Love Learning

Multisensory strategies to help you teach right-brained learners the way they learn best.

Child1st learning resources are uniquely designed for right-brained learners, including visual and kinesthetic learners; those labeled with dyslexia, autism, Asperger's, and ADD; and those who struggle with reading comprehension. The materials are also highly effective in teaching beginning readers, providing them with an essential foundation for success in learning.

How to Help Your Visual Learner with Reading Comprehension

It is not a coincidence that as the current generation of children becomes more and more visual in their learning preference, that difficulty with reading comprehension is also sharply on the rise. It sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? You would suppose that highly visual learners would be the absolute best at comprehending what they read. But this is not the case, quite simply because learning to read is traditionally a very NON-visual task. We teach children to read in very left-brained ways, and children focus so hard on learning those little symbols and what they represent; in the process of learning to sound out words or just plain remember words they have learned, the meaning behind the symbols is lost. Oftentimes, children can rattle off a book and then look blankly at you if you ask them to tell you what they read.

So what can we do about this shift in our children’s learning styles?

Our children spend so much time with technology that by its very design works to rewire their brains in ways that are not compatible with traditional methods of teaching reading. This technology flashes colorful images across the screen in a constant stream while children hear the words spoken. The images they are absorbing are images that their own minds and imaginations did not create. And I don’t think the technology that is reshaping our children’s brains towards the visual side is going away any time soon. The ideal of course would be to get kids outside more, playing with objects rather than technology. Barring that, however, our method for guiding children towards comprehending what they have read needs to change drastically. As our children’s brains are being reshaped, our teaching approaches must follow with alacrity or we will see an increase in the numbers of children who struggling with reading.

What is reading comprehension anyway?

Back in the days when I was administering the John’s Reading Inventory to scads of children, I remember feeling squirmy during the comprehension segment of the test. When children were asked to name the characters in the story and they couldn’t do it, I had to mark them down for those missed names. I don’t remember names I read either; to me that doesn’t mean I did not comprehend what I read. It really means that I don’t remember names I read as I am visualizing and consolidating the action in the story into images in my mind.

Actually, the natural way for me to think about the word “comprehension” is by thinking about  “visualizing.” Visual learners are not detail people. They think in pictures, after all, not in words. So while my left-brained counterparts recall facts, names, and dates with amazing fluency, I remember the feeling of the story, what each character was like personally, and how the story line went.

How can we help our children move from words (symbols) to pictures?

For those children who struggle with knowing and being able to retell what they have read, let’s think in terms of helping them VISUALIZE the meaning the symbols on the page were supposed to convey. (Our SnapWords™ get this point across effortlessly as each one is embedded in a visual that conveys the meaning behind the word.) Children can learn to form images to accompany the words they read if we teach them to do that! We don’t need complicated procedures, expensive technology, fancy organizational charts, or anything other than a very clear focus, humor, and relaxed time with the children. This is a perfect activity for summertime, time spent driving in the car, dinner table time, etc. The key is to make this fun, to work on it incrementally, and to celebrate your children’s visual giftedness.

Start with verbal games

Tell your child you are going to play a game. Say one sentence. The child will repeat what you said, and then he will embellish and add to what you said. For instance, you might say, “I see a green dragon flying in the sky.” Your child would repeat, “I see a green dragon flying in the sky. He has scales on his back, and he is breathing fire out of his mouth!”

Then, let your child have a turn to make up a sentence. You repeat what he says and embellish it. Inject humor and the unexpected into the game to attract his attention and engage him in the process. Humor is a wonderful teacher!

Continue with images

Many visual learners like to draw. Provide your child with paper and coloring or drawing materials. Play a similar game to the first one, only this time have your child draw pictures of what you say. She can draw exactly what you said or she can take it further and embellish. For example, if you say, “I see a green dragon flying in the sky blowing bubbles with his pink bubblegum,” she might draw that and then add a red umbrella the dragon is clutching.

Finish with the written word

I don’t mean to sound like you will do these three exercises once and your child will suddenly be transformed into a reader who practices visualization. However, if you do this sort of thing frequently, it will result in improving your children’s reading abilities.

Using the written word as a starting point for visualization will need to be done from simple to more complex as your children become comfortable with the process.

• To begin, this time, you can write on a 3x5 card or on a sheet of drawing paper, “I see a green dragon flying through the sky.” The child will read the sentence for himself and then draw an illustration for it.

• Go from a sentence to a short paragraph for him to read and illustrate.

• Next, use his own books for the activities. Tell him you will have him read a sentence or two and then he will close his eyes and see in his imagination in the form of pictures what he just read. For example if he reads, “Once there was a man and his wife that lived in a little house by a big lake,” have him stop and picture the scene in his mind. If you start small (not waiting until the whole story is finished to ask for a visualization) your child will gain the practice of seeing what he’s reading in his head, not in words, but in their translation into pictures.

• Finally, have him read a paragraph or a short page to you and then either tell you in his own words what he read, or draw a picture of it, a page at a time to begin with. Let him know that the hardest part is starting to see the story in his mind when he’s not really sure what is coming. As soon as he can imagine that first image, what he reads next can be added to his mental image just like you would add characters to a play.

Aim for the sky

One of the smartest tools you can use with a child who has been failing at something is to show confidence in her and share your belief in her giftedness. Those who can visualize are in so much demand in so many industries. What you can imagine in your mind and heart, you can also create. Find out if the idea of writing and illustrating a whole story would appeal to your child. This could be the ultimate reward for work well done--to showcase her progress in getting a book she writes and illustrates bound for her.

Why Bother With Recess?

Last week, Education Week posted a thoughtful commentary by Cynthia A. Elder and Michael C. Obel-Omia called "Why Bother With Recess?" We wanted to share this excerpt with you:

"As of 2009, 30 percent of the nation's elementary schools had done away with recess altogether. Of those that maintained recess, 40 percent had cut it back significantly. If current trends continue, recess may soon be a thing of the past for our students.

In the wake of the federal No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top policies, schools across the country have been scrambling to improve math and reading scores, beginning with students as early as kindergarten. This laudable goal may come at the expense of activities that help children to be productive learners during the school day.

More than ever, students must learn to self-direct, negotiate, invent, compromise, and take responsibility for their own actions. The decision to limit or eliminate the unstructured play afforded by a recess period may detract from students' ability to focus on the very subjects we use to measure success. Several thoughtful researchers have proved that creative thought, which is a large part of recess and play, can be viewed as an important aspect of problem-solving.

Why is unstructured play critical to student achievement? The answer lies, in part, in the way the brain processes information during a typical school day."

The whole commentary is great and speaks to the importance of movement and free play in developing strong brains and bodies. A little while back we also wrote another post about the negative effects of withholding recess from struggling students.

New Reviews on Our Free Resources!

We're excited about our new page of free teaching resources that includes tips for teaching various difficult concepts, free printable posters, and learning style information. We just received 3 reviews on some of these resources that we wanted to share:

How to Tell the Difference Between ME and My Poster
"I love how simply this teaches the concept! It works wonders with those who do not do well with rote memorization. I can't wait for more of her items!"

Is My Child a Concrete Sequential Learner?
"I just love these booklets! I love the checklist-type of way of determining your child's learning style; makes it easier to figure out what is going on. I give these to my husband too!"

Is My Child an Abstract Sequential Learner?
"Another nice offer from Child1st. You are given a checklist to determine if this learning style is your child and then ways to help them learn."

Check out these free resources as well as many others!

Use Writing to Teach Reading

For many children, using writing as a vehicle for teaching them to read makes a whole lot of sense. For those children who are global, random, right-brained, visual, kinesthetic, or tactile learners (anything other than the obviously left-brained learners), it is most certainly a method worth starting with when they are first learning to read. It is also a great thing to do if the child has already been in a traditional teaching environment and had little success in learning to read.

I had the luxury of teaching a group of beginners this way, although at the time it was not my intention to use writing to teach reading. It is so funny how often we do things and later see the benefits (or possibly the mistakes) of doing such a thing!

I think that what is prompting my train of thought to write about this today is that I read a comment the other day written by an educator of many years. He said that for a young child, listening to speech comes first, then attempting to talk, talking, writing, and finally reading. It was the first time I heard anyone make that comment so it remained, loitering in the back of my brain. The more I thought about this, the more it made sense to me. Especially for the types of learners I mentioned above, but really for any beginner or any child who is struggling to learn to read, writing is a great and worthy vehicle for learning to read.

Admittedly, it can be really scary to branch out, leaving the traditionally accepted methods and sequences of lessons to try something you believe your child would respond to. But whether you're a classroom teacher, a parent working with their child at home in the evenings, or a full-time homeschooling parent, the question to ask is what the single most important goal? If it is that your children/students learn to read (as opposed to you perfectly teaching the accepted method of teaching reading) it might make it easier to follow your children/students’ lead.

Some common misconceptions about teaching children to read

• It is a hard process and has to be really complicated.

• The child must learn his letter names first, then individual sounds, then he/she must sound out words, learn phonics rules, etc.

• If I introduce whole words, the child will be limited in reading later; after all, how many whole words can one child memorize?

• If I use pictures or images or anything that looks easy and fun, it is simply a crutch that will hold him back later on; he won’t really be reading or able to decipher new words.

• The teacher/parent always knows better than the child what they need to learn and in what sequence.

• Words are grouped by grade level – there are specific words for kindergarten, certain ones for 1st grade, and so on.

• I learned to read just fine in this particular, traditional way, so that must be the best way to learn to read and it should also work just fine for my child. Tried and true vs. novel and random.

I’m very sure this is not a comprehensive list, but it will do for now.

One way to teach reading through writing

Materials you will need:

• Some children – at least one.

• Paper – top half empty and bottom with lines. If you don’t have this, any paper will do.

• Crayons in a tray (please don’t use ugly crayons that have been peeled, have been broken into tiny bits, and have black marks all over them), pencils, colored pencils, markers.

• A serene frame of mind empty of expectations of specific results nor a sense of needing to “teach” something nor a niggling that you need to hurry the process.

• An “advisor” hat you will wear during this process. This hat can be invisible as long as you purposefully put it on your head.

What to do:

• First thing in the morning, by way of warm-up and after chatting a bit, let the children draw whatever is on their mind to draw. It might be something they have been thinking about or something that came into their mind while you were chatting. Anyway, let the drawing begin.

• Be present, but not directing anything, nor trying to influence their direction. Your focus on them will help them be focused on their “work” so avoid the temptation to go get something else done while they are drawing.

• When the children are brand new and can’t write anything yet, help them label their drawing by asking them what they want to write and then sharing with them how to spell the words. You could write them on a whiteboard for them to see or if they know their sounds, let them start and sound out for themselves. It is this part of the activity you will use for a teaching moment.

• When the children are finished, let each talk about their picture, sharing it with the group.

• Each day you do this, make notes of the words that the children didn’t know how to spell correctly, and share this with the group. Be positive. Do NOT say, “You spelled all these words wrong.” But rather say, “I want to show you a word. Let me write it for you on my whiteboard.”

• If the word has a common spelling pattern, add other words that also follow that spelling pattern. (For example, if a child wanted to use the word AWAY as in “My dog ran away” you can teach them other AY words: “day, play, stay, bay, hay, jay”.)

• Working together, take a strip of paper and write the new word at the top. For example, the word “AWAY” would captain this list of words you are generating together. Under “AWAY” add the other AY words in a column. Post this on the wall so you and the children can add other AY words as you come across them in reading.

• Repeat this process every day and over time, you will amass quite a collection of words the children will have learned to read and use.

• Remember to never teach a sound spelling in isolation, but rather show how the sound spelling is a pattern of letters and therefore sounds that occurs in our language. The children will make a lot more sense out of words and language if they know there are patterns that repeat often.

Keep a record:

What I ended up doing was keeping track of the sound spellings we were covering as we did our early morning drawing and writing so that I could nudge the children towards a sound spelling they had not automatically gravitated towards. By spring, the children had gotten so familiar with the various spelling chunks (sound spellings in words) that they could read material that was far above their grade level.

For ELL:

This practice worked very nicely with ELL students. They would use our stylized sight words as references for writing their own sentences, and then when their writing was complete, they read me their sentences without any need to peek at the stylized words! This showed me how much of a constructive activity it was for these children to learn to read from their own writing.

SnapWords Sight Word Cards for Right-Brained Learners

This morning, a customer shared the following: "I had to send you a quick note. I am an educator, running a private program for two students who are both right brain thinkers. We have only been using your SnapWords for the past couple of weeks and an amazing transformation has taken place! After learning that being a "right brain thinker" is an opportunity to learn in a different way, and using your program, my students have been totally inspired. It is working beyond my expectations. Not only do they look forward to our spelling but with all the words up on the wall, they have created a village of characters with the cards. Each card has its own personality based on the picture cues and they play an animated game that will only enhance their learning. I have combined your SnapWords with the Dyslexia or Being Right Brained! by MJ Turner and Karen Hope. Using 5 new words each day and the Right Brain spelling program, they are remembering the images of the words without phonetic prompting. (Which has not been effective.) These skills are transferring into their daily writing and other subject areas. I am pleased that our journey of learning has led us to you. Thank you." --Kristine

How to teach sight words using a word wall… and enhance comprehension in the process

In today's post I'll be sharing a series of activities that begin with word recognition and end with comprehension and higher order thinking. For the sake of this post, I am using 12 words, but in my classroom, the walls were full of words. We had a word wall which was arranged in ABC order in columns and then we had a wall devoted to our big words grouped by part of speech: nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Activities

The word wall to display in your room is below. Note that as we progress through the activities, we will move from simple word recognition to more in-depth work.

    1.    Find and write. The purpose of this activity is to simply find the words accurately. In this activity, children are on the rug facing the word wall with whiteboards and markers on their laps. (I used paper and pencil only when I needed a hard copy at the end of the week to show which words each child truly recognized). Say, “Find and write the word KIND.” One clue that the children can learn to use at the beginning is listening for the initial sound in the word, which narrows the available choices down to one word in this example! If I call out a word such as BEGAN or NEVER, they will have to look past the initial sound to locate the correct word. Suggest they listen for the next consonant sound. If you say, “Find and write BEGAN,” the children will locate BEGAN and BETTER as both start with the B sound. Next, however, they would compare the G in BEGAN and the TT in BETTER with the word you called out. In this way, they can use clues to find the right word.

    2.    Rhyming words: The purpose of this activity is to get the child past just finding the word and to thinking about other characteristics. For this activity, you will say a word that rhymes with a word on the word wall and the children will need to find the correct word and write it.

          a. Find a word that rhymes with STIR (WERE)

          b. Find a word that rhymes with TEXT (NEXT)

          c. Find a word that rhymes with LETTER (BETTER)

          d. Find a word that rhymes with NOON (SOON)

          e. Find a word that rhymes with MIND (KIND, FIND)

          f. Find a word that rhymes with WONDER (UNDER)

          g. Find a word that rhymes with LEVER (NEVER)

          h. Find a word that rhymes with COUGH (OFF)

          i. Find a word that rhymes with STAR (FAR)

          j. Find a word that rhymes with ROVER (OVER)

          k. Find two words that rhyme with each other (FIND, KIND)

          l. Find four words that end exactly the same (BETTER, UNDER, NEVER, OVER)

    3.    Opposites and more: The purpose of this activity is to get the children thinking about the meanings of the words on their word wall.

          a. Find the word that is the opposite of LOSE (FIND)

          b. Find the word that is the opposite of MEAN (KIND)

          c. Find the word that is the opposite of UNDER (OVER)

          d. Find the word that is the opposite of ARE (WERE)

          e. Find the word that is the opposite of ENDED (BEGAN)

          f. Find the word that is the opposite of ALWAYS (NEVER)

          g. Find the word that is the opposite of ON (OFF)

          h. Find the word that is the opposite of NEAR (FAR)

          i. Find the word that is the opposite of WORSE (BETTER)

          j. Find the word that is the opposite of LAST (NEXT)

    4.    Use the clues: Again, this is an activity that will require the children to think of the meanings of the words. Tell the children you will provide them with clues and they will find the word that best answers the clue.

          a. This word means “Not under something.” (OVER)

          b. This word means “It’s not as bad as it used to be!” (BETTER)

          c. This word means “They used to be.” (WERE)

          d. This word means “Not on.” (UNDER)

          e. This word is what you do when you lose something. (FIND)

          f. This word means it will not happen ever. (NEVER)

          g. This word means, “One more, and then me!” (NEXT)

          h. This word means, “Something is on top of me, so I am…” (UNDER)

          i. This word means, “To start something.”(BEGIN)

          j. This word means, “Not near.” (FAR)

 

The activities we've talked about above are examples of some of the types of activities found in The Reading Teacher's Encyclopedia. This resource on CD includes many writing activities and other games for different levels of learning.

Why SnapWords sight word cards are so great for visual and kinesthetic learners

A customer recently shared the following about using SnapWords with visual and kinesthetic learners: "I just wanted to let you know that I think SnapWords are a great product. I am currently working towards my masters in special education and I am a 1st grade learning support teacher. I used SnapWords as an intervention for a student with a learning disability in the area of reading. When I tested him on 60 words, he was able to only read 15 in 12 minutes. I have introduced 30 SnapWords to him so far and when I tested him on 30 words (wo/ the visual), he was able to read 28/30. He told me that when he reads the words, he now can see the picture in his mind and it helps him to remember it. Thank you for creating such a great product that appeals to the visual and kinesthetic learner!"

We're so happy that this customer shared her experience with the cards. Her comment explains so well what happens when children have images to help them bridge the gap from not reading... to reading!

 

 

How to Teach SnapWords (Sight Words with Pictures) to Your Child

A question we are asked a lot is, "So now that I have the SnapWords cards, what do I do next? How do I use them to teach my child his sight words?" Here are some tips for making your sight word time fun, low key, and without any pressure. The approach is to enjoy looking at the words together. You can be confident that your child WILL learn and will learn easily, so your own confidence in him will fuel his success. This is critical.

Some key points:

• When you introduce the words, always TELL her what the word says instead of making her guess. This is critical because if she is looking at a picture and says the wrong word, that wrong word will be stuck in her head.
• Don’t go through the whole stack at one sitting, but rather, choose a small group of words (see this suggested sequence of words to follow). 
• With each word you read, refer to the back of the card with her to read the sentence to her and do the body motion together. She will see the word embedded in the image, hear herself saying it, do a body motion that reflects the meaning of the word, and finally use it in a sentence so she will think about what the word means. This is complete and truly multisensory learning.
• When you have talked about the pictures on your group of words, go through the cards another time, this time asking her if she remembers each word.
• Those sight words that she remembers, applaud, and lay to one side – these are her friends. Those sight words that she doesn’t know instantly, keep in your hand. Make a game out of “making friends” out of the words.
• Once she can whip unhesitatingly through the 10-12 cards you are working with, tell her there is a new game. This time, you are going to look at the backs of the cards to see if she can read the words without the pictures. Again, you are looking for cards/words that are her new friends – ones she can read instantly.
• Don’t rush, no pressure. Her progress will speed up the more you work on this together.
• Play the games in the booklet of activities that comes with any order of 607, 306 or 301 SnapWords cards or that's available for free on our website.  
• Try to pay close attention to her attention span. If she is starting to seem bored or like she’s had enough, stop immediately and leave it for another time. SHORT lesson time is better.

These are just a few basic tips for using the SnapWords™ sight word cards. What games or activities have you done with them?

Using SnapWords Sight Word Cards with a Child with Down Syndrome

A customer recently shared: "Years ago I was researching right brain learners and I came across your website and thought the SnapWords would be perfect for my son when he was ready to learn to read. My son has Down syndrome. I purchased the sets and the sentence strips [now Sight Words in Sentences] at that time. Fast forward to 2012... it is amazing. He is learning these words and retaining them, progress in school was slow with their methods, so I dug these out and he is learning! Currently he is in first grade and is close to mastering List A in a snap!"

We're SO happy to hear this as a response to our survey. Results like these are what it is all about--why we come to work every day!

First steps to take when your child struggles with reading

Each child differs from the next in how they learn, what their strengths are, and what they prefer as they learn. Within traditional classrooms whether at home or in school, many children struggle and others fail outright. Children that struggle or fail are very sensitive to their failure, which gives rise to a whole new set of issues. The confidence that fuels success in learning is an emotional state that arises from our experiences. If we have confidence that we can accomplish something, we will perform to our maximum, but if we have lost our confidence, we will likely underperform or fail completely. Confidence or lack of it is directly tied to our experiences. If we have attempted something and have failed, depending on the importance attached to that task, we will shrug and try again, or we will shut down, convinced we are incapable.

When a child is struggling, I believe in looking at the child first and uncovering the beauty of her design. Next, I believe in tailoring instruction to her. Most of the time, this will not happen when a child is in a traditional setting. Testing as an option or solution will likely come up first and the child will be evaluated. For sensitive children, testing is a huge red flag telling them that something is wrong with their brains. And this is sad. The intention with testing is to detect the underlying issues so we can help the child. But what all too often happens in testing situations is that parents are told there is a disability present, but how to successfully remedy or make up for that disability is not forthcoming.

My personal belief is that testing should not be the first line of defense. Testing puts the focus on the child as though something is wrong with him. Reality is, what is lacking is a methodology that matches the child. What I would like to do is to list a couple of common scenarios and then suggest some things a parent can consider trying before resorting to testing.

Scenarios:

My child is able to sound out letters in a word, but he laboriously sounds everything out. Years have passed and now he cannot sound out words that have more complex spellings, or he’s so sick of the tedious nature of sounding out words that he will not try any longer. Every time he comes to a word it is as though he’s never seen it before.

    1.    Use 3" x 5" cards and choose a handful of words that are easy to sound out. Ideas are "help," "sand," "tent," "stop," "grass," "hand," and "desk." Write the words, one word per card, in nice block letters. Lay them out in front of your child and have her pick up a card and tell you what the word says. She will likely sound it out. 

    2.    Next, ask her to think of ideas with you to help her remember that word the next time she sees it. It is NOT necessary to sound out a word… words are like faces that we can see and remember. Say she chooses the word “sand.” An idea you could use to help your child remember “sand” is to use colors or markers and make sandy colored dots all over and around the word. If you want to pretend you are at the beach, she can put a head on the D and let it be a child who is sitting in the sand at the beach.

    3.    When she has finished decorating the word, have her choose another word and do the same thing. For “tent” she could draw a tent being held up by the two t's that are at the beginning and end of the word. Take your time with this and avoid the temptation to hurry through. The point of this exercise is to help your daughter learn how to help herself, which will result in her gaining confidence in her own ability to learn and her own ability to use her gifts to her advantage.

    4.    Over time, choose more difficult words. For example, one set of cards can be words that use the sound spelling OI in the middle of the words or the sound spelling AY at the end. Have all the words in the group contain the same target sound spelling.

    5.    Remember that your child will be her own best helper if she is encouraged to believe in her own abilities and be shown that she can help herself. Every child needs to feel her own competence!

My child can recognize words, but reads one word at a time, tediously, without phrasing and with very poor comprehension if at all.

Nothing is wrong with your child’s brain. What is happening is that your child is doing what he thinks you taught him to do: name words he sees one after the other. We assume children understand why they are learning to call out the words we teach them. We most often don’t introduce the concept of reading as the magic communication that will open all sorts of worlds of rich images and concepts to our minds. We approach teaching of reading with letter recognition and then with the tasks of sounding out words. Many, many children focus on doing just that and are never led into the skill of using words as messengers for ideas and images.

    1.    Choose a word that you feel your child is interested in. Maybe it is “truck” or “dinosaur” or “mountain” or “airplane” – any word you feel he would be drawn to conceptually. Talk about how those letters in the word are just symbols that are used to make many different words. It is the arrangement of the letters that make up the word “airplane” that make that word mean something totally different from the same letters arranged to make “a praline.” So, say you choose the word “airplane” to play around with.

    2.    Using the word airplane as a theme, ask your child what he imagines when he hears that word. If he likes to draw, let him draw a picture of what he’s imagining when he hears you say “airplane.”

    3.    Once the picture is complete, working together to write a sentence or two using the word “airplane” that tells what the drawing is about. Repeat this exercise several times over time. You are attempting to connect the symbols (words) to images and stories in your child’s head. However long it takes, keep it up if you see that your child is absorbing the point.

    4.    Next, choose a book that you feel your child will enjoy. Share with him that this time, the words are there already, and he will need to imagine or draw the pictures that go with the words he reads. Start with a short paragraph. He will read to you, think for a moment and then draw what he read. This is a powerful exercise that at first will seem so very slow to execute, but is effective to help your child perfect his ability to translate those black squiggles on the page into beautiful and colorful images in his head.

The more actively your child is involved in 1. finding out wherein his talents lie, 2. working through the learning process, and 3. finding ways to help himself, the more his confidence will rise which will in turn fuel greater and greater successes.

Above all, remember, there are no bad brains out there. Let’s purpose to run away from name calling our children's particular learning tendencies. Let’s instead celebrate their unique design and focus on their strengths, gifts and talents. Remember that if we have a child who is just not growing, it will not do any good to take him from office to office getting him measured. Maybe just buy shorter pants, instead.