•  On Nov, 22, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Teach Hand-Printing How to Teach Hand-Printing starts with “Why is it important?” Here is a good reason: “There is a strong correlation between the learning of letter formation and the building of knowledge about letter-sound representation.” Murray Evely (Psych4Schools Psychologist/Guidance Officer) wrote this in 2022 after attending a conference in the United States. His article […]

•  On Nov, 07, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Excessive homework is often at the insistence of parents. But his is about taking control. It is about applying good homework tasks that are based on sound research findings. 

•  On Oct, 04, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Autism Level 1 In Autism Level 1, known as Aspergers Syndrome in the past, is the focus. How a diagnosis is made: DSM or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and the ICD, The International Classification of Diseases are the two most influential and widely used handbooks when diagnosing Asperger’s syndrome in English-speaking countries. […]

•  On Sep, 13, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Teaching the Dyslexic Child Dyslexia and dysgraphia have been discussed extensively. And teaching the dyslexic child presents special challenges. Research is ongoing and progress is being made. However, Dr Jon Lieff warns that there is still much we don’t know and advises caution in response to new findings (http://www.searchijonlieffmd.com/…/can-neuroscience-improve-education). Much that has been written about […]

•  On Sep, 13, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Teaching the Dyslexic Child No 2 Dyslexia affects about 4% of children in English-speaking countries. Teaching the Dyslexic Child has particular challenges. The better we understand the facts about it, the better we can address the problem. Many children learn quickly through implicit teaching. They catch on.  But dyslexic children need instruction spelled out with […]

•  On Jul, 01, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Help With Creative Writing Help With Creative Writing gives step by step guidance. As parents you can help our older child with writing tasks.  It could be a creative writing task, a factual account, instructions on how to make something or a recount of an experience of their own. Creative writing tasks often challenge children, so […]

•  On Jun, 25, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Whole Language Theory Whole Language Theory dominated literacy teaching. In the 1960’s the movement towards the whole language approach to teaching literacy in schools gathered strength. There is a legacy of Whole Language Theory in schools in Australia. Easy to pick! Children are taught to learn words only within the context of a story or […]

•  On Jun, 18, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Cursive Script – Debate Cursive Script – Debate, yes the debate is in earnest. Writing in script is considered a waste of teaching time in some education circles. Associate Professor Dr Misty Adoniou said in early 2015 in The Conversation, available online “The research doesn’t find any benefits for cursive writing.” https://theconversation.com/profiles/misty-adoniou-107235 She added the […]

•  On Jun, 13, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Handwriting – An Intellectual Activity Why Handwriting is important.  More areas of our brain are used to hand-print than to type on a keyboard. And more areas of the brain are used to write in script than to hand-print. There have always been children with poor handwriting but the quality of teaching over the last […]