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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 15, 2007
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.— The start of a new school year can also signal new learning issues for students or a return of past problems—especially for students who have trouble paying attention, according to the All Kinds of Minds institute.
The institute’s Schools Attuned program, a comprehensive professional development and service delivery offering, has more a decade’s worth of experience providing advice to teachers, students and parents above methods for dealing with learning differences. The program has reached nearly 40,000 K–12 educators.
“Parents and teachers can work together to demystify children’s attention difficulties by reviewing strategies and identifying the ways in which the child learns best,” says Dr. Mel Levine, All Kinds of Minds co-chair. “Adults should limit themselves to one to three strategies at first. It may take several attempts to see positive results from one strategy. Adults and children shouldn’t give up too soon—try other strategies if the first few don’t improve the child’s skills.”
The All Kinds of Minds Web site (www.allkindsofminds.org) contains multiple strategies for dealing with mental energy, processing and production skills. Dr. Levine also says that most of these strategies can be adapted for use with different age groups. He first suggests that adults communicate with children about attention issues in the following ways:
Eliminate any stigma. Empathy can reduce a student’s frustration and anxiety about his/her attention difficulties. Adults should emphasize that no one is to blame and that they know some students often need to work harder than others to concentrate and monitor their attention. Adults can explain that children differ in their attention skills. They can reassure the student that there are methods that can work. They could share a story about how they handled a learning difficulty or an embarrassing mistake in which attention abilities broke down.
Discuss strengths and interests. Adults can help young people find their strengths. They can use concrete examples, but avoid false praise. An adult could observe and comment that a student is able to concentrate on a fun activity by saying, “You are really able to concentrate on your video games.” They can identify books, videos, Web sites, or places in the community that can help students build their strengths and interests.
Discuss areas of weakness. Adults should use plain language to explain what aspect of attention needs to be developed or monitored. They can explain the difference between areas of attention that are working appropriately and those that are not. They could say, “You might have difficulty paying attention to what the teacher says because you are not filtering out the other noise around you. Yet, your attention when you’re working on the computer is great.”
Emphasize optimism. Adults can help students realize they can improve—they can work on weaknesses and enhance their strengths. Adults should point out future possibilities for success given current strengths. They can help young people build a sense of control over their learning by encouraging them to feel accountable for progress. A student with attention difficulties can become responsible over time for remembering to take frequent breaks, keep checklists, and set short-term goals.
Identify an ally. Adults can help students locate a mentor—a favorite teacher, an older student, or a neighbor—who will work with and support them. Adults can explain that children can help themselves by sharing with others how they learn best. Older children can explain the strategies that work for them, while younger ones may need adult support.
Protect from humiliation. Adults can strengthen children’s self-esteem and help them maintain pride by protecting them from public humiliation, especially in relation to their learning differences. Parents should avoid criticizing their children in public and protect them from embarrassment in front of siblings and classmates. Parents shouldn’t require children with attention difficulties to sit still and concentrate on a task for an extended period of time.
All Kinds of Minds’ mission is to help students who struggle with learning measurably improve their success in school and life by providing programs that integrate educational, scientific, and clinical expertise.
The institute was founded in 1995 by renowned pediatrician Dr. Mel Levine and financier Charles R. Schwab to translate the latest research on how children learn into programs, products and services that help students struggling in school become successful learners. The institute’s programs are based on insights from pivotal medical and educational studies, as well as more than 30 years of clinical experience by Dr. Levine, his colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, All Kinds of Minds experts, and other leading researchers in the field.
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