Need Help Getting Your Kids to do their Schooling at Home During COVID?

Need more help?

Interested in learning more, or want an assessment or advocacy services for your child?

For more information about how to best support your child’s schoolwork at home, please contact me, Dr. Skye Stifel, at Insight Neuropsychology.  As a former special education teacher, a Nationally and California Certified School Psychologist, and Licensed Educational Psychologist. I have the knowledge and experience to help you with your child.  

At Insight Neuropsychology we provide personalized assessment and treatment services to promote cognitive health and well-being. We help you learn about how your child’s brain is functioning and how their environment is affecting them, as INSIGHT is the first step in improving your mental functions.

My Kid Won't Do Schoolwork with Me

During the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place order, parents are unexpectedly faced with educating their children at home. We are parents too, and it has been challenging.

Whether your child’s school provides intensive academic programming or leaves parents to create academic content on their own, most parents have been forced to afford educational support to their children that they never had to do before. All of which is happening while we parents are balancing our own lives (emotions, jobs, relationships, etc.). This has led a lot of us struggling to get our children to “do school” with us – and a lot of children refusing to “do school” at all.

As a parent myself, I know first-hand how hard this time has been. From my training and personal experience, here are three key things to help parents like you get schoolwork done with your child:  

 The Three Keys to Getting Schoolwork Done During COVID

1.   This is crisis schooling, not homeschooling. This is important to remember – and to give yourself some grace. It’s okay for you to have realistic expectations of what your child’s schooling looks like. You are not a full-time, credentialed teacher. There is a lot going on around you beyond your child’s schooling. So, recognize the stress and emotions of everyone involved.

2.   Structure and expectations about time. Having a consistent daily routine during the week helps create a sense of predictability we all are needing right now. Daily structure can look different for every family: some families have minute-by-minute calendars with everyone’s activities noted and some families focus on eating meals at the same time each day. Whatever brings you and your family comfort in consistency is the right structure for you. Pick the top three things that are critical in your day (meals, work, outside time, etc.) and build your family’s daily routine around those three things.

The amount of time devoted to schoolwork each day depends of the age and personality of your child. Pushing your child beyond their limit is not healthy or helpful. Here is a helpful chart about the appropriate amount of time a child should spend doing schoolwork each day and how long children should be able to maintain their attention according to their grade level (Illinois State Board of Education “Remote Learning Recommendations”):

3.  Independent work. I’m seeing a lot of parents struggling with time management and balancing everything partially because the work they are giving their children is at an instructional or higher level. Children can’t possibly do that level of work on their own because they need instruction (hence the term “instructional level”) in order to do it.

If you want your child to work on his or her own, you must give work he or she can do on their own. When you give your child schoolwork, it is critical that the work is at the child’s independent work level. “Independent work level” means schoolwork that your child already knows how to do and can do with ease. This level is typically below the actual grade level of your child because your child is still learning schoolwork at their grade level. Often, this is work that is reinforcing your child’s already mastered skills and supporting their development of more advanced skills.

For example, a child who is learning multiplication could do addition and subtraction problems as independent work. Addition and subtraction skills are precursor skills to multiplication that the child already learned and knows. Addition and subtraction are also important conceptual components to multiplication, so by working on addition and subtraction the child is building his skills for multiplication as well.

Lastly, it’s important for children to feel successful and independent, so create time each day that is “independent work time.”

Some great online educational programs

At the end of the day, be kind to yourself...and your children. Take each day at a time and focus on the larger picture of your child’s overall well-being and health.  

Need more help?

Interested in learning more, or want an assessment or advocacy services for your child?

For more information about how to best support your child’s schoolwork at home, please contact me, Dr. Skye Stifel, at Insight Neuropsychology.  As a former special education teacher, a Nationally and California Certified School Psychologist, and Licensed Educational Psychologist. I have the knowledge and experience to help you with your child.  

At Insight Neuropsychology we provide personalized assessment and treatment services to promote cognitive health and well-being. We help you learn about how your child’s brain is functioning and how their environment is affecting them, as INSIGHT is the first step in improving your mental functions.

Stop Senior Scams Event Tomorrow

Ventura County Adult Abuse Prevention Council is sponsoring an event tomorrow in Ventura for seniors focusing on scams and how to protect yourself. The Stop Seniors Scams Acting Program will be presenting a series of skits on scams. Adult Protective Services will also have speakers present to talk about what is being seen in the county right now.

If you are interested, the event is at Cypress Place in Ventura, 1200 Cypress Point Lane at 1:30PM tomorrow, February 20, 2020.

Want to talk about these issues in person? Please feel free to reach out to us.

---

Interested in booking a talk or training for your group?

click below

Happy Valentine's Day from your Brain!

Sometimes we wonder how our brains relate to the bigger mysteries of life, like what is the soul, consciousness, or why we fall fall in love.

Luckily CNN just posted a nice illustrated article explaining a good part of how love occurs in our brain. Check it out, and don’t worry, it maintains a bit of mystery.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/14/health/brain-on-love-wellness/index.html

Want to talk about these issues in person? Please feel free to reach out to us.

---

Interested in booking a talk or training for your group?

click below

The Difference Between Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

It is confusing for all of us. To learn a little more, see this article by Dr. Duff from our practice

https://www.recognizingdementia.com/blog/

Buy on Amazon

FIVE DEMENTIA SIGNS TO WATCH FOR OVER THE HOLIDAYS

Holidays are here and you will be seeing family you may not see that often. Dr. Duff from our practice has written a useful article on what to look out for in your loved ones when you visit.

https://www.recognizingdementia.com/holidaydementia/

Buy on Amazon

Our Book on Dementia for Families is Out Now!

We are excited to announce that Dr. Lande’s and Dr. Duff’s new book ‘Does My Mom Have Dementia: How to Recognize and Deal with Dementia in Your Loved Ones’ is now available. It can be found on Amazon as an ebook or as a paperback. It will also be available soon as an audiobook.

Buy on Amazon

Dementia is a frightening word. But what does it actually mean? What is the difference between dementia and simply getting old? It can be easy to become overwhelmed by jargon the doctor throws at you, and sometimes it feels easier to pretend nothing is happening.

Wouldn't it be less stressful if you had a roadmap to take you through the process of telling the difference between normal aging and dementia, working with medical providers, and coping with the diagnosis?

In 'Does My Mom Have Dementia?' we provide this roadmap for you!

You will be able to answer:

• What is Dementia?

• How does it compare to normal aging?

• What are the warning signs and what else could it be?

• How do I talk to the doctor about it?

• What doctors and procedures are involved?

• What is the course of dementia?

• How can I better help my loved one?

• How do you prevent caregiver burnout?

This is not an academic book. We wrote this book in language that is clear and helpful. Anyone with an aging loved one in their lives can benefit from 'Does My Mom Have Dementia?'

"Does My Mom Have Dementia? is the compassionate, clear-headed and nuts-and-bolts guide that I wish I had before I began my caregiver journey."

-Jim Moens, Author and Caregiver

Scams Against the Elderly Are HUGE: Luckily Authorities Just Stopped One Large Romance Scam

Dr. Lande and FBI Victim Specialist Debbie Deem

As part of my practice I consult with and provide training to various law enforcement groups on elder abuse. Last week I provided a training for the FBI. One of the main topics I cover is victimization of seniors by mass market scams.

We have all received such solicitations. A computer phone call stating that we owe the IRS, or an email from a member of the Nigerian government who needs help smuggling money out of the country and knows that you would be the perfect person to assist, or perhaps that too good to true connection on a dating website who just never quite seems available to meet in person.

These scams work by convincing us to use emotional reasoning, rather than logical reasoning. They use visceral motivations like fear and greed, along with a sense of authority, to get us to respond. And they require urgency, so that we don’t have time to think about what we are doing.

Unfortunately, older adults are a prime target due to factors such as greater wealth concentration, loneliness, and some of the cognitive processing changes that occur as we age. Scams are a difficult crime to stop as they are cheap and easy to do, and are often based out of the country, making it hard for law enforcement to intervene.

Luckily, as you can read about in this story, Federal authorities were recently able to stop a large romance scam targeting women around the world, but with at least some of the perpetrators based in the US.

Education and awareness is often one of the best ways to prevent yourself and your loved ones from falling victim. Remember, if anyone is demanding an immediate payment, especially with any type of gift card, it is probably a scam.

Remember, you can contact law enforcement if victimized by these scams and it is important to report them. A good place to report them is the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Sometimes, if you are quick enough it is even possible to get your or your loved one’s money back.

For a free video on the aging brain and scams, click the button below. There is also a button linking to a recent article I wrote on mass market scams.

Want to talk about these issues in person? Please feel free to reach out to us at Insightneuropsych.com.