Simple tips to improve your child's academics and reading comprehension.

How can I support my neurodiverse / special needs child this school year (2022-2023)? 8/23/22 By Dana K (experienced educator and reading tutor) In 2022, I tutored a neurodiverse student with language arts and helped her with daily classroom tasks. Besides chunking material, I had to investigate how she learned, determine her interests so she would warm up to me, and give her brain breaks. I realized that the student was a visual and a kinesthetic learner. I dug deeper and found out she enjoyed basketball and needed physical activity during brain breaks to relieve stress from learning new concepts.  Neurodiverse children are intelligent and creative individuals, but they need assistance working out their learning and attention issues. Some have difficulties with ADHD (trouble focusing), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and other learning disabilities. Determining how to help is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach. This article provides tips for parents/caregivers to help

Do you have a struggling reader who needs tips focusing on that reading homework? by Dana (online reading tutor and educator) [My goal is to help your student succeed and become a better reader.]   Here's an example from what I learned last year in the classroom. Last year I taught A Long Walk to Water and A Night Divided . Both of them were riveting novels that kept my students on their toes. Moreover, I assigned chapter homework to read like many teachers do each night. It's usually the student's job to read a certain amount of pages and annotate the text. In study hall, my students would ask me tips on how to stay on task, or I would offer these tips when I saw a student trying to focus.      My first tip is to have students read a book and listen to an audiobook (or audio tool) simultaneously. A student can use extensions like Immersive Reader, Audible software, Google the chapter via YouTube, or Speechify