reading “How SOI & IPP Benefit the Deaf Community” →
Classrooms

SOI & Reading Comprehension

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The need to improve reading comprehension is well-documented.  The schools’ greatest successes in reading achievement have come at the third grade level. This is true in every state and at the national level as well.  The downward trend in reading achievement begins in the fourth grade and continues through the high school years – it never improves, and only rarely levels off.

Why does achievement decline after the third grade?  The answer is reading comprehension.

Reading instruction through the third grade is m ostly concentrated on mechanics and on concrete content.  After the third grade; the emphasis shifts to reading comprehension and Continue reading “SOI & Reading Comprehension” →

Classrooms, learning skills, SOI News

The Home Learning Solution for the New School Year

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Call it homeschooling, virtual school, hybrid schooling, home learning or whatever you like, but students say school isn’t the same this year. No matter what your community has established for its new school routine, it has an impact on students’ education.

Social interaction is a very important part of learning, and parents are discovering creative ways to keep their children engaged with their friends and family. Physical activity, also important to the learning process, keeps the body and brain working together and helps increase children’s moods and attitudes. Unfortunately, parents don’t always have the time to make this a part of their daily routine.

A lot of parents and students can benefit from Continue reading “The Home Learning Solution for the New School Year” →

inspiration

How Can We Build Resilience in Children During the Pandemic?

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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!

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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