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Following the 2016 Easter break, referrals to Occupational Therapy for fine motor skills difficulties from primary schools will only be accepted if the child has completed a term's worth of intervention at school. This is in line with the Universal Provision Level of Warwickshire's SEND Provision matrix.

To support schools in delivering this, we have developed FREE training on fine motor skills and FREE intervention programmes, which can be downloaded here.

About the programmes

The programmes have been developed to cover typical fine motor and handwriting difficulties experienced by primary school children.

There are 6 programmes to choose from, arranged in a developmental sequence, starting with foundation skills in movement and body awareness, moving on to more complex fine motor and pre-writing skills, all the way up to handwriting fluency.

Each programme is designed to run for a half term (6 weeks), with 3 short sessions (approximately 20-30 minutes) per week.

The programmes are ideal for a small group setting and the booklets contain all the information you need to deliver the programmes, with a session-by-session plan.

A simple checklist helps you decide which programme would be most suitable for eacg child, and there are accompanying baseline and outcome measures, and a form for recording each session.

You may already have your own fine motor or handwriting programmes in place and running well. If so, please take a look at our resources to see if there is anything you may want to add to your programmes. You can also use the session record form and the outcome measures to document your own interventions and progress.

How to use the programmes

Training

Training sessions are suitable for SENCos, teachers and teaching assistants.

The sessions last for approximately 3 hours, and will cover:

How fine motor skills develop

Causes of fine motor difficulties

Strategies and classroom equipment

Baseline and outcome measurement

How to use our intervention programmes.

Places will initially be limited to 2 per school, so that as many schools as possible can access the information. The intervention programmes can still be delivered without attending the training, but the sessions will provide useful further information to enhance delivery.

If you have any questions or would like to book a place on the training, please email otschooltraining@swft.nhs.uk or call +44(0)1926 413737 / +44(0)7834 745 748.

Downloads

You can download all the materials you need here.
Which programme? Checklist

Classroom strategies Session completion record Feedback form
We want your feedback. Please use this form and email completed forms to otschooltraining@swft.nhs.uk so we can continue to develop the materials.
Use this to document which sessions have been completed and any important progress/difficulties
Use this to identify classroom strategies you can try to common difficulties. Use this to help decide which programme to use with each child.
" Return to Occupational therapy

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Fine motor skills information for schools

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Following the 2016 Easter break, referrals to Occupational Therapy for fine motor skills difficulties from primary schools will only be accepted if the child has completed a term's worth of intervention at school. This is in line with the Universal Provision Level of Warwickshire's SEND Provision matrix.

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As part of our focus on typing - an essential 21st century communication skill students need to succeed in school and beyond - we organized a district-wide keyboarding competition, with 6,200 student participants, using Typing.com.

Oklahoma, US

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As part of our focus on typing - an essential 21st century communication skill students need to succeed in school and beyond - we organized a district-wide keyboarding competition, with 6,200 student participants, using Typing.com. Oklahoma, US

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Online Jigsaw Puzzles

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Millions of free jigsaw puzzles created by a large community. Create, play, share jigsaw puzzles and compete with other users.

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Useful Websites/Apps to support and develop SLCN

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Ideas for Helping Children Practice Mindfulness

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Ideas for Helping Children Practice Mindfulness

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The Republic of Ireland now has unlimited access to World Book Online through Scoilnet!

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Digital Literacy Games and Tools for all ages!

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Computer Programming for Children

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Scratch is a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations.

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https://ncse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Reading-Comprehension-Strategies-and-Resources-Post-Primary.pdf

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Assistive technology for Dyslexia and Dyspraxia free

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UrAbility | Helping kids learn and thrive with Assistive Technology

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Bringing learning to life with Assistive Technology for children with with additional learning needs such as dyslexia, dyspraxia/DCD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, or ADHD.

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Improve Your Spelling, the latest book written by Nessy founder Mike Jones, explains the rules of reading and spelling. It will help teachers teach, and parents to understand how to help their children.

By the end, you'll be a master speller!

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You've found Nessy; World leader in helping children who learn differently. Founded and run by educators and dyslexia specialists, our award-winning programs are guided by the Science of Reading.

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Numeracy Ninjas is a free Key Stage 3 numeracy intervention designed to fill gaps in students' basic mental calculation strategies and also to empower them with the numeracy skills and fluency required to fully access GCSE Maths concepts when they move to Key Stage 4 study.

Furthermore, through growth mindsets and the promotion of regular practice, we want to ensure students' perception of maths is positive and one in which they take pride and enjoyment.

Numeracy Ninjas is a project driven by the belief that all students can leave school functionally numerate. We aim to put the right resources into the hands of talented maths teachers, completely for free, in order to make this happen.

For too long, a levels-based culture focused on 'rapid and sustained progress' has only rewarded maths teachers for teaching students content at levels higher than their current test level. Teachers are typically not incentivised to fill gaps in students' basic lower-level numeracy skills. This is a great frustration to many maths teachers who know regular numeracy strategies practise should be part of all students' maths lessons.
This systemic problem has to change.
Students who are confident and fluent in the numeracy foundations of maths are better equipped to thrive when they learn the higher-level concepts.

We believe Numeracy Ninjas can play an important role in preventing any gaps students have in their basic numeracy strategies from becoming barriers to their learning.

And, they have gaps... Even the higher-attaining students. Click 'learn more' to see some surprising results when we diagnostically tested the numeracy skills of a whole year 7 cohort.

Numeracy Ninjas is a whole-school numeracy intervention run in Key Stage 3 maths lessons.

In each lesson students complete a 5 minute skills test which includes: 10 questions on mental numeracy calculation strategies, 10 timestables questions and 10 questions on key topics that must be mastered before studying GCSE Maths.

The tests are marked in class by students who record their Ninja Score out of 30. This corresponds to a particular colour Ninja Belt.

Only a Ninja Score of 30 will earn students the coveted Black Ninja Belt!

Teachers then discuss key mental numeracy strategies related to the questions with the class, before carrying on with their teaching of new learning material.

This little-and-often approach, in combination with a research-informed rota, which systematically plans the revisiting of skills, ensures students' improved numeracy skills and fluency are retained over time.

Numeracy Ninjas will always be a free product for schools to use and comes complete with the 5 minute skill books; full promotional material to support the delivery of the intervention including posters and certificates; and additional student activities for those students who need a little more support.

Should you like to celebrate students' success even further, optional Numeracy Ninjas branded merchandise for use as prizes can be purchased from our online shop.

Step 1- Let us know you're becoming a Ninja school

The Numeracy Ninjas project will evolve and grow over time. We want to take you on that journey with us. Please complete the form below to let us know you're going to be running Numeracy Ninjas in your school. We will keep you up to date with all things Ninja through our email newsletters.

Also, join our Online Discussion Forum where you can make suggestions for the project's development, discuss strategies for getting the most impact from running Numeracy Ninjas and more.

Step 2- Choose how you want to run Numeracy Ninjas

Make sure you've read our Terms and Conditions. Using the products implies you accept them.

We've made the product flexible so it can fit in with the curriculum time you have available in your school. Decide how many lessons per week you want to run the 5 minute skill tests. We advise running them in all your Key Stage 3 lessons to start with and then scaling them down to once or twice a week if any classes have students all reaching Ninja Black Belt status.

Once you've decided how many sessions per week you're going to run, download the Ninja Skill Booklets. Also, be sure to download our spreadsheet to record your students' results and monitor their progress over time.
Download Ninja Skill Booklets and record spreadsheet >
If you run additional interventions with Key Stage 3 students, download our Ninja Skill Focus worksheets which can be used for students to practise individual skills intensely for 10 days in a row.
Download Ninja Skill Focus worksheets >
Step 3- Beautify your classroom with our free promotional material

We've put together a great package of free promotional material to engage students in Numeracy Ninjas. There are posters, sticker sets, certificates and display materials- lots of things that look great and will help you launch Numeracy Ninjas in your school in style!
Download the free promotional materials >
Step 4- Read our guide on running Numeracy Ninjas

We've put together a quick-start guide to running Numeracy Ninjas in your classrooms. Use this and our accompanying presentations to introduce your teachers and students to the project and ensure you get off to a flyer.
Download the Numeracy Ninjas quick-start guide >
Step 5- Tell all your friends and stay in touch!

Join our social communities to stay up to date with Numeracy Ninjas developments and meet other schools participating in the project. Click the icons to visit our Facebook and Twitter pages. Use #NumeracyNinjas for discussions.

We'd greatly appreciate if you could please spread the word about Numeracy Ninjas to your colleagues in other schools. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising and we're relying on it so we can make this product free for all.

Your feedback means a lot to us. We want to make the product the best it can be and rely on real teachers at the coalface telling us what works and what could be better. If you've got something we need to know please do get in touch.

Would you like to celebrate your students' success?

There's nothing more satisfying as a teacher than seeing your students make progress. Reward them with some fantastic items from our Online Shop. There is a range of great branded merchandise suitable for all budgets.

Here are the bestsellers:
Praise Postcards Stickers for exercise books as students level up Grand Master Badges Numeracy Ninjas Pencils

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Numeracy Ninjas is a free Key Stage 3 numeracy intervention designed to fill gaps in students' basic mental calculation strategies and also to empower them with the numeracy skills and fluency required to fully access GCSE Maths concepts when they move to Key Stage 4 study.

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Testimonials

I love a lot of IXL's features. It is a very exciting platform that motivates students and challenges them to understand the material. Students in my school have had their grades improve due to the extra practice they receive through IXL.

Dan Van der Vieren, 6th-8th grade teacher

Weldona, Colorado, U.S.A.

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I love a lot of IXL's features. It is a very exciting platform that motivates students and challenges them to understand the material. Students in my school have had their grades improve due to the extra practice they receive through IXL. Dan Van der Vieren, 6th-8th grade teacher Weldona, Colorado, U.S.A.

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Digital Literacy Games and Tools for all ages!

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How to Support Kids With Their Emotion During This Period!

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How to Support Kids With Their Emotion During This Period.Is your child getting a bit overwhelmed these days?Then this video is for you!!!

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Cristina Cabal, six-time winner of the TeachingEnglish blog award, tells us her favourite apps, sites and browser extensions to make autonomous learning fun.
Language proficiency does not happen within a set time. It's a long process that requires patience, and practice outside of the classroom.

One way that teachers can encourage learners to practise language autonomously is to provide resources that are fun and effective. Here are a few that I recommend:
Practise two language-learning techniques with a flashcard app
TinyCards is a free flashcard app. You can create your own cards, or use decks made by others. The cards increasingly ask you to do more difficult tasks, and prompt you to more frequently review the information you have not yet acquired.

It combines two techniques that can help learners to remember language in the long-term: retrieval practice (deliberately recalling information) and spaced repetition.

Retrieving information from your memory is more effective than reviewing it, because the act of recalling information strengthens our memory and boosts learning.

Spaced repetition requires that you revise information at increasingly longer intervals until it is safely stored in your memory. In my experience, it is the most efficient way to acquire vocabulary long term.

Another free app you can use for this is Anki.
Create a digital classroom on a video platform
Flipgrid is a free video platform that allows teachers to create a 'grid', which is like a digital classroom.

The teacher creates the grid and chooses the topic. The topic could be:

Learners can access the grid with a code that the teacher shares. Then, in class or at home, learners can record a short video responding to the theme and post those to the grid:

Hello, I'm Manuela, and my question is, 'who do you most admire'?

Hi, my name is Piotr, and my question is, 'what is your best memory'?

Classmates and the teacher can reply to one another with videos, and take the discussion further. You can add an unlimited number of topics, and the learners can post unlimited video responses.
Improve technical language and writing style with a browser extension
Grammarly is the next best thing to having a teacher correcting your written mistakes. It is a free browser extension developed by linguists that you can add to Chrome, Safari or Firefox.

When you write on Gmail, Google docs, Twitter or any other site, Grammarly will analyse each sentence and fix grammar, spelling and punctuation errors. It will also suggest ways to improve your choice of words or style.
Learn at home with music and lyrics
LyricsTraining offers classic, fill-in-the-blanks exercises, using songs.

Learners can search by artist or song, and select between four levels of difficulty, from beginner to expert. The higher the level, the more words you will have to fill in.

If you don't type the correct word(s), the music will stop and give you the option of listening again, or displaying the answer and moving forward.
Practise grammar with quizzes
Regular quizzes are a great way to learn with retrieval practice. Road to Grammar is a great site to practise grammar and vocabulary doing quizzes.

Apart from the quizzes, I love the 'Games' section. My favourite game is called 'Fluent'. In Fluent, there are twenty trivia categories and challenges. The learner has three 'lives', and if they answer five questions correctly before the time runs out, they go up one level.
Teachers, visit our TeachingEnglish website for more lesson plans and activities, and find out how you can become a TeachingEnglish blogger.

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Five digital resources for autonomous English language practice

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Cristina Cabal, six-time winner of the TeachingEnglish blog award, tells us her favourite apps, sites and browser extensions to make autonomous learning fun. Language proficiency does not happen within a set time. It's a long process that requires patience, and practice outside of the classroom.

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From The Time Warp to Gangnam Style. How many of these songs with dance moves could you teach your kids? How many could they teach you? Why not use this time at home to shake your groove thang!

Songs with dance steps for kids to learn

Music is good for the soul, and when songs are accompanied by dance moves that EVERYONE can learn, you're on your way to an energising, boredom busting, lounge room laughter and fun fest! We've found the best songs with dance moves, and popped in a video for each as a handy tutorial reference. Warm up with the Timewarp, then slow it down a little with the Macarena, before turning up the pace again with The Twist. How many of these best dance songs can you get through before collapsing in a heap? The challenge is on!

Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Remember that brief boot-scooting revival at the turn of the century? This is the funked-up dance version of 5, 6, 7, 8 Steps that anyone can follow. It's easy, but can you go the distance? It's far more 'aerobic' than you might think!

Achy Breaky Heart - Billy Ray Cyrus (1992)

You can find a video on how to dance the steps to Achy Breaky Heart here.

Grab a pair of your widest flares and round up your mates for the ultimate boogie anthem.

14. Nutbush City Limits - Ike & Tina Turner (1973)

Belt it out loud and proud:

A church house, gin house
A school house, outhouse
On highway number nineteen
The people keep the city clean....

Songs with dance moves

Did we forget your favourite? Or your kids favourite? Tell us in comments and we might just add it to our list!

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14 Songs with Dance Moves to Teach Kids While in Isolation

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From The Time Warp to Gangnam Style. How many of these songs with dance moves could you teach your kids? How many could they teach you? Why not use this time at home to shake your groove thang! Songs with

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© British Council The United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland).

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English listening skills practice | LearnEnglish Teens - British Council

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© British Council The United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland).

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This article introduces ways to rewire the brain for developing your child's emotions, reading, fine motor and writing skills. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.
So many kids thrive off of coloring, painting, scribbling, crafts and other fun creative activities. But is there a purpose behind this type of play or is it just for fun?

Believe it or not, these types of activities are precursors for building your child's brain. Your child actually needs this type of play to enhance their future learning development.

For the first few years of a child's life, your child "lives" on the right side of their brain, which is more commonly known as the creative and emotional side. As kids get older, we want them to transition to more left-brained thinking or logical thinking that helps them regulate their emotions, solve problems, think critically and complete harder tasks like reading, writing and math.

Kids who don't make the necessary connections between the right and left side of the brain, can get stuck on one side or the other. When this happens, some children may not yet be ready emotionally and academically to enter the classroom.

Parents may find that when the lower levels of the brain haven't fully developed their child may be very emotional and struggle in one or more of the following areas:

Can't attend and focus in the classroom

Trouble with behavior

Experiences tantrums or meltdowns over the age of five

Doesn't know how to self-regulate their emotions

Can't stay on task or listen to the teacher

How do we prep the brain for higher learning?

If a child struggles in many of these areas and hasn't fully developed those left-brain connections for intellectual, social and emotional growth, how do we fix it? Or, better yet, how do we begin working on these types of connections when our kids are young before they enter school?

The answer is very simple. More handwriting! How can handwriting and tracing exercises possibly help my child's brain develop?

Jeanette Farmer, certified handwriting and remediation specialist said, "Stressing age-appropriate handwriting exercises reinforces self-regulation in the early stages of preschool and kindergarten. Ultimately, in organizing the young brain, sensory-integration impacts the emotional brain, so a shift in dominance can occur and impulse control is gained."

So there is your answer! More rhythmic and repetitive strokes have a greater impact on the brain for reading, writing, impulse control and emotional stability than any other exercises.

More handwriting exercises can build your child's left-brain dominance needed for better organization, self-control, self-confidence, abstract thought, reasoning, processing what the teacher says and much more.

Why does repetition help rewire the brain?

Have you ever wondered why your child can do the same task, color the same picture or play the same game over and over again without getting bored?

While it may seem repetitive and tedious to us, repetitive play is needed to commit the task to your child's muscle memory. Eventually, these tasks (for example, climbing stairs, holding a crayon, buckling their seatbelt or tying a shoe) should become automatic without giving it a second thought.

The same goes for handwriting, tracing and drawing. The more your child practices certain strokes and rhythmic movements, the more they will commit these skills to memory so learning can become automatic.

Mindful tracing activities, for example, can help the hands and eyes work together, it encourages your child to use both sides of their brain and is a fun visual activity for getting your child to strengthen their muscle memory.

Just remember, deeper learning development and neural connections can be established at home and in the classroom when we encourage more handwriting, tracing and drawing exercises, as shown here.

What handwriting and tracing exercises can I use to help rewire my child's brain for better learning?

Rewiring your child's brain for higher learning development doesn't have to be complicated. You can easily incorporate different exercises into their daily routine to help prep your child's brain for better academic success.

The new Rewiring the Brain Handbook Part II - Intermediate Level is one resource to help your child with emotional readiness, muscle memory, attention and focus, left-brained dominance, impulse control, organization and many more higher learning concepts.

These targeted handwriting exercises and tracing activities can ready your child's brain for the classroom and for reaching their academic potential.

Who is the handbook for?

The Rewiring the Brain Handbook Part II is geared toward children at an intermediate level. If your child is a beginner or is not yet ready for this level, please being with the Rewiring the Brain Handbook Part I for beginners.

Therapists, teachers and parents can use the exercises at home, at school or in private sessions help kids who need to establish better neural connections, those who are ready to advance to the next level, or those who may be falling behind their classroom peers.

Kids who perform academically well in school, but are prone to meltdowns, tantrums, anxiety or over anxiousness may benefit from these exercises.

What does the handbook include?

All of the exercises in the Rewiring the Brain Handbook Intermediate Level contain fun and playful exercises any child or student can do on a daily basis.

Here are a few of its features:

40-page digital handbook for cognitive development, hand strength and emotional grounding.

20 pages of handwriting exercises that include circles, curves, sharp angles, waves and more.

10 tracing exercises that are fun for kids, but also implement several of the handwriting strokes used in the exercises.

To learn more or to get your copy of the Rewiring the Brain Handbook Part II - Intermediate Level, click .
Integrated Learning Strategies is a Utah-based center dedicated to helping mainstream children and children with learning challenges achieve academic success. Our services provide kids with non-traditional tutoring programs within the Davis County, Kaysville, Layton, Syracuse, Farmington, and Centerville areas. Areas to find Integrated Learning Strategies include: Reading tutors in Kaysville, Math tutors in Kaysville, Common Core Tutors in Kaysville, Tutors in Utah, Utah Tutoring Programs

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REWIRE THE BRAIN: How to establish emotional readiness, muscle memory and impulse control in your child

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REWIRE THE BRAIN: How to establish emotional readiness, muscle memory and impulse control in your child This article introduces ways to rewire the brain for developing your child's emotions, reading, fine motor and writing skills. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center.

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Dyspraxia/DCD Ireland - What is Dyspraxia/DCD?

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Movement clumsiness has gained increasing recognition as an important condition of childhood; however, its diagnosis is uncertain. Approaches to assessment and treatment vary depending on theoretical assumptions about etiology and its developmental course.

Over the past century, many terms have been used to describe children with clumsy motor behavior. The wide variation in labeling has depended to a large extent on cultural or professional backgrounds. For example, medical professionals use medical terms (eg, clumsy child syndrome or minimal brain dysfunction), whereas educational professionals use educational terms (eg, poorly coordinated children, movement-skill problems, or physical awkwardness).

In addition, the various labels used have embodied assumptions about the etiology. Examples include developmental dyspraxia (which suggests underlying difficulties in motor planning), perceptual motor difficulties (which suggests problems in perceptual motor integration), minor neurologic dysfunction (MND), and sensory integrative dysfunction.

In response to the confusing and counterproductive heterogeneity of the labels, participants at an international multidisciplinary consensus meeting in 1994 agreed to use the term developmental coordination disorder (DCD), as described in theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV).[1]In 2013, the diagnostic criteria were further refined with the publication of theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).[2]

The currently available data are insufficient to permit clear definition of the parameters of motor coordination difficulties in children. Various grades of severity and comorbidity seem to exist. Some children have only a relatively minor form of motor dyscoordination, whereas others have associated learning disabilities, attention deficit, and other difficulties.

In 1996, Fox and Lent reported that in contrast to the common belief that children grow out of motor coordination difficulties, such difficulties in fact tend to linger if no intervention takes place.[3] Intervention can be beneficial if initiated during the first years of life, while the brain is changing dramatically and new connections and abilities are being acquired.

Children with multiple conditions are at greatest risk for developing behavioral difficulties over time. Some evidence supports dividing DCD into subtypes on the basis of main features, such as ability to manipulate objects, speed of movement, ability to catch objects (eg, balls thrown, struck, or kicked during sports activities), or writing ability.

A discussion about including DCD, as currently defined, into the cerebral palsy category was held.[4] This inclusion would put DCD on the low end of the continuum of neuromotor disabilities, also described as minimal cerebral palsy, and result in a 20-fold increased incidence.[5]

Diagnostic criteria (DSM-5)

DSM-5 classifies DCD as a discrete motor disorder under the broader heading of neurodevelopmental disorders.[2] The specific DSM-5 criteria for DCD are as follows:

Acquisition and execution of coordinated motor skills are below what would be expected at a given chronologic age and opportunity for skill learning and use; difficulties are manifested as clumsiness (eg, dropping or bumping into objects) and as slowness and inaccuracy of performance of motor skills (eg, catching an object, using scissors, handwriting, riding a bike, or participating in sports)

The motor skills deficit significantly or persistently interferes with activities of daily living appropriate to the chronologic age (eg, self-care and self-maintenance) and impacts academic/school productivity, prevocational and vocational activities, leisure, and play

The onset of symptoms is in the early developmental period

The motor skills deficits cannot be better explained by intellectual disability or visual impairment and are not attributable to a neurologic condition affecting movement (eg, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, or a degenerative disorder)

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Movement clumsiness has gained increasing recognition as an important condition of childhood; however, its diagnosis is uncertain. Approaches to assessment and treatment vary depending on theoretical assumptions about etiology and its developmental course. Over the past century, many terms have been used to describe children with clumsy motor behavior.

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How To Improve Handwriting For Teenagers - SeeKen

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How To Improve Handwriting For Teenagers?
1) Have a belief
2) How parents can help
3) Fine motor skills
4) Don't allow your child to rush
5) Strengthen your upper body
Do You Have a Terrible Handwriting? Then the first thing you suppose to do is to identify the reason why you have bad handwriting. There can be few reasons for Your Terrible Handwriting, and the very first is that you may have never ever have been taught very well in the first place. what happens when you go to school and when you taught your letters and you learn to draw circles and little lines and you go against the neck to them and You Go ABC And your teacher appreciates you, then you have to start joining those letters, ones you start joining letters then your teacher tells you that you are of your own now, Basically from about age of 6 or 7 once you learned to joined your letters up you are on your own, unless you are lucky to have a teacher who likes handwriting, who particularly likes encouraging, who encourages you to write and practice then you really are of your own and its no wonder your handwriting has deteriorated of the years. Your teacher will not teach you how to write beautiful letters they will just teach you how to join letters and after that it's you who has to focus on your handwriting.

another reason for your terrible handwriting Can Be Your Laziness, You are too lazy hence for the solution of this is to buck up your ideas and understand the importance of good handwriting. the third reason for your terrible handwriting can be you might be holding your pen incorrectly, the fifth reason for your bad handwriting is that you hardly write, you hardly hold a pen in your hand, you hardly practice. after a certain age, you must have given up writing and therefore you must be having terrible handwriting.

The sixth reason is that you never practice if you want good handwriting then you have to write, you have to practice. the seventh reason for bad handwriting maybe you are suffering from dysgraphia, and if you are then there's nothing to fear about, it's not a problem. You can do a lot about it, there are many ways to improve your handwriting. Dysgraphia mainly affects handwriting, people who aren't aware of what dysgraphia is Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects writing abilities. It can manifest itself as difficulties with spelling, poor handwriting and trouble putting thoughts on paper. Because writing requires a complex set of motor and information processing skills, saying a student has dysgraphia is not sufficient.

Many parents lose hope for improving their child's handwriting after elementary school. They feel that improving handwriting after elementary school is something impossible. They find impossible to change the habit which they have developed so many years ago, children feel that after elementary school there is not much need for writing. Hence no matter how good or bad handwriting is, there's no need of improving it and with such thinking, they spend their life without improving their handwriting, they have a belief that kids need to write, teenage or adults just need to type.

Believing that handwriting doesn't matter in middle school is not a realistic belief, because everyone needs to be able to write legibly, even if it's a shopping list or a quick note, writing is must and you must always have a practice of writing. Your written words should be very clear, it should be neat and clean, so that it can be easily understandable by others, because bad handwriting can give a wrong impression, your handwriting can be the reason for your good or bad impression, having a good handwriting easily understandable handwriting can give an impression of responsible person, can give an impression of neat and tidy person, can give an impression of perfection, can give an impression of hard work, whereas having a bad handwriting can give an impression of irresponsibility, lack of confidence, procrastination and carelessness. hence never underestimate the importance of good handwriting, your handwriting has the capability to impress others and has the capability to make a good impression of yours on others without knowing you.

For example, have you ever noticed why your school teachers professors ask you to write in a good handwriting during board exams, why they ask you to write neatly because that clean handwriting of yours will leave a good impression on examiners and that will help you to score well, hence always focus on your handwriting, your words should be written so neatly so that it can be easily understandable by others, so that others don't need to struggle to understand your words, hence never ever think that writing and handwriting is for kids, typing is for adults, because writing is really a very best exercise for your brain and hand, handwriting not only strengthens your brain power but it also strengthens your hand power.

Now the question comes, How To Improve Handwriting For Teenagers? How can teenagers improve their handwriting in mid-school? How can they overcome their bad handwriting habit which they have developed years ago? Overcoming years ago habit can be difficult but it's not impossible. The very first step you must take to overcome the habit of bad handwriting is making a strong commitment, to have a strong motivation and inspiration, have a desire to improve, without commitment and strong desire you can never take a step towards improvement hence have a strong mental focus and take your goal seriously.

Handwriting Therapy for adults:

It's not only kids or teenagers who face Bad Handwriting problem. Even Adults Face it. Hence in this section, I will share some Handwriting Therapy for adults which can be practiced by teenagers too. So let's begin:
Therapy 1: Warming Up
When you write, you use muscles in your hand, wrist, and shoulder. But if you don't write often then your hands might cramp or get tired easily. hence spending doing some warm-up exercises will help the muscles in your hand get stronger and more flexible.

-STRETCH AND WRIGGLE YOUR FINGERS FOR A FEW SECONDS
-MAKE A FIST AND THEN STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND.
-TOUCH EACH FINGER TO YOUR THUMB. TRY IT TO YOUR FAVOURITE TUNE.
-PLAY AN IMAGINARY PIANO ON THE TABLE.
-MOVE YOUR WRIST IN A CIRCLE.
-ROLL YOUR SHOULDERS FORWARD AND BACK.

Warming-up also includes asking yourself ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY?

And when you have a project or anything where you have to write for a longer time, then you have to give your hand a rest from time to time.
Therapy 2: Choose the right pen

Always choose the best tool for your job. Think of your pen as your handwriting tool. The right pen can help avoid smudging and make your writing look smarter. It can also prevent hand strain. Picking the right one for you can be tricky because there are so many different types. Here are some tips to help you.

There are three things to think about when choosing the right pen:

1. The type of ink it uses;
2. The size and shape of the pen; and
3. The type of point it has.

How to Hold your pen:
Hold your pen firmly, without squeezing, between fingers and thumb.
Therapy 3: How to Practice Penmanship
If you have no idea what exactly penmanship is, Penmanship is the art or practice of writing with the pen and the quality or style of handwriting.

Here are the 5 steps to Improve Handwriting For Teenagers?

1) Have a belief

The reason I am starting with have a belief is that most of the children feel that it is not possible to improve handwriting after elementary school because they have indulged a habit of poor handwriting, but the reality is totally opposite of such belief, because a motivated person with regular practice can improve at any given moment no matter what the age is, hence always have a self-believe that yes you can, and parents, teachers or guardians should always see how their children/teens are writing and how they can help them to improve, there are some fine motor skills which teens can practice to improve their handwriting.

2) How parents can help

When parents or teens by themselves decide to improve their handwriting there are certain things they need to avoid or should keep in mind, first: never use handwriting manual designed for manual, because such manuals just waste time and don't help much, when writers already know how to write letters hence these manuals are not much useful.

Second, don't copy the script which you find online

Third, don't try to practice cursive script by writing letters in order and by attempting to make them join, it doesn't work well.

3) Fine motor skills

Increase your hand strength and finger dexterity can help your teen or older child to get more control over the pencil or pen, Fine motor skill helps you to improve writing endurance of writing task, always ask or encourage your child to get involved in a general household task that can use your child hand and finger muscles, so that it strengthens your hand and finger muscles for example task like cutting paper with scissors, or using screwdrivers, or cutting your dad or mothers nails etc.

The reason I am talking about strengthening muscles of your hand and finger because usually, children hold their pencil or pen in a wrong way, their pencil or pen grip is usually wrong, hence it's really important to have a right grip.

4) Don't allow your child to rush

When your child or teen has a poor handwriting then there's a very important question you need to ask is your child rush? Like, do they rush? It is worth to see that if your child rushes for most of the task without completing it satisfactorily and if yes then it needs to be addressed carefully and attentively because when child rush in writing, their handwriting will for sure become poor hence they need to be taught calm and composed attitude.

5) Strengthen your upper body

Encourage your child or teen to strengthen their upper body through sports such as climbing, swimming, and targeted exercises. these exercises and sports will strengthen your child's upper body and stabilizes your upper muscles to free up the hand muscles for handwriting because most of the time your child or teen gets tired while writing, their hands start getting tired, because they have weak upper hand muscles, hence encourage them to do upper muscles exercises, because when they get tired their handwriting becomes poor hence for good handwriting strong upper body muscles is required, hence exercise and get into sports which strengthens your upper body muscles.

This is the end of "How To Improve Handwriting For Teenagers". Thank You.

6) Make sure you are using the right grip

Use the grip that's most comfortable for your hand, there are several ways you can hold your pen or pencil- Dynamic Tripod, Dynamic Quadruped, lateral Tripod, lateral QUADRUPOD.

6) Make sure you are using the right grip

There are many books written and there are many videos too from where you can learn and improve, every book and videos shares some great techniques and ways by practicing it you can improve your handwriting. example: Spencerian Theory Book, a penmanship book taught in American classrooms in the 19th century. or the Write now book.

Handwriting practice and activities for older students:

first: take it as a challenge
Analyze why you want to improve your handwriting. because reasons motivate us and thing which motivates us makes us better, hence know the reason for improvement.

second: starts with what you've already got
handwriting improvement starts with what you've already got, which is how you currently write cursive. Pick a topic, any topic, or write stream-of-consciousness thoughts on a piece of lined paper.

third: know What to Look for
Examine the paragraph you just wrote to see where you are exactly with your handwriting skills.

fourth: identify your imperfection
where's your work actually lacking, and you have to be very honest about it, only then you can work on it.

fifth: Here your preparation phase will start
should pick the right tool or material for your work. (have a pen which actually helps).

sixth: get inspired by the handwriting which inspires you
see someone's handwriting and get inspired, earlier it was hard to search your inspiration, but today the web is the perfect place for your dose of inspiration, do google search, search for different font styles and sites which helps you to improve your work etc.

seventh: learn to hold your pen properly
I have already shared about it you can learn more about it through many videos and books.

eight: learn posture
you must know the actual posture. whether you agree or not but it's our body posture which matters a lot when it comes to good handwriting. Sit up straight, and then utilize your non-writing hand for balance; this will provide you with more control during handwriting.

ninth: understand it's not about fingers
many people feel that writing has a lot to do with fingers. but, that is not true writing is more about using forearms and shoulders.

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How To Improve Handwriting For Teenagers - SeeKen

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How To Improve Handwriting For Teenagers? 1) Have a belief2) How parents can help3) Fine motor skills4) Don't allow your child to rush5) Strengthen your upper body Do You Have a Terrible Handwriting? Then the first thing you suppose to do is to identify the reason why you have bad handwriting.

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Online learning | Make a stop motion animation

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Free online animation activity for primary school students.

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Browse Educational Resources | Education.com

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Freckle by Renaissance - Differentiation Platform for K-12

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Freckle by Renaissance | Reach Every Student at Their Level

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10 Indoor Activities for Autistic Teenagers and Adults - Autistic 

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Unless you're a sunbather in Shepherd's Bush, you will have noticed that the U.K. is experiencing its longest lockdown since David Blaine trapped himself in a glass box. Needless to say, this has made any trace of a routine harder to come by than a pedestrian obeying the 2-metre distancing rule, which is why, currently, many in the autism community are challenged by feelings of distress, unease and unequivocal boredom.

Understandably, many are now on the hunt for ideal autism activities to pass the days and establish a new routine, which is why, this week, I have created a list of 10 ideal indoor activities for autistic children, teenagers and adults (of which, you will find well over 10, as I got a tad bit carried away adding subsections - enjoy!).

1. Cooking

Cooking is an ideal activity for autistic people of all ages and abilities, as its set recipes and stringent rules provide ample opportunity for contained creativity. In particular, autistic people who have sensory issues can find something exceptionally soothing about working with batters and pastes, while those who are non-verbal will find lots to learn in its hands-on lessons.

During the coronavirus lockdown, cooking is especially recommended as an activity for autistic people as, not only does it give you a tasty way to kill time, but it also provides the opportunity to create some of those treasured foods which you might not currently have access to. For example, if you can't find pasta on the shelves, then grabs some salt, olive oil, flour and water and you're ready to make a nifty vegan substitute.

2. Virtual Reality/Virtual Tours

As many of the world's greatest attractions lie more abandoned than the ab mat I impulse bought over Christmas, a select few are finding a second life to entertain and educate on the World Wide Web.

For autistic people, the benefits of this are endless and include: avoiding crowded rooms, harsh museum lights and not having to wait in line for the loos. And, whether you go down the VR route or edge towards a 360 interactive tour, the variety on offer here is sure to capture even the most easily distracted out there.

A select few you might want to check out are:

It's also worth pointing out that, when using Google street view, you are now capable of clicking the doors of many buildings and it will show you what's inside. Should we ever get to go outside again, this is also a great way to prepare autistic people for visiting places they might not have been before.

3. Create a Calendar

Since early December, coronavirus has run amok with any plans we might once have had and, although I would be a fool to say that, during this uncertainty, you should rebook any previously scheduled events, going into each new day on a whim is a sure-fire way to increase anxiety for someone on the spectrum.

As such, creating plans which focus on the who, what, where, when and why of a day is a great way to still an autistic person's nerves and, by keeping these schedules short i.e. only planning a few days ahead, you reduce the chance that you will have to take a rain check yet again.

Furthermore, turning this planning into an activity, in which you draw a calendar with visuals, is a fun way to ingrain the information and the finished product can then be hung on the wall for constant reassurance.

4. Stay in Contact with Friends & Family

Call me dramatic, but if you sat me down, fixed a camera on me and told me to make awkward chit chat with friends and family during the lockdown then, I promise you, it wouldn't be long until you saw a smoke silhouette from where I once sat and a James shaped hole in any wall blocking my escape. This isn't because I dislike my loved ones though, it's just that, for me and many other autists, Facetime adds another layer of pressure to already challenging social situations.

Instead, while it's still recommended to use this time to nurture your relationships, consider using instant messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, Facebook messenger or even old school emails (if you can remember what they are), as this brings the conversation into our court; where we have plenty of time to respond, emojis to make emotional recognition easier, no pressure of having to suppress stims or make eye contact and, of course, the glory that is gifs!

Additionally, Netflix has just created an opportunity to jointly watch shows called 'Netflix Party'. So, if you are looking for ways to chat where the empty silence is filled, then look no further.

5. Learn Stuff

You may or may not have noticed that the autistic mind is brilliant where, due to a processing path that loves to create deeply connected links, we are capable of pulling out obscure facts that even we're surprised we know. When cooped up, it's easy to let this intellect slack off, however, doing so can be detrimental to an autist's self-confidence and self-esteem.

For youngsters, the solution here is to build a routine around the school lessons plans which you have probably been avoiding like cornavirus itself - something which can be done by slowly but surely trialling different times/locations until we find the perfect Goldilocks of a schedule in which we work best.

For autistic people of all ages, now is also the perfect opportunity to practice some of the areas we are not so strong in (like ball throwing games to promote hand-eye co-ordination). However, if you're looking to develop an area which we aren't pre-programmed to suck at, then why not find an opportunity to excel in one of the many online courses - such as one of the hundreds of online lectures taught by the leading academics at The Great Learning Courses Plus, which include:

[Please note, I am in no way affiliated with The Great Learning Courses Plus]

6. Keep Fit

Staying fit and healthy during lockdown isn't a recommendation but a requirement, as it will not only maintain your immune system but also increase those sweet, sweet endorphins to keep you mentally healthy.

In recent days, P.E. classes with Joe Wicks have become a national favourite. However, I have and always will be, a sucker for the many online exercise regimes which are limited to 4 or 5 activities and multiple sets (as this way I don't embarrass myself when I finally learn a move just in time to move on to the next).

Additionally, for those of us in the UK, exercise presents a small sliver of freedom throughout our day. So, my recommendation is to take this opportunity by the horns and go for a walk/run once a day. Remember, if you do choose to go out, be sure to treat others on the roads like grandma's stale biscuit tin i.e. be respectful but do your best to put as much distance between you and them as possible.

7. Read A Book

With the Coronavirus turning most of the world as quiet as a library, it seems only fitting to use the hours, days and weeks ahead of us to harness our inner bookworm and fall headfirst into the land of literature.

Of course, whether non-fiction or fiction, physical, digital or on audiobook (many of which are currently free through Audible), there is no right way to read or wrong genre to check out. However, if you would like to use these moments to explore neurodiversity, then look no further than the many previous recommendations from in and around this site including:

Moreover, I have recently started reading Saturdays at Noon(a book found in my The Best Autism Books to Look Forward to in 2020 article) and that book is BRILLIANT.

8. Watch TV (in Moderation)

During the lockdown, there is a very real risk that many of us will become so reliant on our TVs that, by the time we are allowed out, we might find that we have become fused to our sofas, only capable of communicating by humming the Newsnight theme tune. Don't let this deter you though as, in small doses, TV can provide a great escape from the often-overwhelming world and, as such, shouldn't be overlooked as a distraction during the pandemic.

Additionally, with so many movies, like Trolls: World Tour and The Invisible Man, coming to home viewing early, as well as many of the popular streaming sites currently offering COVID-19 deals, now is the ideal time to check out some of the awesome offerings you might have missed.

Furthermore, it's also worth noting that some streaming sites are currently giving away content for the low, low price of nothing . So, if you've already seen everything on your preferred site, then why not see what you can get elsewhere e.g:

Amazon Prime (free-for-kids):

Many UK shows, which are aimed at a younger audience, are currently free to watch on Amazon Prime without an account. These include Peppa Pig and the ghoulish hellscape that is In the Midnight Garden

IMDb TV:

Hands up if you even knew IMDb TV was a thing. I know I didn't. However, after the announcement that, for free, you can now watch cinematic bangers on their site like Shrek, The Muppets Take Manhattan and the hidden gem that is the first Scooby-Doo-Movie, I'm sure it won't be a name I forget anytime soon.

The NFL & NBA

Many sporting websites are now giving access to live streams of old matchs, which is awesome. However, the less I say about sport the better (as my knowledge of most things athletic it is equivalent to the price of this deal: nothing).

9. D.I.Y.

It's a commonly held belief that autistic people are bound by repetition. However, to us, our routines aren't about doing the same activity over and over but achieving the same thing again and again. This task can give us a sense of purpose and security and so, without it, we can become exceptionally anxious and in need of something to do - enter, D.I.Y.

D.I.Y. is great for restoring an autistic person's sense of purpose during the coronavirus lockdown and can range from painting a mural on the wall, fixing that creaky door or tidying up the garden to creating sensory jewellery, building a cardboard instrument or even making your own fidget devices (an awesome guide to which can be found here).

In fact, when it comes to D.I.Y. in the autism community, there really is no job too big or too small. Just remember, when picking a task, things need to be kept age and ability appropriate: too difficult and we will only occur unnecessary stress, while too easy can be boring and we will move on fast.

10. Play a Game

When it comes to gaming during the Coronavirus lockdown, of course, you can always bust out that old Cluedo board but, let's be honest, is now really the time to introduce another dangerous mystery to solve?

Instead, why not try something you've never done before and give one of the many makeshift activities from around The Web a shot. For autistic people, many of these games are great as, not only do most come with uncomplicated rules for people of all abilities, but they also ensure unsolicited fun that will bring the household together in a way that the relationship ruining Monopoly could only dream of. For example:

Pom Pom Racing:

In Pom Pom Racing, racers compete to see who can blow a cotton wool ball around a makeshift course the fastest. Using a straw here helps to ensure no one hits their head on anything and creating intricate Sellotape tracks (with lots of twists and turns) will help reduce the game turning into a contest of who can blow the hardest.

Human Pachinko Machine:

If you live somewhere with stairs (I should be so lucky), then an awesome game which has gained attention online is to place different coloured containers (like cups and bowls) at the bottom of the steps and, from there, challenge each other to see who can roll the mostS ball into containers from the top stair.

If you want to make it more competitive, try assigning different values to the various goals and, in a darts inspired score scheme, get contestants to aim for a specific number and see who can get the closest

Bobbing for Skittles:

Put a bag of Skittles (or other low weight, coloured sweets) into a bowl and then see who can remove the most of a specific colour from out (using only a straw) within a set time. Whether you score the highest or not, this game is always a winner as you all get to end by 'tasting the rainbow'.

Pub Quiz:

I'm sure this one speaks for itself, but creating quizzes on any autistic person's favourite subject is a great game during lockdown, as it will get the brain going and reward our restricted interests. Better yet, thanks to the miracle of the internet, all you really need to get a winning quiz is give the topic a search with the word 'quiz' added at the end and you are likely to find tons of results.

Scavenger Hunt:

Another self-explanatory game, this involves creating a list of items to search for, around the house, but instead of giving the name of the item write vague clues such as 'it's something with a face, two hands but no arms or legs' (and the answer was a clock).

Carry on the Conversation:

What are some of your favourite books, TV programmes and indoor games that you can recommend for lockdown? Let me know in the comments below. And, if you haven't checked out last week's comprehensive guide to Autism & Covid-19, then make sure to read that once you're done.

As always, I can also be found on Twitter @AutismRevised and via my email: AutisticandUnapologetic@gmail.com.

If you like what you have seen on the site today, then show your support by liking the Autistic & Unapologetic Facebook page. Also, don't forget to sign up to the Autistic & Unapologetic newsletter (found on the sidebar on laptops and underneath if you are reading this via mobile) where I share weekly updates as well as a fascinating fact I have found throughout the week.

Thank you for reading and I will see you next week for more thoughts from across the spectrum.

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10 Indoor Activities for Autistic Children, Teenagers and Adults - Autistic & Unapologetic

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Looking for fun ways to enjoy quality time during quarantine? Then check out these 10 ideal indoor activities for autistic children, teenagers and adults.

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https://ncse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Supporting-children-and-young-people-with-ASD-during-the-Covid-19-pandemic-Social-Stories.pdf

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AsIAm: Ireland's National Autism Charity 

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2023 will no doubt provide us with a variety of challenges on all different levels. Irrespective of the year challenges remain for all members of the Autism Community our advocates and supporters as we strive to ensure that all autistic people get the SAME CHANCE in life!

So, for 2023 Take on the 20 for 23 Challenge this year for AsIAm.

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Welcome to AsIAm. We are Ireland's National Autism Charity. How can we help you? Lets get you to the right place

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Autism with Louise Gallagher - Supporting Families of Young People with Mental Illness - YouTube

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Autism with Louise Gallagher - Supporting Families of Young People with Mental Illness

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I often get asked how long and how often families should practice speech and language skills at home.

I recently posted an article on my own site on this very topic.

My professional opinion on this matter is based on what I have seen work the best with my own clients from my clinic.

I recommend that families shoot for two 5-minute sessions per day to target your child's speech and language skills.

The research is showing that shorter, more frequent sessions are more effective for learning and retention than longer, less frequent sessions.

(It's kind of like studying for a test for a few weeks instead of cramming the night before).

Five minutes does not give you much time to work on a lot, which is by design. Most children learn best when they are only working on one skill at a time.

By limiting your sessions to five minutes, you will only have time to work on one skill.

Your child's speech therapist will probably have an idea of what one skill would be best for you to work on at home.

Ask him/her for a recommendation. If your child is not currently seeing a speech-language pathologist, you can choose a skill for your child.

Try to choose something that is age-appropriate (other children his age are doing the skill) but that is not too hard for him.

You want to start with some easier skills that he will have success with instead of frustrating him right off the bat.

The key is to take whatever skill your child is missing and break it down to its easiest level.

For example, if you want to teach your child to say /p/ correctly, you should first start by just having your child say the sound by itself, like "p...p...p".

Then, you can make it a little harder by having your child say it in non-sense syllables, like "puh, poh, pah".

Then, you can move up to words, sentences, and conversation.

The same can be done for language skills, just make them as easy as possible to start with and build your way up.

What Do We Do During Our 5 Minutes?

I'm so glad you asked!

The goal of each 5-minute session will be to get your child to practice the skill correctly as many times as possible.

Imagine shooting for 50-100 repetitions of the same skill. You may not always get to that but it's a great goal.

So, if your child is working on saying the "p" sound, you want him to say that sound 50-100 times while you do a quick activity.

Or, if your child is practicing pronouns, you want him to repeat 50-100 sentences that use the pronouns "he" or "she" while doing the activity.

If the skill you're doing takes a little longer to practice, you can reduce the target number of repetitions.

In order to make this happen, you will need an activity that doesn't take a lot of time and won't take away from the goal of the 5 minutes, which is to practice the skill over and over again.

Here are some great ideas of activities you can do while getting your child to practice his skill:

Use a Counter

Go to a sporting goods store and purchase a counter. This is a small, round object with a single button. Each time you push the button, the counter goes up by one.

Set a goal for your child (number of repetitions) and tell him to push the button each time he does the skill correctly. Once he hits the target number, he's done.

Time him and see if he can beat his old score (but he has to say it correctly for it to count, no rushing through and messing up!).

Bankruptcy Game

Put a bunch of plastic coins in a bag but color one of them red. After each repetition, you and your child will both pull out one coin.

If anyone pulls out the red coin, they have to put all of their coins back (bankrupt!).

Whoever has the most coins after 5 minutes wins. (Got this one from www.5minutekids.com , love it!)

Hold Yoga Poses

Look for pictures of yoga poses for kids online. Have your child choose one and hold it while he does his skill.

See how many repetitions he can get in before he loses the pose.

Trace Lines or Shapes

Draw lines or shapes on a piece of paper. Then, laminate that page or put it in a plastic sheet protector.

Have your child trace the lines or shapes with a dry erase marker while repeating his skill. When he's done, erase and use again next time.

Put Blocks on a Tower

Each time your child practices the skill, give him a block to place atop a tower. When the tower falls, take the blocks back and start over.

See how tall he can make it before it falls.

Play Hopscotch

Draw a hopscotch track (or other shapes/numbers) on the ground and have your child do the skill once before each jump or move on the track.

Turtle Race

You need at least 2 people for this but you can be the second person if need be.

Have both people sit on their bottoms with their knees up. Each time your child does the skill, everyone gets to move forward one scoot.

Bottom must stay on the ground, no picking it up and jumping.

Whoever gets the farthest in 5 minutes wins.

Moving Beans or Marbles

Place beans or marbles in a small container. Get a second similar container.

For each repetition, move one bean or marble to the other container. When all the beans/marbles are moved, you're done!

Make Me Jump

Each time your child does the skill, have someone else (you or another adult/child) jump or do another action.

See how many times your child can make that person jump during 5 minutes.

Playdough

Give your child a pinch of playdough (or a similar substance) for every repetition. Once your child has all of the playdough, he can play with it.

Tickle Me

Start with your hand on your child's head or toes.

For each repetition, move slightly closer to his belly. When you get to his belly, tickle him like crazy. Then, start over and repeat until the 5 minutes is up.

Go for a Walk

When you are walking somewhere with your child, have him take one step for every repetition.

Try this one when you're walking to the playground from the car or into the house when you get home.

Stoplight Speech

While you're sitting at a red stoplight, see how many times your child can do the skill correctly before the light turns green.

Playing Cards

Get a playing card for every repetition. When your child has all of the playing cards, you can play the game with him.

Blowing Bubbles

Blow bubbles for every 10 repetitions that your child does.

Puzzle Pieces

Give your child a puzzle piece for every 10 repetitions he does.

Graph Your Results

Count how many correct productions your child can do in 5 minutes.

Graph that on graph paper and see if he can beat it the next time.

Connect Four...Or More!

Drop connect four pieces into the game randomly, one for each repetition. At the end, see if there are any patterns or designs created from where they all landed.

Wind-Up Toys

Wind up a toy and let it go. See how many times your child can do the skill correctly before it runs out of power.

Throw a Ball

Throw a ball back and forth and play catch while your child practices the skill.

There you have it!

Twenty awesome ways to work on speech in five minutes. Make sure that you pay attention to your child's frustration levels.

If your child is getting frustrated with these activities, you will want to either make the skill easier or back off to a shorter time.

You want your child to feel positive about working on speech, it shouldn't be a battle. Thanks so much for reading!

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Twenty 5-Minute Speech Therapy Activities You Can Do at Home

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I often get asked how long and how often families should practice speech and language skills at home. I recently posted an article on my own site on this very topic. My professional opinion on this matter is based on what I have seen work the best with my own clients from my clinic.

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Podcast recommendations and a collection of resources to keep kids busy and educated over the Coronavirus break.
With the school closures from Coronavirus/Covid 19 now coming in fast and furious (and yes, that includes my three kids' school), parents and caregivers are scrambling. Suddenly, we have weeks of unplanned time before us, with no real guess at when the kids will be back at school, and no real desire to park our kids in front of the tv for hours at a time.

The podcasters at Kids Listen have put together this collection of podcast episodes to help ease the pain somewhat. We've gathered together episodes that will keep your kids learning (including about the corona virus), laughing, and even letting loose a little. We've also included some other resources at the end outside of the Kids Listen universe because - we're all in this together. And we've got this.
Knowledge is power. In these episodes, kids can learn about the coronavirus and Covid-19 in an age-appropriate way.
This post will be updated as more episodes come in. And we will be turning this into a Kids Listen playlist as soon as possible, so check your Kids Listen app for updates!

is a science podcast for curious kids and adults from American Public Media. In the episode Understanding Coronavirus and How Germs Spread, the podcast tackles coronavirus in its usual deft way, leaving kids feeling empowered rather than scared. Relatedly, Brains On! also put out this episode on how flu vaccines work.

Tumble Science Podcast for Kids explores stories of science discovery - how science actually works. In this special episode,Answering Kids' Coronavirus Questions, they share questions from listeners with an infectious disease pediatrician. Dr. Juan Dumois provides clear answers and explanations of how we know what we know about coronavirus, and what kids can do to protect the people they love. Tumble also has a great episode about viruses and two scientists who teamed up to make vaccines faster. It's called The Sign of the Ninja Virus.
School's out, but don't let those brains go to mush!
The podcast ! is another great one to add to your list. Shabam! is a new type of science show that blends fictional stories with real science. The first season is all about the spread of disease. You can find the first episode here.

Book Power for Kids, another kid-driven podcast, reviews books in a fun, friendly, accessible way. Here, Book Power for Kids swoops in for the rescue with two great episodes about having an adventure without leaving home. What better time than now to have a pile of books waiting to be read! In this episode, Leilani reviews Hilo: The Great Big Boom, by Judd Winick. And in this episode, Chaska review The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander.

The Good Words Podcast is for kids and grownups to take a deep dive into words while learning together to use words better and to use better words. Since school closings have become Ubiquitous, you can learn more about that word here. And while your whole family is stuck together at home for a while, you also might want to learn about the word Magnanimous!
A break for your kids, a break for you. Win-win.
Of course, I have to put in some episodes from our podcast, Cool Facts About Animals - a podcast by kids and for kids. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Justin Schmidt, made famous for his Schmidt Pain Index Scale, about what the most painful stings are. And in this Earth Day episode, we talk about animals facing extinction and what kids can do to help.

Unspookable, best for kids ages 8-12, is a spooky look at the histories and mysteries behind your favorite scary stories. In these two hand-picked episodes, Momo and Media Literacy, and Friday the 13th, you'll get hooked on Unspookable's unique approach to storytelling, blending modern context to history- and science-based storytelling.

Grammy and the Star Soup, from the lively and silly storytelling podcast April Eight, is the first in a series of three interrelated stories ending in a leprochaun tale for Saint Patrick's Day, Birdie and the Unexpected Guest. These are stories of sibling relationships, unexpected friendships, magic, and mystery. They are filled with lovely songs and silly limericks!

This Week in the Multiverse is a serialized storytelling podcast. In the episode Fortnite of Many Earths, hear a tale about video games from other Earths that will make the video games of this Earth seem boring it will inspire your kids to do something else!

Buttons and Figs, a podcast for kids about playing with words, is a treat for the whole family. In Nonsense Play, with Calef Brown, use nonsense to take your minds to other places. This helps you focus attention on things you may not have seen before and encourages laughter, the best medicine. Also check out A Colony of Collective Nouns because, although we may not be able to join a crowd right now, we can still play with collective nouns!

Circle Round remains an enduring favorite in our household, and our go-to car-trip podcast for stories from around the world. In the Mountain Spring, a magical folktale from Japan and Korea, listeners will be whisked away to a faraway mountainside, where a kind, generous old man and woman discover the proverbial fountain of youth. The episode stars real-life husband and wife Greg Naughton (an actor/writer/singer-songwriter) and Kelli O'Hara (a Tony Award-winning Broadway legend). Also check out The Beggar and the Baker's Daughter. Comedian Margaret Cho headlines this English tale about a greedy woman who bites off more than she can chew. Children will love the enchanting story and grown-ups will love the hilarious Margaret Cho!
Things can feel a little overwhelming. It's good to take a breath.
is a fictional serialized podcast featuring the Ventura twins, who are yanked into another dimension where they receive the mission to preserve their culture's true history. Check out the episode "," where the twins seek an invisible danger with the help of Monsi Roman, a primary school student on campus for a local science fair. The character of young Monsi is based on NASA microbiologist Monserrate Roman. You can find an interview with her here.

Be Calm on Ahway Island helps kids learn to meditate and relax. In the episode , learn to meditate around the big feelings of going to the doctor, beecause kids might feel nervous about being sick or going to the doctor. In Robot Build, kids will get their imaginations going while staying in.

is another great podcast for relaxing and meditating that helps children calm down by being guided through visualizaton and breathing exercises. In the episode Mycelium Mindfulness, kids will explore the hidden and fascinating world of fungi. They also introduce a loving kindness practice, sending friendly wishes to yourselves and others. In this uncertain time, it's even more important for us to be kind to those around us. The episode is perfect for this period, because some children may be feeling increased anxiety during this time listening to news or overhearing their adults talking about the coronavirus.

And a few other podcasts we recommend -

The Show About Politics and The Show About Science, hosted by the effervescent and knowledgeable Nate.

Six Minutes - my son's fourth grade class listened forward to this podcast in class, a sci fi, robot-filled adventure.

Activist, You - a podcast dedicated to interviewing and learning from young activists.

Captain Ryan Stories - adventure stories for kids.

Professor Theo's Mystery Lab - superhero, timetravelling, adventure-loving fun.

The Fifth Grade Futurists - A podcast created by 5th-grade students from Troy, Michigan about our global goals for a better future.

The Fourth Grade Innovators - A4th grade class in Michigan sharing their learning with the world. From wise word quote discussions to book reviews, this podcast will help inspire listeners to level up their life.

Here are some other educational and fun things to consider to keep the kids entertained:
New! DIY science experiments from Physics Girl.
New! Angela from Story Spectacular is providing all sorts of free printables to keep your littles ones busy. Make an April Fool's pop-up card here, and find free activity pages, song downloads, and more here.

New! Mark Rober will be doing regular livestreams on YouTube explaining science topics in simple terms with demos.

New! Free stories on Audible! The Terrible Two is a favorite in this house if you like pranks and shananigans.

Listen and Learn. Kids Listen is starting a podcast y'all! It's called the Kids Listen Activity Podcast. On it, you'll find podcasts from your favorite podcasters (like Tumble Podcast, What if World, Noodle Loaf, and others), and follow it up with an activity - a great way to spend an active hour of learning and listening.

Beloved author Mo Willems will offer daily drawing clinics with his Lunch Doodles videos. Catch it live, or view the archived version.

Tumble Podcast Resources. Curriculum packages, worksheets, transcripts & music for some of Tumble Podcast's most popular episodes are available for free at their Teacher Store. Use COVID at checkout. As long as schools are shut down, the code will be up!

Animal Learning Activities with Scientist Olivia Sanderfoot. Learning modules on owls, honeybees, monarchs, and more plus an offer to be a pen pay. Amazing.

Picture book read-alouds. Compiled by Pernille Ripp, lots of links to creators of books reading their stories.

More kid lit read-alouds. Including read-alouds in non-Engish languages, from KidLit.tv.

Jess Keating offers writing lessons. Ten videos to help tackle writing projects.

Aquarium viewing. Tune into the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium via numerous webcams. You can see the coral reef cam, jelly fish cam, and others.

Submit a question to an author. GRACE LIN YOU GUYS is creating a 5-10 minute podcast featuring other children's authors. Submit a poem, book review, or question here.

Free Art Lessons from NY Times Best-Selling Author/Artist Jarrett J. Krosoczka. These will be streamed live on his youtube channel at 2 pm ET, and lessons will be archived.

From Scholastic Learn at Home - Day to day projects to keep kids reading, thinking, and growing. "Even when schools are closed, you can keep the learning going with these special cross-curricular journeys. Every day includes four separate learning experiences, each built around a thrilling, meaningful story or video. Kids can do them on their own, with their families, or with their teachers. Just find your grade level and let the learning begin!"

From Ask a Scientist. Learn live via Skype from a scientist studying super cool things across all disciplines. To be on the list about when sessions occur and updates, fill out the Google form here. Find the schedule here.

From National Geographic Kids. The " Explore " section of the National Geographic Kids website is filled with projects, tips, videos, and enhanced learning experiences for kids.

From Kiwi Crate. Kiwi Crate's DIY section has lots of simple projects that teach your kids about science in a hands-on way, with minimal supplies needed.

Seattle Symphonyis sharing free rebroadcasts of their concerts. Check here often as they update their schedule.

Crazy Aunt Lindsayis a tried-and-true favorite for DIY science projects. Check out her site here.

Go Noodle. Free movement and mindfulness exercises to restart and reenergize the kids.

Take a Virtual Museum Tour. Thanks to Parent Magazine for curating this list of 12 museums that you can tour from the comfort of your couch.

Please comment below with other resources! We need all the help we can get!

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Podcast recommendations and a collection of resources to keep kids busy and educated over the Coronavirus break. With the school closures from Coronavirus/Covid 19 now coming in fast and furious (and...

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100 Challenge Ideas for Home Learners - Resources for Teachers and Educators

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If you're looking for home learning ideas and activities, explore our enormous list of challenges! They cover a wide range of subjects and can all be tried without much preparation or equipment.

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We are excited to announce that we have launched an Online Library - a collection of eBooks and eAudiobooks that our students and staff can access anytime, anywhere.

Membership of our JCSP Library Project Digital Library is free for students and staff in all JCSP/DEIS schools.

Our Digital Library is a centrally managed online eBook and eAudiobook lending library. The collection consists of a wide range of teenage and young adult titles to suit all year groups, interests and ability levels. In addition, the library hosts a collection of titles to support teacher CPD. The collection currently consists of over 5,500 unique titles, with multiple copies and/or class sets of many of these, bringing the overall total to just under 9,000 items. New titles are being added on an ongoing basis. Members can access and download books from the library anytime, anywhere - to a PC, an eReader or a Smart device.

The rolling out of free membership of our Digital Library to all JCSP/DEIS schools in the country (250+ schools / 130,000+ students / 10,000+ staff members) is ongoing. To date, over 75,000 individual students and 6,000 staff from over 170 schools have been set up with library membership. Borrowing levels are increasing year on year with over 22,000 items borrowed from the library in 2018-2019 - an 80% increase on the previous year..
How to access the collection
To register just enter your school details here and a full set of student and staff logins will be sent to your school

Members can access our Digital Library using the Sora app or at soraap.com

Introduction to Sora. Explore the functions of Sora and learn how to get started or find an answer to your questions.

Or you can follow along while watching this short video

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We are excited to announce that we have launched an Online Library - a collection of eBooks and eAudiobooks that our students and staff can access anytime, anywhere. Membership of our JCSP Library Project Digital Library is free for students and staff in all JCSP/DEIS schools.

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TIME for Kids Launches Free Digital Library

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Need support during school closures? Sign up for free access to a library of four grade-specific digital editions

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Schools may be closing, but reading doesn't have to stop. To help support teachers, students and parents to 'Keep the UK and Ireland reading', we are offering access to thousands of enhanced digital books through myON and articles from myON News.

Learn more

Limited free access gives you a taste of what myON and myON News can offer you and your students, but full premium access provides a wealth of additional features and benefits - including links to Accelerated Reader quizzes, data on reading progress and achievement, and the Projects tool allows you to create and share lessons, homework tasks and more. For details, please call us on +44 (0)20 7184 4040, email answers@renlearn.co.uk or visit: renlearn.co.uk/keep-reading.

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myON reader personalizes reading for students by recommending books based on their interests, reading level, and ratings of books they've read . myON reader tracks book usage and reading growth over time and can project a student's future reading score based on their current reading activities within the system.

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Move & Learn at Home With GoNoodle

GoNoodle: Good Energy at Home is a free online resource that provides tons of ways for kids and families to be active, stay mindful, and keep on learning!

¡Crea buena energía con GoNoodle ahora en español! En estos momentos que requieren mas movimiento y buena energía GoNoodle quiere que todos los niños puedan disfrutar en casa de sus vídeos favoritos con toda su familia. ¡Ven y disfruta de nuevos videos cada semana!

GoNoodle: Good Energy at Home offers free:

Movement, yoga, and mindfulness videos

Downloadable curricular activities

Recommended off-screen home activities

Check out our recommendations below and sign up for our weekly Good Energy emails for more.

This Week's Activities!

April 21, 2020 - April 27, 2020

More GoNoodle!

The Good Energy videos (and hundreds more!) are also available on any of the GoNoodle apps on the web, iOS, Android, AppleTV, Amazon Fire,, and Roku.

GoNoodle Games: A brand new way to experience GoNoodle with GoNoodle Games, a free app created to get kids moving at home and on the go!

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GoNoodle: Good Energy at Home is a free online resource that provides tons of ways for kids and families to be active, stay mindful, and keep on learning! ¡Crea buena energía con GoNoodle ahora en español! En estos momentos que requieren mas movimiento y buena energía GoNoodle quiere que todos los niños puedan disfrutar en casa de sus vídeos favoritos con toda su familia.

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LearnEnglish Kids: Playtime helps your child build confidence in English speaking and improve listening skills. Listen to over 100 quality animated songs and stories grouped into themes like Fairy Tales and classic Children's Songs.

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Our advanced speech recognition gives you instant feedback on every word and sentence. Color-coded so that you can focus on the red words, and try to improve them. Proprietary scoring logic that is tuned for non-native English speakers. Speak so that others can understand you.

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World of Better Learning | Cambridge University Press

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With many schools closed and teachers working in unfamiliar territory we have been looking at different ways to help. That's why today, we're making all of our Exam Booster titles available to download.

This title gives teachers and learners the ability to focus on essential exam practice for Cambridge English: A2 Key and A2 Key for Schools. It's perfect for self-study and allows learners to practice each part of the exam three times. ' Exam facts ' provides practical information about each task.

The ' Exam tips' section provides advice on how to approach the exercises, while ' Get it right ' boxes highlight typical candidate errors and how to avoid them.

This book is a perfect addition to your preparation for Cambridge English: A2 Key and A2 Key for Schools. For more Official Preparation Materials for Cambridge English Qualification click here.

You can view and even download the full book using ISSUU below. Just click on the download icon and enjoy!

Audio download

You can download the accompanying audio by clicking here.

If you would like to read other Exam Booster titles or articles to help you teach online from the Supporting Every Teacher series , .

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Cambridge Exam Booster A2 Key | World Of Better Learning

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With many schools closed and teachers working in unfamiliar territory we have been looking at different ways to help. That's why today, we're making all of our Exam Booster titles available to download. This title gives teachers and learners the ability to focus on essential exam practice for Cambridge English: A2 Key and A2 Key for Schools.

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Given the current worldwide school closures and the situation with regard to home schooling, CASIO will provide greater support for remote learning by releasing a software patch on 31 August 2020 that will extend the cost-free period for scientific calculator computer software.

* When first installed, the software can be used at no cost for a period 90 days.

* Customers with software due to expire prior to 31 August 2020
Applying this software patch to software that has already expired will extend the validity of the software until 31 August 2020 at no cost.

* Customers with software due to expire on 1 September 2020 or later
There is no need to apply this software patch.

* To check the expiry date
Select "Activation" from the Help menu in the menu bar.

* The expiry date may be changed without prior notification.

Press Release Issued on 15 April 2020 (English).

Extending Your Cost-free Period

1Download the computer software for the desired scientific calculator here and then install the software.

2Download the software patch for extending the cost-free period for the software installed in step 1.

3Decompress and run the software patch downloaded in step 2.
* Customers using macOS
Right-click the file and then select [OPEN] to run the patch.

4Check that the valid period has changed.

Downloading the Software/
Cost-free Period Extension Patch

Windows

ClassWiz Emulator Subscription v2.01 for Windows®

fx-ES PLUS Emulator Subscription v5.00 for Windows®

Mac

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Given the current worldwide school closures and the situation with regard to home schooling, CASIO will provide greater support for remote learning by releasing a software patch on 31 August 2020 that will extend the cost-free period for scientific calculator computer software.

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SpunOut.ie is Ireland's youth information website created by young people, for young people.

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Vocabulary learning Journal for post primary

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Vocabulary learning Journal for post primary

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https://ncse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Student-Vocabulary-Journal-Workbook-for-post-primary-students.pdf

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Typing Tutor, Typing Test and Typing games at rapidtyping.com

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All about touch typing - typing test, typing games, typing tutor download

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Thousands of lists to choose from

Teachers from around the world are adding new lists everyday. Choose from these lists or create your own. You can either keep your lists private, or help contribute by sharing them with the BarryFunEnglish community.

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BarryFunEnglish | Fun ESL Classroom Games, Custom Worksheets, Printable Flashcards, and Teaching Tools

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Thousands of lists to choose from Teachers from around the world are adding new lists everyday. Choose from these lists or create your own. You can either keep your lists private, or help contribute by sharing them with the BarryFunEnglish community.

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English ESL worksheets, activities for distance learning and physical classrooms (x85536)

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ESL/EFL language teachers sharing self-made language teaching materials. Enjoy our f ree teaching resources whether you're teaching English as a second language (TESL) or foreign language (TEFL) in a school or via one-on-one tutoring. Please consider sharing the printable worksheets (doc/docx) and powerpoints (ppt, pptx) you created or type in your teaching tips and ideas ("UPLOAD" menu) for others to benefit from!

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Welcome to LearnEnglish Kids

Covid-19 support for parents: LearnEnglish Kids wants to support parents whose children can't go to school at the moment. You can find tips and advice about helping your children practise their English at home on our new support page for parents.

LearnEnglish Kids is brought to you by the British Council, the world's English teaching experts. We have lots of free online games, songs, stories and activities for children. For parents, we have articles on supporting children in learning English, videos on using English at home and information about face-to-face and online courses.

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British Council LearnEnglish Kids | Free online games, songs, stories and activities for children

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Covid-19 support for parents: LearnEnglish Kids wants to support parents whose children can't go to school at the moment. You can find tips and advice about helping your children practise their English at home on our new support page for parents. LearnEnglish Kids is brought to you by the British Council, the world's English teaching experts.

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text maze worksheets & puzzle printables

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Kids ESL Games - Free Online ESL Games, Worksheets and ESL Printables for ESL Young Learners

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ESL Kids A to Z worksheets, Games Resources, ESL Grammar games, ESL Vocabulary games, English activity games, Teaching english as a second language, Classroom powerpoint games, Vocabulary exercises, Grammar exercises for kids, printables, ESL printables, Phonics pages, ESL kids phonics, Kids ESL games templates , ESL board games, ESL interactive games, Text maze worksheets & puzzle printables, Online vocabulary games, Jeopardy Powerpoint, Online grammar games, Card templates, Song worksheets

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The Walk in my Shoes website uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. For more details about cookies and how to manage them see our cookie policy.

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Outlook - free personal email and calendar from Microsoft

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Outlook - free personal email and calendar from Microsoft

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Get free Outlook email and calendar, plus Office Online apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Sign in to access your Outlook, Hotmail or Live email account.

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Families, staff members and communication partners who have attended a Lámh Course can view video clips and details of Lámh signs demonstrated by Lámh sign experts. These Lámh sign video clips are a part of your Lámh Course Training Pack, and are of most benefit when used alongside of the Lámh Handbook & Signbook you received from your Lámh Tutor.

Lámh Supporting Families

Free and Open Access to Lámh Signs Online until May 31st 2020

With children and families staying home amid the pandemic, Lámh is offering free and open access to Lámh Signs Online until May 31st 2020. This resource has videos of all Lámh signs, including timely signs like Wash Hands, Space, Hot, Clean, Doctor.

Usually Lámh users and families start to learn Lámh signs face-to-face at a training course with tutor support. Currently Lámh training courses are postponed, routines have been upended, and families are at home. We hope that during this unsettling time, this temporary access will give support to all those who use Lámh signs.

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Families, staff members and communication partners who have attended a Lámh Course can view video clips and details of Lámh signs demonstrated by Lámh sign experts. These Lámh sign video clips are a part of your Lámh Course Training Pack, and are of most benefit when used alongside of the Lámh Handbook & Signbook you received from your Lámh Tutor.

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Families, staff members and communication partners who have attended a Lámh Course can view video clips and details of Lámh signs demonstrated by Lámh sign experts. These Lámh sign video clips are a part of your Lámh Course Training Pack, and are of most benefit when used alongside of the Lámh Handbook & Signbook you received from your Lámh Tutor.

Lámh Supporting Families

Free and Open Access to Lámh Signs Online until May 31st 2020

With children and families staying home amid the pandemic, Lámh is offering free and open access to Lámh Signs Online until May 31st 2020. This resource has videos of all Lámh signs, including timely signs like Wash Hands, Space, Hot, Clean, Doctor.

Usually Lámh users and families start to learn Lámh signs face-to-face at a training course with tutor support. Currently Lámh training courses are postponed, routines have been upended, and families are at home. We hope that during this unsettling time, this temporary access will give support to all those who use Lámh signs.

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Families, staff members and communication partners who have attended a Lámh Course can view video clips and details of Lámh signs demonstrated by Lámh sign experts. These Lámh sign video clips are a part of your Lámh Course Training Pack, and are of most benefit when used alongside of the Lámh Handbook & Signbook you received from your Lámh Tutor.

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Free

This is the number one app for anyone with a visual impairment using an iOS device.

Seeing AI can recognize and speak text detected by the smartphone camera. It can read bar codes on grocery and other product labels, offer up the product name, and usually additional information, such as nutrition labelling, cooking and other instructions.
Using Seeing AI you can snap pictures of your friends and family members, and later use the app to tell you who's nearby.

Seeing AI is a free app that narrates the world around you.

Website SeeingAI.com for more details

Free

ChatterPix is a fun app that can be used to support home learning while having lots of fun! You can create silly greetings, playful messages, creative cards, or even fancy book reports. And best of all, it's FREE! See our guide as to how to use this app here (insert link to uploaded doc).

Free

EasyReader is a FREE accessible reading app for readers with dyslexia, low vision or blindness. Browse & download from the collection of talking book and newspaper libraries. Open your own DAISY, EPub or textbooks. Or copy text from anywhere on your phone & hear EasyReader read it back to you.

Free

Stars appear as you draw your finger along the screen, tap a star and it flies away, shake the tablet and all stars fly away to clear the skies. Musical sounds enhance the experience. Practise spellings, letter shapes, or relax with the sensory experience.

Free

This app allows you to create a page of text through speech. Pages is the word processing app from Apple. You can plan an oral summary using a mind map/key word/pictures) and then go to the app, choose a blank document and use the microphone key (on the right of the space bar) to speak and the text appears on the screen. For punctuation just say "full stop", "new Line", "question mark", etc. Functionality can depend on the quality of the broadband where it is being used.

For a step by step guide see our How to Guide in this week's Theme of the Week section.

Free

This app helps with learning sight words, their context and usage with the Endless monsters.

Each word features an interactive word puzzle with letters that come alive, and then a sentence puzzle with words that become what they describe.

Other apps in the series "Endless Alphabet" and "Endless Number"

Free (when you click on "Take the Tour")

Games to practise blending, rhyming, phoneme deletion and substitution.
"Take the Tour" option allows users to have 3 levels of ability (low, medium, high)
The app is free but there are additional charges for more levels of difficulty.
Very interactive and lots of fun for home learning!
Great support for all students especially those with dyslexia and reading difficulties.

Free

Humanware Buddy App - This offers comprehensive training and resource materials for all Humanware products for visual impairment, e.g., Connect 12, Braille Note.
Our visiting teachers who support students with a visual impairment often use this app to support students their parents and their teachers.

Free - but note there are in app purchases

Create a puppet show, record and play the video back! Practise interactions, greetings, questions etc in a puppet theatre style background. Great way to practise oral language at home!
Choice of 6 puppets in Free version with in-app purchase to buy more, if required.

Free

This app is designed to teach young people simple mindfulness and relaxation skills. During this time of uncertainty it may be a useful support. It can be used to help mindfulness practice when playing the Mindful Gnats desktop game (see www.peskygnats.com for details) or as a stand alone aid to mindful practice.

Free

This app makes it easy for the user to create picture books with voice and/or text. Links directly to the photos taken with the tablet. It's very easy to use and the story books can be saved in the app or shared through email. Our advisors recommend this app to class and SET teachers in all school settings. It is useful for developing literacy and communication skills.

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Free This is the number one app for anyone with a visual impairment using an iOS device. Seeing AI can recognize and speak text detected by the smartphone camera. It can read bar codes on grocery and other product labels, offer up the product name, and usually additional information, such as nutrition labelling, cooking and other instructions.

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Handwriting Without Tears: Wet-Dry-Try for Capitals, Numbers & Lowercase 

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Handwriting Without Tears: Wet-Dry-Try for Capitals, Numbers & Lowercase 

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Android Apps for Learners with Dyslexia / Reading and Writing Difficulties

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Android Apps for Learners with Dyslexia / Reading and Writing Difficulties

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Details
A3 sized PDF poster - revision 1.4, published 2019
Description

After we produced our wheel of iPad Apps for Learners with Dyslexia / Reading and Writing Difficulties, we received regular requests for a similar wheel for tablets and smartphones that use the Android operating system. IPads are used much more frequently than Android devices in schools, but over the past few years some schools have started to allow the use of Android tablets and many parents have been buying them for home use. More educational apps are now available for Android tablets and smartphones. Android apps can also be used on some Chromebooks.

The first version of our Android Apps for Learners with Dyslexia / Reading and Writing Difficulties was created in October 2015. It has been updated regularly since then. Over the past four years it has been downloaded over 10,000 times.

The latest version (1.4) keeps the same broad categories as previous versions, but the following apps have been removed, either because they are no longer available for Android devices, or because other apps proved significantly more useful for people with reading and writing difficulties: Read Me Stories, Easy Text to Speech, KNFB Reader, Dictus and Swype. Six apps have been added: Google Text to Speech, ClaroSpeak, Envision AI, Eye Games Dyslexia, Easy Dyslexia and Dysgraphia Aid, and Mindly. Icons and links for other apps have been updated, as required.

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After we produced our wheel of iPad Apps for Learners with Dyslexia / Reading and Writing Difficulties, we received regular requests for a similar wheel for tablets and smartphones that use the Android operating system. IPads are used much more frequently than Android devices in schools, but over th...

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ChromeBook Apps and Extensions for Learners with Dyslexia

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ChromeBook Apps and Extensions for Learners with Dyslexia

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ChromeBook Apps and Extensions for Learners with Dyslexia

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Chromebooks are now used by pupils in several local authorities in Scotland and are also becoming popular in the rest of the United Kingdom, and particularly in the United States, We first produced a ChromeBook Apps and Extensions for Learners with Dyslexia poster in October 2016, since when it has…

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This page will be continuously updated with resources regarding the Coronovirus (COVID-19) so please come back for regular visits. Remember to continue to check here for up-to-date information from the HSE.

Disclaimer: Whilst some of the contents of this page are official PSI documents/positions, the majority of the contents are not an official position of the PSI. The content contained here is intended as a repository/resource to help people during these extraordinary times.

Videos from the Psychological Society of Ireland

In this new video series, we hope to bring you informative, evidence-based and helpful information during the COVID19 pandemic. More videos will be released over the coming days.

We are delighted to have Chartered Member, Dr Damien Lowry, talk about Stress Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic in this video below

Dr Anne Kehoe talks to us about Managing Relationships During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dr Dean McDonnell gives us his Advice for Students: Academic-Focused Suggestions

*Visit this video on YouTube to see links mentioned.

Up next is Children with Chronic Illness & COVID-19: Parents' Frequently Asked Questions Answered

Professor Des Cox, Consultant Paediatric Respirologist, Dr Vincent Mc Darby, Chartered Clinical Health Psychologist, & Dr Claire Crowe, Chartered Clinical Psychologist, answer parents' frequently asked questions about children with chronic illness and COVID-19

Dr Suzanne Guerin gives us A dvice for Postgraduate Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dr Cliodhna O'Donovan, Chartered Psychologist, gives advice on Discussing COVID-19 with Adults with Intellectual Disabilities and other Vulnerable Adults

Past President, Ian O'Grady, talks about Compulsive Anxiety & OCD during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dr Fiadhnait O'Keeffe, Clinical Neuropsychologist, discusses Neurological Conditions and COVID-19

Niamh Fitzpatrick talks about Grief in these times of COVID-19

Dr Claire Conlon, Senior Clinical Psychologist, talks about C OVID-19 and Children with Additional Medical Needs in this video.

Mental Health And Well-Being

Coping During Covid-19 Workbook - A CBT approach to coping with COVID-19 related anxiety & depression - produced by Saint John of God Hosiptal (Credit: Dr Keith Gaynor)

Floating the Waves of Grief - Supporting You with Your Grieving Process, During the COVID-19 Pandemic - produced by the Psychology Department, in the Brothers of Charity Services Ireland - Galway Services (Credit: Emma Bohan, Louise Hannigan & PSI Chartered Member Marie Walsh)

"Mind YOUR mind on the Frontline" - Addressing the Psychological Needs of Frontline and Healthcare Staff in Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak - produced by the Psychology Department, in the Brothers of Charity Services Ireland - Galway Services (Credit: Emma Bohan, Louise Hannigan & PSI Chartered Member Marie Walsh)

18 Practical Tips For Parents To Support The Psychological Wellbeing Of Children During The COVID-19 Crisis (Credit: Vincent Mc Darby, PSI Chartered Member)

How To Talk To Kids About The Coronavirus - Blog (Credit: Mark Smyth, PSI Chartered Member & 2020 PSI President)

UL Éist Student Counselling and Wellbeing - website link provided by the PSI Division of Psychotherapy (Credit: University of Limerick)

COVID-19: Psychological Survival Kit - Blog (Credit: Mark Smyth, PSI Chartered Member & 2020 PSI President)

Coronavirus: The psychological impact and 16 ways to keep a clear head (Credit: Niamh Delmar, PSI Chartered Member - Irish Times article)

Managing Stress - video from Prof. Ian Robertson (Credit: The Royal College of Physicians Ireland YouTube channel)

The Psychological Impact of Stress on Doctors During COVID-19 - video from Dr Sarah O'Byrne (Credit: The Royal College of Physicians Ireland YouTube channel)

Dr Bessel van der Kolk on the Global Coronavirus Crisis - please be aware that you will have to provide an email address to view this video meaning you will then be added to the mailing list (Credit: PESI, Inc)

FACE COVID - How to Respond Effectively to the Corona Crisis (Credit: Dr Russ Harris)

Professor Alan Carr - Optimising wellbeing during COVID19 (Audio interview) The full transcript can be read here (Credit: Division of Clinical Psychology & Professor Alan Carr)

Responding to Patients' Distress and Strong Emotions during COVID-19 video from Eva Doherty (Credit: The Royal College of Physicians Ireland YouTube channel)

How to respond to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (Credit: Dr John Francis Leader)

Hang On To Yourself (Credit: Niamh Delmar, PSI Chartered Member - greystonesguide.ie)

Minding Your Long-term Health Condition During Coronavirus (COVID-19) (Credit: The National HSE Self-management Support Programme)

Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide(Credit: World Health Organization)

The gender based violence (GBV) in times of COVID-19 (Credit: GENFAMI)

EFPA Coronavirus position statement: How to strengthen communities in times of crisis (Credit: EFPA)

Help the Helper (Credit: Dr Deirdre Walsh)

Recorded Webinar: Developing Resilience in Pharmacy - The Role of Optimism (Credit: This webinar was recorded with the IIP and Dr Mary Collins (PSI Member and Member of SIG in Coaching Psychology) co-presented this video on Resilience in Pharmacy)

Coping With Coronavirus: How To Stay Calm And Protect Your Mental Health - A Psychological Toolkit (€0.99/£0.99/$0.99 ebook by Dr Brendan Kelly with author royalties being donated to medical charities assisting with the global response to Coronavirus)

Resources for Psychologists
EFPA Psychologists' Support Hub
How to do counselling online: a coronavirus primer on OpenLearn Create, the Open University free learning platform

The course offers counsellors and psychotherapists key skills and knowledge at a time when face-to-face therapy is no longer possible or safe due to coronavirus. Therapists wanting to keep offering support to clients have had to swiftly transfer their practice online - yet few will have had either any training or prior experience in online therapy. To support practitioners to work safely and effectively, and to help them support their clients at this time, the Open University have collaborated with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, to produce this CPD course

How to set-up a Psychological Counseling Helpline in the COVID-19 context? (Credit: EFPA)

Online consultations, what to know and where to start? (Credit: EFPA)

COVID-19 and implications for mental health (Credit: EFPA)

Resources for Athletes

How Can Elite Athletes And Players Deal With Coronavirus Issues? (Credit: RTÉ.ie)

Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic: Tips for Players and Athletes COVID-RECOVER (Credit: Dr Tadhg MacIntyre et al.)

Trauma
COVID Trauma Response Working Group (UK)
Easy-Read Social Stories For Kids

My COVID-19 Capsule Workbook (Credit: Marie McGowan & Victoria Howson, South Lee Child, Adolescent and Family Psychology)

Getting Ready To Go To The Test Centre - Story for Children (Credit: DNC SLT Team)

Coronovirus Test - Social Story (Credit: Enable Ireland)

I Feel Worried About Coronavirus - Social Story (Credit: Enable Ireland)

Personal Protective Equipment (PPS) - Social Story (Credit: Enable Ireland)

Social Distancing - Social Story (Credit: Enable Ireland)

Coronavirus - A Book for Children (Credit: Elizabeth Jenner, Kate Wilson & Nia Roberts)

My Hero is You - Storybook for Children on COVID-19 (Credit: Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group)

RTÉ Podcast Series - You OK?

Featuring leading mental health experts, this series is hosted by Jan Ní Fhlanagaín and offers simple, practical exercises to quiet the noise and restore some peace. Each episode focuses on a sole topic or area of life that has been affected by the pandemic.

Episode 1: PSI Past President Mark Smyth shares his top tips for a psychological survival kit to help us get through these strange times

Episode 2: Chartered Member Eva Doherty speaks about how frontline healthcare workers can manage their own mental health during the pandemic, under sustained stress and pressure

Helping Those With Intellectual Disabilities

What is COVID-19 (Credit: Cheeverstown)

Supporting people with additional needs during COVID-19 closures (Credit: Cheeverstown)

Cheeverstown S&L Dept - Government COVID 19 update 24-3-2020 (Credit: Cheeverstown)

Cafes and restaurants closed (Credit: Cheeverstown)

How to Cough & Sneeze (Credit: Cheeverstown)

How to wash my hands (Credit: Cheeverstown)

I can't visit my family or friends (Credit: Cheeverstown)

I have COVID-19 (Credit: Cheeverstown)

My day service is closed (generic) (Credit: Cheeverstown)

My housemate has COVID-19 and I am staying in the house (Credit: Cheeverstown)

My housemate has COVID-19 and is leaving the house (Credit: Cheeverstown)

My housemate has COVID-19 and is in hospital (Credit: Cheeverstown)

My loved one has COVID-19 and is in hospital (Credit: Cheeverstown)

My loved one has COVID-19 (Credit: Cheeverstown)

My loved one has died and I can't go to the funeral (Credit: Cheeverstown)

My loved one has died (Credit: Cheeverstown)

My respite service is closing (generic) (Credit: Cheeverstown)

No church or mass (Credit: Cheeverstown)

No school (Credit: Cheeverstown)

No visitors generic (Credit: Cheeverstown)

No work generic (Credit: Cheeverstown)

Social distancing (Credit: Cheeverstown)

Personal Protective Equipment (Credit: Cheeverstown)

Department of Education Resources

The Department of Education and Skills has updated information for schools, preschools and third level institutions on COVID-19 (Credit: The Department of Education)

Psychological Health & Wellbeing Tips for COVID-19 by the PSI

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This page will be continuously updated with resources regarding the Coronovirus (COVID-19) so please come back for regular visits. Remember to continue to check here for up-to-date information from the HSE. Disclaimer: Whilst some of the contents of this page are official PSI documents/positions, the majority of the contents are not an official position of the PSI.

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Supporting SEN Children- Coping with Covid 19 Isolation

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Supporting SEN Children- Coping with Covid 19 Isolation

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Child Health Professionals in Cardiff & Vale UHB

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Typing Games Zone - Boost Your Typing Skills

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Enhance Your Typing Speed with Our Top-Rated Keyboarding Games

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Looking to boost your typing speed? Kidztype.com has got you covered with our exciting collection of free typing games. Unleash the power of your fingers as you enjoy thrilling activities like whacking moles, racing through the jungle, bursting rockets, and competing in races with cars, bikes, and boats. Our captivating keyboard games provide the perfect blend of fun and skill-building, allowing you to enhance your typing skills while having a great time. With Kidztype's tailored-made games, you'll be typing faster and more efficiently in no time!

Fun and Engaging Free Typing Games for Kids: Boost Typing

Advancing Skills through Games:

Coordination and Accuracy: Typing game improve hand-eye coordination as kids learn to synchronize their hand movements with what they see on the screen. This helps them become more accurate and proficient in navigating the keyboard.

Vocabulary and Spelling: Many keyboard games incorporate word and sentence challenges, expanding children's speech and enhancing their spelling skills. Kids reinforce their language skills while improving their typing speed by repeating words and sentences in a fun context..

Speed and Motivation: By offering challenges and achievements,kidztype games motivate kids to improve their speed and accuracy. Setting high scores and beating previous records provides a sense of accomplishment and encourages them to continue practising and advancing their skills.

Engaging Kids through Interactive Games:

Easy-to-Learn Methods: The games use simple and memorable techniques to teach keyboarding skills. Kids can quickly grasp concepts like letter placement, home rows, upper rows, and numbers, making learning more accessible and enjoyable.

Exciting Themes: With captivating themes like fantasy worlds, car races, and space adventures, these games capture children's imagination and keep them engaged. The immersive experience ensures that learning to type feels like an exciting adventure rather than a chore.

Customizable Difficulty: The games offer scalable complexity and difficulty settings, allowing children to progress independently. Whether they're beginners or more advanced typists.

Suitability for Kids of All Ages:

These Keyboard games and dance mat typing activities are suitable for kids of any age. Starting early with keyboarding skills sets a strong foundation for the future. Whether your child is just beginning or wants to refine their typing abilities, these games provide a platform for growth and improvement.

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Typing Games - Learn Typing with Free Keyboard Games - KidzType.com

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Kidztype Typing Games: Kidztype's keyboard games are the best way to master typing speed and accuracy. Choose a suitable typing game to sharpen your fingers! Check us out and start playing now!

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Monthly CPD, All Staff, One Affordable Price

For less than half the cost of one CPD training typically, your staff (Teachers, SNAs, TAs) can participate in at least 9 Live Training Webinars targeting those who support children aged 3-12 years old. Training is led by Jess, an accomplished Occupational Therapist, with recordings accessible for the duration of the school year, along with Mini-Courses. Upon completion of each training, a certificate is awarded to each staff member.

Suitable for mainstream schools, preschools, and schools supporting children with additional needs.

BOOK A CALL TO LEARN MORE

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My OT & Me | Occupational Therapy | CPD | School Training

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Engaging, Practical & Evidence based training from qualified experts for those working with children. With the demand for Occupational Therapy support skyrocketing, our mission at My OT & Me is simple, make education and training easily accessible to educators, teachers, organisations and families around the world.

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Simple Fine Motor Activity for Improving an Extended Wrist - The OT Toolbox

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You might have seen a recent post here on the blog that shared the importance of an extended wrist in fine motor activities. If you check out that post, you'll see why it's important for kids to position their wrist in a functional position. Today, I'm adding a simple fine motor activity for ...

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Therapy Street for Kids | Occupational Therapy

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A resource for parents who are looking for occupational therapy activities that can be done at home and with household materials. Skill areas include fine motor, visual motor, crossing midline, self help skills, sensory processing and handwriting.

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Inside: These indoor movement activities require minimal supplies to keep your child moving around and entertained when they cannot go outside. A great way to strengthen large motor skills!
We all know the importance of allowing a child to get their wiggles out.

Besides allowing them to feel satisfied and calmer afterwards, moving around in large motions is very important for a young child's development.

Large motor movements are important for their abilities such as hand-eye coordination and flexibility.

However, going outside to run around is unfortunately not always an option.

Below are some gross motor activities that can be done safely indoors, while only requiring simple materials to make setting up even easier!

Indoor Movement Activities for Preschoolers

Dance to Action Songs - Dance to children's music that contain actions like hopping like a bunny!

Ocean Animal Yoga - These yoga poses for children are themed around ocean animals such as turtles and jellyfish. (Kids Yoga Stories)

Laundry Basket Skee Ball - Set up laundry baskets to be worth different 'points' for preschoolers to throw or roll balls into. (Frugal Fun 4 Boys)

Easy Balance Beam - Place a line of tape down on the ground to become a safe balance beam to walk, hop, or skip across. (Fun Learning for Kids)

Hallway Laser Maze - Tape streamers, ribbon, or yarn to your hallway walls in various positions for kids to try to maneuver through without touching the materials. (It's Always Autumn)

Lego Ring Toss - Stack towers of Lego Duplos or other bricks to try to toss some sort of ring around from a distance. (Stir the Wonder)

Body Movement Dice - Print out these movement dice to create various movement combinations. (Life Over C's)

Follow the Line - Put tape or yarn down on the floor for preschoolers to follow across with their feet. (Little Bins for Little Hands)

Box Jumping - Place some painter's tape down on the ground and invite preschoolers to jump from box to box. (Mama Papa Bubba)

Gross Motor Bingo - Call out different movements for children to do and check off of their bingo boards. (The Inspired Treehouse)

Indoor Obstacle Course - Use toys and furniture to set up your own indoor obstacle course for kids to complete. (How to Run a Home Daycare)

Name Hop - Write each letter of your child's name on paper plates and place them on the floor, calling out various letters of it for them to hop to. (Fantastic Fun and Learning)

More large motor ideas:
Circle Hunt Game Parachute Games for Toddlers 20 Fun Outdoor Games
Looking for ideas your toddlers and preschoolers can easily do at home?

Click on the graphic below to find over 50 fun activities:

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Inside: These indoor movement activities require minimal supplies to keep your child moving around and entertained when they cannot go outside. A great way to strengthen large motor skills! We all know the importance of allowing a child to get their wiggles out.

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Emotional regulation information for parents

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Emotional regulation information for parents

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Whether you are a parent or work directly with teens, here you can read about some concrete social/emotional skills and useful activities that can help teens practice them. We will cover basic information about Listening skills, Assertiveness, Emotional awareness, and Nonverbal communication.
Why practice social/emotional skills?

Whether we call them soft skills, social/emotional skills, social/emotional intelligence or growth mindset, there is a consensus among researchers and practitioners that we need certain abilities to achieve our fullest potential at school, in our professional careers, and in our private lives. These abilities help us recognize and manage our emotions, cope with obstacles and life challenges, and enhance communication skills and good interpersonal relations (including empathy).

According to an analysis of longitudinal studies in nine OECD countries published in Skills for Social Progress: The Power of Social and Emotional Skills by OECD in 2015:

"Children's capacity to achieve goals, work effectively with others and manage emotions will be essential to meet the challenges of the 21st century."

Besides acknowledging the importance of social/emotional skills such as perseverance, sociability, and self-esteem, the report discusses how policy-makers, schools, and families facilitate the development of social/emotional skills through intervention programs, teaching, and parenting practices.

All these abilities are interrelated and their development starts at home and continues throughout the school years. If parents and important adults show a high level of social/emotional maturity, it will be easier for kids to acquire these abilities simply by modeling their behavior.

However, it is always useful when children and teens have a chance to practice social/emotional skills under the guidance of experienced adults. The best case scenario is when programs for enhancing social/emotional skills are an integral part of an educational system and a local community's initiatives.

Below, we will look at some important social/emotional skills and suggest simple activities for practicing them, adjusted to teens.

1. Social communication skill - Listening

Being able to hear what people are really saying is a valuable communication skill that has a major impact on the quality of our relations with others. You've probably already heard about Active Listening, a skill that allows us to hear not only the words people are saying but also the emotions they are reflecting through their nonverbal behavior. Both are important in understanding the whole message being communicated.

This is a complex skill that can be practiced. In the following activity, the focus is on practicing concentration; listening to the verbal message with undivided attention. You can practice this activity with a group of teens in your home, in the classroom or in a workshop.
Instruction
Firstly, ask all the participants to sit in a circle. The first person starts to tell a story (whatever he/she wants). After 3-5 sentences, say "stop" and randomly choose another participant to continue. This person now has to repeat the last sentence said and then continue making up the story. If he cannot correctly repeat the last sentence after five seconds, he is disqualified. The game continues with the same rules and the winner is the last person remaining after everybody else is disqualified.

This is the competitive version of the game. However, you can make up your own version, without disqualifications or adding new elements that you find useful.
Have a discussion
Ask participants to reflect on the game. When and how was their attention distracted? What helped them concentrate and remember the previous sentence?
Get more tips and tricks!
2. Social communication skill - Assertiveness
Assertiveness, as a style of communication, is characterized by the ability to directly and confidently express our genuine opinion, feelings, or attitudes, such that the rights of others and social circumstances are respected.
It is proven that assertiveness affects our self-esteem and self-confidence, so there's no doubt that practicing assertiveness is useful for teens. It is a complex skill that can be acquired through a training program led by a trained coach/therapist. However, some aspects of assertiveness can be practiced through simple exercises at home and in a school setting.

Maybe the most important point is to assure teens that it's okay to claim their rights and to ask, to initiate, to express their opinions and feelings. That it's okay to say NO to other people in a respectful way.

In this exercise, the focus will be on encouraging teens to initiate a conversation in which they will ask something of others and express their opinion or feelings. It can be practiced as social challenges given to teens either by their parents or teachers.
Instruction
Firstly, a list of social challenges is created, taking into consideration a teen's age or social needs. Challenges can be written down/printed on separate cards. If given consent to take part in the challenge, a teen takes a random card and his task is to do what is required on the card in the next 24 hours or over several days, as you jointly arrange.

Challenges can be practiced once a week or according to whatever schedule you agree upon.
Examples of social challenges:

Give an honest compliment to someone.

Learn two new things about somebody from your class.

Share with a friend what's been on your mind lately.

Call customer service at your favorite store and ask for information about some product you like.

Tell your best friend what you like about him/her.

Ask a teacher (or a coach) for clarification of a task you didn't understand completely.

Have a discussion
After the task is accomplished, it's important to discuss with the teen how the particular challenge made him feel. Did he find it easy, hard, awkward, or something else? What could be alternative ways to ask, to express? How did others react?
The inspiration for this activity is taken and adjusted from the Speech Bubble SLP.

3. Emotional skill - Emotional self-awareness

We have already written about self-awareness as the basic ability to understand our own inner processes and to relate adequately with others. Emotional awareness, in this context the ability to recognize our own feelings, is the foundation of emotional intelligence.

Besides helping us be aware of our emotions, these skills are important for developing emotional intelligence, according to Daniel Goleman and his bestselling book Emotional Intelligence. Understanding why we feel a certain way and knowing how to handle these feelings, including self-motivation; the ability to recognize the feelings of others (empathy) and to motivate them - these skills are crucial to success and happiness in every aspect of our lives and in our relationships with others.

In the following activity, the focus is on getting in touch with eight emotions a teen chooses, raising awareness of how a particular emotion manifests itself, and how it affects the teen's life. It is based on art therapy principles and is performed individually. However, it can be practiced in groups, too. You need a white paper and colored markers.
Instruction
Firstly, ask a teen to draw a circle and divide it into eight pies. Then, ask him/her to dedicate each pie to one emotion and fill in each pie with a corresponding color or images that match his/her idea of what the emotion means to him/her. It may be that a teen has a problem coming up with eight emotions. You can assist him but never choose instead of him. Don't push if he can't come up with eight. Work with whatever he manages to present.
Have a discussion
After the teen is done with the drawing, initiate a dialogue. You may find these questions useful: What does each image mean to you? What made you choose those particular colors? When in your life do you experience this emotion? What emotion is dominant for you nowadays? What emotion is the hardest to handle? And so on.

If a teen has a problem in coming up with emotions, you can use Plutchik's wheel of emotion to help him recognize emotions he would like to work on.

This exercise is taken and adjusted from the Art therapy directives BlogSpot.

4. Social/emotional skills - Understanding nonverbal communication

Good understanding of nonverbal communication is a sign of social and emotional intelligence.

The ability to observe and understand nonverbal signs during communication, or any other interaction between people, gives us tremendous information about the real message being communicated. It is especially important when we notice that the verbal message and nonverbal behavior are not harmonized. It also gives us a clue about the motives of the person we are communicating with or their emotional state.

Besides what is said, it is always important to follow HOW it is said. Basic nonverbal aspects of human behavior to be aware of include eye contact, the tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, personal distance, body language, and posture.

The following activity, based on acting and improvisation methodology, focuses on recognizing the emotional state of participants exposed to simulated social situations, through observing only their nonverbal behavior. A group is needed for this activity.
Instruction
Ask a volunteer from the group to leave the room. Separate instructions are given to him/her and to the group, who stays in the room in order to prepare for the final scene. While the volunteer is outside, each individual in the group has to choose one emotion and must express this emotion only through nonverbal behavior (acting). Remind them of the different aspects of nonverbal communication.

Meanwhile, the volunteer outside is given the task of coming up with several social situations familiar to teens such as: in class; during family dinner; on a date; at a birthday party; working on homework, etc.

Finally, when the volunteer is back to the room, he sets the scene: You're in class (for example). All members of the group act as if they are in the classroom, including expressing their chosen emotional state nonverbally. They can use their voice but only in the form of inarticulate sounds. The volunteer observes their behavior and tries to guess how they feel. If he is confused, he can put them in another social situation (or only for fun:). The game can be repeated several times with different volunteers, emotions to guess, and social situations.
Have a discussion
After it is revealed which emotion has been presented by each member of the group, a discussion follows. You may find these questions useful: What are the main nonverbal indicators of this emotion? How did you feel while acting? Did anybody have difficulties acting in the scenes (why)? What do you usually do when you feel (this particular emotion)? What do you usually do when you recognize somebody acting like this? Was there something confusing and what? - A question to the volunteer.

Depending on available time and the goal of your group work you can go even deeper into a conversation about particular emotions. If you are interested in activities useful for teen's emotional development, you may like this article.
Do you need more advice related to the social/emotional development of your teen? You've come to the right place!
Book your FREE CONSULTATION with one of our Coaches.
MORE LIKE THIS:

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Social and Emotional Activities For Teens

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Whether you are a parent or work directly with teens, here you can read about some concrete social/emotional skills and useful activities that can help teens practice them. We will cover basic information about Listening skills, Assertiveness, Emotional awareness, and Nonverbal communication.

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Emotional regulation information for teenagers due to Covid
https://ncse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Lets-Get-Regulated-Information-for-Teenagers.pdf

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Sensory processing information for parents

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Sensory processing information for parents

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https://ncse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Sensory-Processing-booklet-for-parents.pdf

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Distance Learning for Special Education - Secondary

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Distance Learning for Special Education - Secondary

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Every year during Maths Week, the Maths Eyes team runs a photo competition, with categories for all ages from children to adult and community groups. Entries can be submitted through the website and the winners of each category will be announced early next year. Please read the instructions below before submitting.

To enter:

1. Put on your "maths eyes" and look in a new way at your surroundings

2. Take a digital photograph (high-resolution)

3. Choose your best photo and think of an appropriate title for it

4. Upload your image via the Maths Eyes website and complete the entry form

5. Don't forget to review the Terms and Conditions

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Maths Eyes MathsEyes is an innovative approach to building a positive image of mathematics. It involves giving learners of all ages a new perspective on the world around them by encouraging them to see everyday objects in terms of maths - be it in terms

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Take a look at the following resources for a summary of what and how your child is learning at school, and what you can do to continue this learning at home.
The What, Why and How of Children's Learning in Primary School Mathematics
Tip sheets and videos of parents and children learning about maths together

Supporting learning and development of children aged 4-8 years: Key messages for parents

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Take a look at the following resources for a summary of what and how your child is learning at school, and what you can do to continue this learning at home.

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Free Text to Speech

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Dyslexia and other reading-based learning disabilities are most common among students. NaturalReader text-to-speech makes learning more accessible by assisting with any reading, taking tests and promoting independence.

Students can have any text they need to read, read aloud to them so they can read along. Having the text provided both visually and auditory, allows the student to focus less on the act of reading, and more on the comprehension of the content. Other features like dyslexia font, flexible reading speeds, and highlighted text also ease the task of finishing readings.

For most students, learning does not stop when school ends. NaturalReader EDU enables students to be more independent and assists with learning at home. Whether they're doing homework, reading at home, or just surfing the web, our Chrome Extension and Mobile Application are always available.

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NaturalReader: Free Text to Speech for Online, Mobile App, Commercial license and Education with AI voices.

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Coding Lessons, Games & Activities

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Anyone can learn computer science. Make games, apps and art with code.

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Free Interactive Primary or Elementary Key Stage 1 Numeracy, Maths, Literacy, English, Science, Religious Education and History Teaching Resources and Kids Games. Age range 5-7 years. Education materials and learning games for parents to use at home.