Jumpstarting™Learning Skills
Helping Parents to Help their Children
Dyslexia: You and Your Child
Is your bright child struggling with reading and spelling?
The characteristics of dyslexia are difficulties with reading and spelling but may also include issues with handwriting, organisational skills and mathematics.
Many students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties are often bright and creative and yet struggle with basic academic tasks.
We here at Jumpstarting™Learning Skills have designed a unique visual system that offers a new way to master vital basic word and number skills
We will give you the tools to help your child
develop the essential skill of mental imagery.
Once this has been developed effectively, your child will be on the way to becoming a successful, confident and independent learner.
The Jumpstarting™ System stands apart from phonics-based programmes as they tend to focus on the sound of the word and rules, rather than the visual representation of the word.
Does your Child have Dyslexia?
Arguments for assessment:
- Gives you and your child an explanation for their difficulties.
- You may feel a great sense of relief when you realise your child is not ‘stupid’, ‘lazy’ or ‘unmotivated’.
- It can open up access to support e.g learning support, specialist teacher (this will depend on individual schools and local or national government policy.)
- Your child might be entitled to get: assistive technology such as a computer and software, extra time in exams, breaks during exams, reader and/or scribe in class or exams, etc.
- Your child might be offered a reduced time table and exemptions from subjects such as foreign languages.
Arguments against assessment:
- Your child may begin to identify with the label – might use it as an excuse, “I can’t do that because I’m dyslexic”, preventing them from attempting certain tasks.
- Your child may become too reliant on the support in school. This can become a crutch, encourage dependency and it may be harder to develop into an independent learner.
- If your child’s school does not offer the assessment free of charge, it can be expensive to go to a private assessor.
- In the UK and Ireland, dyslexia is seen as a ‘high incident’ issue and often an assessment does not automatically mean additional support as the school is expected to already be dealing with it.
What We Say….
The main problem arises when the support continues to plug away at phonics when this is your child’s weakest area. This is where The Jumpstarting System comes in. Yes, it’s important to learn the sounds of the language but, if you are really, really struggling, it can take a very long time to make significant progress. Meanwhile, your child is falling further behind and is not getting the brain development they need as they are not able to read and/or write fluently.
Knowing how to effectively help your child at home, every day, in a way that can really make a difference, is extremely important for many parents. It also means that issues can be dealt with quickly so that your child can continue to make progress.
Our son’s journey with Paula was truly remarkable. He began as someone weighed down by his dyslexia, unable to believe in his own capabilities and not achieving his potential. Working with Paula, we saw a dramatic change in our son. He took time to really master the techniques which Paula seeks to embed, but the result was simply amazing. It was inspiring and in many ways humbling and very emotional as I saw our son start to flourish and to begin to believe in his ability to spell, read and comprehend. What we saw was a world of opportunities opening up as he relished his new found confidence. We can’t thank Paula enough for the amazing transformation that she achieved with our son. For all of us, it was a genuinely eye-opening experience and one that was so worthwhile and memorable. I cannot praise Paula, her attitude, her approach and her own desire to help people see themselves and approach challenges differently. Truly a life changing experience!
After working with Sara, the main impact on D is that he is a lot happier in school and at home. Homework time is no longer a stressful time or a struggle any more. I have applied the technique to Irish spellings and there are vast improvements in it.
I have found that D is working more independently on his homework. Also has taken a greater interest in sports and school activities. A lot of teachers have commented on how he is taking part more in sports. Before this, he showed no interest in it.
Mrs Montie’s techniques have greatly helped me to start developing strategies for dealing with my recently diagnosed dyslexia. Of particular help to me are the techniques for clearing a fuzzy mind, grounding and replacing negative thoughts with positive ones.
Whenever I find myself struggling to concentrate I use the technique of speaking the alphabet while moving different sides of the body. I find this helps me to refocus my thoughts and to be able to take in more information from lessons and homework.
In lessons and during exams, if I need to bring myself back to the particular subject, I use the grounding technique to replace negative with positive energy and give myself a stronger, but a calmer foundation to work from.
These two methods of improving focus and clarity of thought have helped me greatly to improve my performance during A level studies and I am hoping they will help when I take my exams in the summer.”
I hope you can find a use for this text to show that even 18-year-old A-level students can benefit. Thanks again.
Jumpstarting™ Learning Coaching
Face to Face Coaching
What Can Jumpstarting™ Learning Coaching Offer You and Your Child?
There may be several reasons why people might prefer not to do an on-line course, so we provide the opportunity to work face to face with us or with another Jumpstarting™ Learning Coach.
As well as working on spelling and reading skills, Jumpstarting™ Coaching can also help with the following:
- Understanding and remembering what has been read
- Numeracy – multiplication tables, mental arithmetic, solving word problems.
- Telling the Time
- Exam Stress
- Presentations
- Study Skills
- Time Management
- Organisational Skills
- Memory
- Focus and Concentration
- Panic attacks
- Phobias
Quite often, one or both parents have also struggled with reading and/or spelling. We find that by going through the process with their child, those parents are able to overcome their learning challenges too!
Online Coaching
If live face to face sessions are not possible, we can arrange to do the three sessions and any follow-up required via Skype.
What to Expect from a Jumpstarting™ Coaching Session
Typically, for reading, spelling and numeracy issues, we would see clients for a package of 3 sessions and follow up sessions if necessary.
Get in touch with the
Jumpstarting™ Team here.
Any more questions please do not hesitate to get in touch here.