Don’t Let ‘Summer Slide’ Set in Over the Next Few Weeks

The last day of school is near. Summer plans are under way. Vacations, beach trips, barbecues with friends make for wonderful ways to spend summer vacation. However, fun and sun doesn’t need to mean that learning ceases. According to Johns Hopkins University, students suffer learning loss during the summer months, also known as "the summer slide." A typical student will lose about one month of...

Early Intervention and Longterm Support Key for Deaf Students

Exposing deaf or hard of hearing children to signed or spoken language early is critical to their ability to learn a language. That’s one of the findings of a new report from the Government Accountability Office. But there are some obstacles to providing quality early intervention for all children with hearing problems as well as determining whether those programs are effective. One of those challenges is that...

Writing IEP Goals

Learning how to write individualized IEP goals is an important first step in developing your child’s IEP. IEP goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, use action words, realistic, and time-limited) and based on research-based educational...

How do you encourage summer learning?

Many teachers find creative ways to keep kids learning over the summer. These efforts are fueled by summer learning loss research whose finding is clear: Children who don’t read during the summer can lose up to three months of reading progress and that loss has a cumulative, long-term effect. Summer learning is loss is bad for kids, and it’s especially bad news for kids who struggle during the school...

Early and often

I don’t remember learning to read, really, but I do remember the warmth and pleasure when my mother read aloud to us as children. I was reminded of the power of books shared early and often when I saw a Mother’s Day video done by First Book. What is the greatest thing that adults can share with young children? How is this achieved? Certainly not by skill and drill as a recent blog by Joanne Meier...

Access to summer reading

As we head into summer, we’re all being reminded about the importance of summer reading. Children who don’t read during the summer can lose up to three months of reading progress and that loss has a cumulative, long-term effect. Not all kids have access to books. Many, many kids (WAY too many) live in in homes without books. First Book founder Kyle Zimmer suggests that 42% of American children...