Did you know that doing brain fitness exercises can not only help you raise smarter children, but save billions of dollars in long term health care expenses?

Just 10 hours of brain fitness training showed significant improvement, even after 5 years.

A recent study showed that doing specific and scientific brain exercises made remarkable inroads in faster thinking, memory and focus.

Read the rest of the article

Knowledge of how your brain works, helps you raise a smarter child, and keeps your own brain sharp too.  Just a few minutes of these scientifically proven brain exercises, can enhance your brain for life.

Warmly,

Pat Wyman

Founder, http://www.HowToLearn.com

Erin Studer, M.D.

If you like this post, hit the ’share this’ button and send it to your friends.  Thank you!

Our post today is from invited guest, Dr. Stephen C. Miller of Seeing Smarter. As a developmental optometrist, his information will help your child see smarter and even be smarter!

Did you know that we see with our brains, not just our eyes? As you get better strategies for raising smarter children, eye training can very well be one your child needs for success in school, sports and life.

When we look at something, its image is focused on the back of our eyes, like on the film in a camera. But it’s our brain that “develops” it into the picture we see. Seeing better can mean being smarter.

As children grow, many never develop the vision skills needed to succeed in school. As a result, they have difficulty with reading, learning, and even sports due to problems getting their eyes and brain to work together.

It’s not always easy to pinpoint an exact reason why a child isn’t doing well in school either.

Frequently, learning difficulties are due to a combination of problems. But when a child struggles in school or performs below their potential, a hidden vision problem may actually be the cause.

You don’t want to confuse vision and eyesight though, because they are very different. Eyesight is simply the ability to see clearly, and vision is the ability to make meaning out of what you see. This is why some kids can “see” with 20/20 on a distance eyesight chart, but still be poor readers. Their vision, or ability to make meaning at nearpoint is often not even tested in school.

Good Vision is Fundamental to Learning

A vision problem can make it harder for children to learn. The extra effort they use to compensate for poor vision makes it difficult to remember and understand what they see.

The harder they try, the greater the chance they will develop symptoms of discomfort and fatigue. Behavior problems can also occur because kids are frustrated and want to do well, but don’t understand why they can’t.

Training the Eyes and Brain “To See”

A program of eye exercises called vision therapy can train the eyes and brain to work together more effectively. Vision therapy, also called visual training, is used to change and improve how a child sees.

Eliminating vision problems can make it easier for a child to read and learn. Many athletes take eye training or vision therapy programs and credit it as part of the reason they win gold medals.

Vision therapy, or eye training, helps a child gain vital vision skills. It uses many different visual activities, practiced under controlled learning conditions. The training activities provide feedback, allowing a child to monitor his or her own performance and respond appropriately.

Some activities may seem more like games than therapy. They can involve tasks like following a swinging ball with the eyes while balancing on a walking rail, or tracing pictures while wearing special red-green glasses that allow each eye to see only parts of the total picture.

Other training activities use more complex equipment like electronic display boards with randomly flashing lights, stereoscopic viewers that present different images to each eye, and computer based programs that involve 3-D tasks. These eye exercises helps kids unlearn inefficient or poorly developed vision skills and gain improved ones.

Seeing Smarter – Developing Vision for Learning

Any child who is having difficulty in school needs to be evaluated for vision problems. A comprehensive vision examination can either rule them out as a contributing factor or identify vision problems that may affect the child’s ability to learn.

If a vision problem is diagnosed and treated, the child will be able to perform more effectively in the classroom.

Parents interested in learning how they can help their child “see smarter” should check out the resources available at http://www.seeingsmarter.com

Sections on this site are dedicated to infants, toddlers and school-age kids.

Seeing Smarter provides the tools every parent needs to recognize, understand, and respond to a variety of vision concerns that affect how children see and learn.

Note from Pat Wyman: Thank you for this wealth of information about seeing better and being smarter, Dr. Miller. We hope you’ll send us more articles to put on http://www.raisingsmarterchildren.com  and we know that our readers will definitely seek out proper vision and eyesight screenings through sites like http://www.covd.org and http://www.oepf.org

Warmly,

Pat Wyman and Erin Studer, M.D.

Remember, check out the back to school information on how to get A’s at http://www.howtolearn.com/coachingstudents2.html

The other day I was in the supermarket and a child knocked over a bottle of juice.  A frantic mother screamed at her child for the wrong he’d done, and it dawned on me that neither had learned anything good about responsibility during the process.

How do we raise smarter, more responsible children anyway? 

When I was visiting a friend, her son wanted to cook hamburgers on the built in grill on the stove but didn’t know how.  So he asked.  Rather than just tell him the answer,  his mother asked whether he had ever cooked anything on the burners on that stove before.

He said yes, and then she asked what he did to make the burners work?  He said he turned certain knobs.

What happened next was pretty obvious.  He very responsibly figured out, all for himself, that he needed to turn the other knobs, nearer the grill to make it work.  (This taught him some self-reliance as well).

Unfortunately he decided to test the grill by putting his hands too close before putting the hamburgers on.  “Ouch, he cried ,”I burned my finger!”

At this point, his mother had a couple of choices, other than to first  put some cold aloe vera on the burn to help heal it. 

She could have yelled at him and told him he wasn’t too bright by putting his hands so close to the grill, or she could have done something else to help him learn responsibility.

Thankfully, and a good tip for every parent, she choose the latter.

She asked him some questions.  “Do you think putting your hands close to something hot is the most useful test before cooking your burgers?  Have you ever put your hand on the burner when you cooked other things?  If you had a son, what could you say to him, or ask him about testing out a grill to see if it is hot enough for cooking?”

She calmly kept asking non-blame questions, so that, in the end, her son realized “how” to make a decision, rather than just telling him he made the wrong one.

This is one way to teach responsibility to your child – never blame, and ask good questions until your child learns the best course of action for him or herself.

Many thanks to my friend for showing us all one great way to teach responsibility to a child.

Until next time, remember every child is smart in their own way, and raising smarter children is easier that you think!

Warmly,

Pat Wyman and Erin Studer, M.D.

If you like this post, share it with the community by using the share this button below.

P.S.  School is about to start so watch http://www.HowToLearn.com e-mails for upcoming teleseminars on faster learning, faster memory, and more effective ways to study.

In a new study by the University of Sydney, persistent ear infections can influence language and literacy later in life.

As you look for new ways to raise smarter children, it’s important to take preventative measures when it comes to ear health. Language is formed in the early years of your child’s life, and frequent ear infections often cause language and literacy delays, as any reading specialist will tell you.

Read more on the ear infection and literacy study…

Remember, every child is smart in their own way,

Pat Wyman

Founder, HowToLearn.com

Did you know that too much sugar turns to fat in your body?

Did you know that if you learn to read food labels like a pro, you’ll find all sorts of unhealthy chemicals, hidden sugars and trans-fats which can dull your child’s brain?

If you think sugar and simple carbohydrates are somehow different once you eat them, consider this:  Read the number of carbohydrates on the label, divide by 5 and you’ll know how may teaspoons of sugar you’re eating.

Recently, I was muching on some organic corn chips, and didn’t think about the amout of sugar I was eating.  All of the sudden, I looked at the carbohydrates on the label (35 grams) – divided that by 5 and was shocked to realize I was eating the equivalent of 7  teaspoons of sugar!  Yuck!  My run this morning won’t bring down that quick blood sugar rise.

If you like the idea of raising smarter children, for sure you’ll want to learn to read the food labels like a pro and know which fats are good, which are bad, and everything in between. 

For example, did you know that companies can claim no trans fats in their products, yet still have one portion in there, as long as it’s less than 500 milligrams of transfat?  The New England Journal of Medicine found that trans fat is more dangerous to health than anything else – period!  There is no safe level of trans fat, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat, palm oil, corn oil or soybean oil, which always contain some levels of trans fats.

I found a blog I like and Dr. Russell Martino has some great free reports on health, weight loss (in this time of obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemic), as well as another on how to read the food labels, all of which will help you be one up on the food industry which really doesn’t have your child’s best interest at heart.

Check out his blog today – it’s one way to raise a smarter, healthier child.

Warmly,

Pat Wyman

Founder, How To Learn and author of Instant Learning For Amazing Grades

If you like this post, share it with others and leave your comments below.

Is it possible that a talking phonics program can help your non-verbal child with autism, learn to speak? 

As a reading specialist, I’ve been recommending the use of various phonics programs for years.  Some are better than others; the ones which also use speech, and are not ‘game-like’, tend to be more comprehensive, and cover the full spectrum of phonics instruction.

Something I hadn’t considered about a talking phonics program though, is how it might help a non-verbal child, with autism, learn to speak.  Here’s a letter from Caroline Winship, a parent whose barely verbal autistic child, using a talking phonics program with his brother, suddenly began to speak clearly.  What a miracle this is!

…”One morning, while our 6 year old was using the Phonics program, our autistic son (who hadn’t spoken anything clearly by 4 years of age) sat down beside his brother at the computer and suddenly started to repeat the words right along with his brother!

I was brought to tears as he spoke the words so clearly right along with the voice that I immediately called up my parents and my husband exclaiming “HE CAN TALK!”.

This was a huge pivotal moment in my son’s life because up until this point we weren’t sure if he understood how to communicate and we were exploring (through his speech therapy) ways of teaching him sign language on the chance that he might never speak.

Once we realized (through this amazing program) that he had the abilities and the desire to speak , it has just been a matter of working with him on a daily basis to encourage him to “use his words” on a regular basis…”

As a mother, whose son had some challenging learning problems early on, I was overcome when reading Caroline’s letter.  Take a look at this particular program, which I’ve used and recommended for years, and maybe you too, will write and let us know that your non-verbal child with autism, is now speaking!

Remember, every child is smart and thank you for any comments on our http://www.RaisingSmarterChildren.com  blog – let us hear your story.

Warmly,

Pat Wyman

Founder, http://www.HowToLearn.com

When my daughter, Erin, a Pediatrician and co-founder of this RaisingSmarerChildren.com blog, was in the first grade, her teacher called me in and said she wanted her to repeat the first grade due to reading problems.

I was horrified as you can imagine, because Erin could read at age 4, and I am a reading specialist.   What was I missing?   

Fortunately, and I believe there are no coincidences, the mother of a child I was coaching in faster learning strategies, told me her son was taking vision therapy. She said her son had visual perceptual problems that weren’t picked up in the school vision exam on the distance eye chart, and she discovered he didn’t see the printed page the way he should.

Just today, I read a story on Fox Business News about the NFC West champion wide receiver for the Arizona cardinals, Larry Fitzgerald, who credits vision therapy for his success.

He says, like I have been saying, teaching and writing about  for just over twenty years now, “that most people don’t know that there are over 15 visual skills that every person needs to succeed in reading, learning, sports and life.  Reading at 20/20 distance eyesight is just one of those skills”.

My daughter, Erin, who had vision therapy in the first grade, was more than just lucky.  When she was finished the therapy, she read well above grade level.  She too, credits her much of her dream of becoming a medical doctor to the vision therapy she received as a child.  Had her visual perceptual problems not been solved right then, she may have struggled with reading all the way through school.

If you’re wondering whether your child needs vision therapy, I’ve worked with the College Of Optometrists in Vision Development and The Optometric Education Program Foundation to create the Eye-Q Reading Inventory.  It is a series of questions you will want to ask your child after they read a page or so to you.

As your child reads, don’t correct them or say anything.  You might even want to tape record your child reading, so you have a perfect record of how they read. Then, do as instructed on the Inventory.

You’ll want to look for things that most vision screenings miss, such as do they skip lines when they read, do they miss punctuation at the end of a sentence, do they see a word like ‘the’ and call it what, or pull a word from the line below or the line below into the sentence they are reading.

If your child gets tired quickly when reading, this is a signal that you need to find out more.  Kids read more than we ever did, and if you’re child is getting tired now, or just doesn’t want to read, it’s not due to laziness.  Reading may actually be painful for your child.

You won’t know until you ask your child how it actually feels when reading.  Most kids who struggle to read, see the child sitting next to them finish the same assignment sooner, and think to themselves that they are ‘dumb’. 

Unless you find out how your child sees the printed page, and how reading feels,  your child can easily be labeled with ADHD, dyslexia, or fall through the cracks at school, struggling forever.

The implications for kids who struggle to read are endless; fights at home about homework, poor grades, acting out in class, withdrawing, dropping out of school, and even  juvenile delinquency. 

If you want to know whether your child needs vision therapy, just like Larry Fitzgerald and my daughter did, my advice is to take your child to a developmental optometrist.  These doctors are specially trained to examine your child’s eyes for health, just like any optometrist, but they will also look for hidden visual or perceptual problems which can affect reading, learning and sports.

You can find a list of these doctors at COVD.org or OEP.org .  The American Optometric Association recommends eye exams beginning in infancy.  You may also want to visit InfantSee.org where former President Jimmy Carter talks about how standard vision screenings missed critical eye problems for his two grandchildren, and what types of exams are better for your child.

If your child struggles in any way with reading, you’ll save years of tears and pain by getting to the real cause now, so be sure and have that special eye exam today.

If you gave your child the Eye-Q Reading Inventory, be sure and take it to your developmental optometrist, so you can provide more specific information.

Thank you to Larry Fitzgerald for speaking out on vision therapy, and the little known facts about visual skills which every child needs for reading success.

Remember, every child is smart in their own way.

Warmly,

Pat Wyman and Erin Mavredakis, M.D.

Remember to visit http://www.HowToLearn.com/coachingstudents2.html for back to school  strategies that show your child ‘how to learn’ for a lifetime of learning success.

There’s a lot of controversy over whether your child needs vitamins.  Many doctors say your child gets everything they need from their food.  Yet, high quality food is hard to come by in our fast lane life.

Consider this: 

• 24 million Americans have diabetes
• there is a frightening type 2 diabetes epidemic in kids
• the processed foods your child eats comes from a factory, not nature
• young girls develop years earlier than they did 50 years ago – and that may well be due to the hormones and steroids in the meat they eat, which pass into their bodies
• check the label on packaged foods your kids eat – hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat keeps it on the shelf for years (is this really good for your child’s health)?  (Hydrogenated fat is scientifically altered – literally blasted with hydrogen to turn the liquid fat into a solid).  It increases bad cholesterol and increases the risk of heart disease by more than 23% according to most experts.  And, oh yes, all those crackers, chips, cake mixes, and nearly every other packaged food with hydrogenated fat insures inflammation in your child’s body (and yours too by the way).  This information is via The England Journal of Medicine which says that trans fat “is more dangerous to health that any food contaminant.”

Besides this, most foods are full of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and steroids.  Sounds appetizing, doesn’t it? 

In addition, many kids snub their vegges, so there is no way your child is going to get the servings on the food pyramid.

It gets worse…every single hour of T.V. your child watches increases their risk of developing obesity by 2% and the frightening facts go on…

So we have a nation of overweight kids, who eat fast food and sugar nearly every day, and we wonder if there’s something we can do to negate the damage.

The facts are that our soil is depleted and the nutrients simply don’t pass into the food.  Our water quality is so bad there’s not much more to say, and worse yet, fruits and vegetables are sprayed with tons of pesticides – what a yummy diet for your child.

While I know this is all a bit scary there are a few things you can do to raise a smarter child and a healthier child, plus consider whether to supplement with vitamins.

1. Reduce T.V. by just one hour per week and studies say it could cut the number of overweight teens by almost a third

2.  Get your child outside playing – not only is this good exercise, even 15 minutes a day in the sun increases the vitamin D – needed for bone growth and a whole lot more

3. Nix most of the sugar and find out where it hides- take a look a just one can of soda, or even some of those trendy bottled juices – saying non-fat?  Hello!  Too much sugar turns into fat in your body -we all know the dangers of sugar by now. (Wait for another post on artificial sweeteners – they are even worse).

While grams and tablespoons are not precisely the same do this:  there are about 12.6 grams of granulated sugar in a tablespoon according to wikipedia.

So, get out an empty glass in the morning.  Add all the grams of sugar your child eats in everything – bread, cereal, soda, crackers, chips, peanut butter, jelly, candy, etc.,  and put the same amount of white, chlorine bleached sugar into that glass – by the tablespoonful. 

Now, show that to your child.  I wonder if you’d want to drink that much sugar. 

4. I know it’s pricey, but you’ll save the money later on the medical bills.  Try and eat organic folks.  No pesticides, no hormones and steroids to make the cows gain 3 pounds per day, no antibiotics in the chickens to help make your child antibiotic resistant…think about your child’s health – your family’s health…

Aren’t the few extra dollars worth your child’s well-being – you’re well-being?

5. O.K.  Last but not least – if you’re thinking consciously about this – you’ve got to be pretty sure that your child doesn’t get all the nutrition needed, in just the right amounts, even by the “pyramid” standards – so you might just want to consider giving high quality vitamins to your child – even just to be on the safe side.  And when I say high quality, I don’t mean the cheapest vitamins you can find – those have fillers and binders to hold those tablets together (yet another bad thing for your body).

Maybe I should turn this into a health blog – sometimes I wonder.  The very basics of raising smarter children start with good health…

Until next post, remember, every child is smart in their own way – as long as you’re keeping your child healthy in the process,

Warmly,

Pat Wyman

Visit our site http://www.howtolearn.com/coachingstudents2.html for the best 8 lessons on how to help  your child get A’s in 14 days (back to school is coming sooner than you think )

I read a fascinating new article at MSNBC.com today about the amount of time kids spend online.  It said that 16 million kids, ages 2-11, were online in May, 2009.

While I’m online writing this, it did make me wonder – are kids getting smarter spending all that time online, or are they just learning one skill set to the exclusion of others?

What happened to old fashioned skills like reading a book, going to summer camp, or playing cards?

Do you think spending time learning social skills are on the downturn?

So many studies say kids are using their online activities to the exclusion of other, interpersonal skills.  With conditions like autism at epidemic levels, teachers and parents complaining that kids don’t respect them as much as in the past, questions about time online and social skills have to be asked.

In short, I’d like to hear from you – are online skills making kids smarter or not?

I do know that spending too much time online hurts kids visual skills – because they are not focusing  at both near and far as often as they should, so the chances are they’ll need glasses at a younger age.

What do you think?

Remember, every child is smart and we can raise smarter children in every way – not just smarter online!

Warmly,

Pat Wyman

Founder, http://www.howtolearn.com- get to know how you and your child learn best with the Personal Learning Styles Inventory.  Kids and adults who are more kinesthetic or tactile learners, tend to learn with hands on methods, and may, by nature be more social.

O.K. I admit it.  My home and office get cluttered too.  It makes life interesting, but I notice far less productive.

Especially when it comes to finding what I need, and then I make excuses. And so do my kids – even though they’re “all grown up”…

Are you frustrated too, and can’t seem to get the clutter cleaned up?  Do you wonder if your kids will clean up their rooms?

I did too, so here are some of the best tips ever - from a self-confessed
clutter collector.

They are  none too soon for anyone who wants to finally figure out a permanent way to get a clearer head and a cleaner home or workspace, while raising smarter children (who are neat and organized) at the same time!

And you just might want to hit that forward button if you have any
friends who are struggling with the same problem in their family…

Warmly,

Pat Wyman

Be sure and visit our http:.//www.HowToLearn.com site for 52 free Instant Learning Tips and a free Personal Learning Styles Inventory to find out how you or your child learn best.