Annual Testing in April and Parent Conferences to Follow

Each year we assess your child’s progress in the Einstein Center. These assessments take place in late April during their session time, and then we follow up with a parent conference to share these results. The parent conference is a time to share exciting progress, new areas to target, and a strategic plan for the following year. Your child’s educational therapist will be in contact with you to schedule your conference.

Math Fact Fluency

Many of the Einstein students struggle with fluency in their math facts…from addition all the way to division. Often they develop their own strategies to “remember” the facts such as finger counting, skip counting, writing lists of multiples, or drawing groups and counting one by one. All of these strategies help them arrive at the correct answers, but they are inefficient. As they enter more complicated math classes, the demand for knowing these facts quickly increases. There are resources available to help your child, and one that the Einstein Center recommends is Reflex Math. A yearly subscription to Reflex math costs $39.95. Reflex Math is an online-adaptive game that helps build fact fluency. Go to https://www.time4mathfacts.com/reflex/ to sign up for a free 14-day trial.

Reading Aloud to Promote Fluency and Vocabulary Development

Students who struggle with reading are often stuck reading books that are of low interest to them because those are the books they can decode. Many of these students have high levels of comprehension when something is read to them. Reading aloud to students who struggle can provide many benefits. In an article from the International Dyslexia Association, “The more we read, the more unusual and topic-specific words we encounter. By learning to interact meaningfully with those words in context, we build vocabulary.” Hearing someone read with fluency and inflection can help a struggling reader connect with the text. Consider choosing a book to read aloud as a family. Have them draw or play with Legos while you read and see what wonderful discussions this might spark in your family.

New Articles of Interest:

Executive Functions:   https://childmind.org/article/helping-kids-who-struggle-with-executive-functions/

Reading Aloud: https://dyslexiaida.org/41523-2/

Parenting helps for children who exhibit anxiety:  http://www.worrywisekids.org/node/36