How to teach your child Digit Span a task measured by many I.Q tests

This technique to raise IQ applies to all children. It can be especially helpful for children with difficulties with focus, attention, sequencing, executive functioning and ‘working memory’ difficulties. Children with those difficulties are often labeled as having ADHD or Autistic Spectrum difficulties.

Can your child’s IQ be changed? Of course. Can parents and relatives help? Yes! And to raise your child’s I.Q. you don’t need Obama-Care, the U.S. Department of Education nor permission from any federal, state or local governmental entity.

How to raise IQ? Teach to the test. Well, not exactly to the test as IQ tests are proprietary information which test makers and test givers protect. But it’s fine to teach the general tasks measured by many I.Q. tests.

All good teachers teach to the test in some sense. Take the teaching of math.

Everyone knows that 5 + 4 =9 and not 8 or 10. There is one correct answer. If you want a child’s math abilities to increase you have to practice. And if you want them to remember – make it fun.

It’s the same for raising IQ. Teach the general tasks that are tested by IQ tests. And make it fun so they remember and want to learn the tasks.

So, let’s start with one way to strengthen a child’s ability to focus and pay attention.

Digit Span: Measuring digit span abilities is one task which is part of many IQ batteries. So how can this ability become stronger for all children? And is it an important task?

Why teach Digit Span? Every kid needs to learn their phone number including the area code. For safety reasons children should be able to state a telephone number so that an adult can be alerted. So, learning a series of digits is an important, useful task. So, how can we make an important task fun. See how below:

Take my telephone number for example. 831 216-6002 [Please do not call it!] Here’s how to teach a child to learn their telephone number digits:

Get a lined pad of paper and in a column write: 0 at bottom, then 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.9 Next, draw dots next to the numbers. And then connect the dots with lines.

Look at the visual image how the dots are connected. That visual pattern is what you want your child to learn. You can see the visual pattern in the image at the top of this post.

Is your child a stronger visual learner? A lot of kids with ADHD and autistic spectrum difficulties are stronger visual learners than they are verbal learners. That means if the child can see what to do they can learn it faster than if they just hear what to do.

Now make learning the telephone number digits fun:

Use sounds to teach telephone number/ Digit Span to child

Try different methods:

Once a child can learn 3 digits forward, teach those digits backwards. 2-1-6 and 6-1-2. Why also teach backwards? That strengths the visual and auditory memory systems.

Just like push ups strengthen physical muscles learning visual and auditory patterns with numbers strengths your child’s focus, attention and concentration. Your child is having fun doing something with you. And, your child is ‘growing’ his or her I.Q.

Pediatricians frequently recommend medications, e.g., Ritalin, Concerta, to assist with attention, concentration and focus. Research shows that a combination of medication (if they work) and cognitive-behavioral therapy for child and family provides the best results.

In my clinical experience, it only takes one concerned, involved, consistent adult to dramatically affect the overall development of children with various disabilities. So this technique can be used by an older brother or sister, aunt or uncle or grandparent. Sometimes the parents themselves have disabilities such that they are not the ideal person to help ‘grow’ their child’s I.Q.

Try the technique and let me know how it goes for you and your child.

Below is the real story of a young person whose I.Q. could grow if… [personal identifying information has been changed to protect privacy].

Jose is age 17 and a twin. His brother has been diagnosed with mental retardation. Jose’s father is in prison. Jose has an older sister diagnosed with depression. Jose’s mother has various physical disabilities and receives social security, disability. Jose has one older sister who is completing college, has a job and has a boy friend. This sister has been a positive, involved person in his life. This sister is the main person who takes Jose places, listens, helps him set goals and complete tasks. Jose’s teachers over the years report that he shows substantial difficulties with attention, concentration and focus. Jose’s pediatrician tried Jose on five different medications without success. County Mental Health referred Jose to a local counseling service where he received one-to-one therapy from a therapist to address ADHD. Jose’s cognitive I.Q. abilities to think abstractly visually and verbally are in the Low Average range. When Jose’s “working memory” abilities are tested they are low, i.e. in the Deficient range.

Can Jose’s ‘working memory’ be improved? I think so. If there are concerned adults that stay involved with Jose.

DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

To see a book recently published by Dr. Cameron Jackson go to: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/109312

How parents can help ADHD & Autistic children be happier & achieve goals

Of course a child is not a car but think of the following analogy:

Every car to get to a destination needs a driver. Parents can assist children to get into the driver’s seat and drive their ‘car’ to appropriate ‘destinations’.

Here’s how to assist children who have difficulties with focus, attention, concentration, ‘executive functioning’ or ‘working memory’ difficulties. Executive functioning and working memory are words used by school psychologists. What the parent sees is a child who can’t seem to figure out what comes first and appear disorganized.

What to do: Get a pad of 8 by 12 inch lined paper.

On one per sheet of paper —
1) Write at the top, a Goal that parents/teachers want the child to achieve.
2) Write out all the Steps required to accomplish the Goal.
3) Order the steps from first to last using KISS (Keep It Simple, Simple)
4) Figure out an appropriate Reward for child accomplishing the steps.
Set it up so child can get partial reward for partial completion.
5) Decide the number of Days child needs to complete the Goal.
6) Draw up a Graph with Days across Top of Page and Goals listed on left.

Here’s an example of a Behavior Plan for a child who shows symptoms of both ADHD and ASD:

Gina is 8 years old and was exposed in utero to illegal drugs and alcohol. Her biological mother lost parental rights and Gina has been in foster care since age two. Since age four, Gina has received County Mental Health therapy and medication to assist with focus, attention and concentration. The therapy provided by County Mental Health focuses only on helping Gina to label emotions and better express her emotions appropriately.

Gina’s foster mother and her teacher agree that Gina’s adaptive functioning abilities are considerably below what they expect for her age. Her foster mother wants Gina to 1) wash her face & brush her teeth; 2) make her bed; 3) put toys in basket in her room; 4) set the table with utensils and plates before dinner.

Goals:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Wash face & clean teeth
Make bed
Put toys in basket
Set table with utensils & plates

Spiritual/ religious beliefs need to be integral to a successful Behavioral Plan.
For example, Gina’s foster mother goes to church and rests on Sunday. Therefore the behavior plan is for six days a week and no work on Sunday, their day of rest. Six days a week time four goals = 24 Goals for Gina to achieve. For each Goal achieved she earns one (1) dime. During the week she puts stickers on the sheet and gets her motivators (dimes) which she puts into a plastic, clear jar. That way she can see exactly what she has earned towards a new toy on the weekend. Her foster mother believes Gina can find age appropriate toys for around $2.50 to $3.00 a toy.

What makes a Behavioral Plan successful?
The answer is simple: practice and more practice so the Steps are as simple as possible and the child gets rewarded for partial and then complete finishing the Goal.

For example, Gina when we started could not make her bed said her foster mom. Well, the cover was too big and too heavy for a thin, small 8 year old to move around. Thus, by simplifying and making a bed simply tossing a light duvet (down comforter) on a twin bed and putting the pillow in place — then making a bed by an 8 year old is simple and possible.

A second example:
Gina has never set the table for dinner. Part of the reason is that the plates are too high for her to reach and they are china easily breakable. Also, the utensils are not easy to get to. This is easily solved by moving plastic plates and smaller folks and spoons to one drawer that the child can reach. The point is to set it up so the child can successfully achieve the Goals.

Overall point: Parents can set simple ‘destinations’ for their child to drive their ‘car’ towards and by keeping the steps simple and practising the steps again and again their child can achieve those destinations to goals that parents set.

Very important: the hugs and ‘You did great!’ and ‘Keep trying!’ are as important and at times more important than any reward system. Parents – whether biological parents or foster parents – are the fire to ignite important, life long change in children.
Send comments to DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

Stanford Hospital (LPCH) frequently mis-diagnoses children with Intellectual Disability

Read the story of Maria below. To make a referral to Stanford hospital ( LPCH) as County Mental Health did with Maria is simply wrong. County Mental Health actions — and lack of actions — harm children who deserve better.

Maria’s story is not unusual. The story describes how many children are routinely mis-diagnosed by Stanford hospital (LPCH). Information concerning Maria and the actual parties involved have been changed or not specified to maintain privacy.

Maria, not the child’s real name, was for real exposed in utero to multiple illegal drugs. And as is true for many children exposed in utero to drugs, Maria, now age eight, has substantial difficulties that affect her overall development. Front and center, she has substantial difficulties with with executive functioning, attention and concentration.

Maria was removed at birth from her biological parents. She lives with a foster mother who only speaks Spanish and a handful of other children. In the home, she has no daily chores and prefers to play by herself. For the last several years, Maria has received County mental health services (medications and therapy) to assist with her dificulties related to inutero drug exposure.

In the home, Spanish is the principal language spoken by the foster mother. At school, Maria’s special education classes (SDC) are in English. Maria speaks a mixture of Spaish and English. For example she know shapes (circle, rectangle) and colors in English but not Spanish; on the other hand, she knows animals and and common home items better in Spanish.

Through her public school, Maria’s cognitive abilities have been assessed in Spanish, English and also with non-verbal tests. At school, she performs best on non-verbal, visual tests of intelligence that have less cultural bias. Assessed on multiple occasions, Maria performs variously. On I.Q. tests that do not rely on lanugae she performs in the Average to Low Average range.

County mental health gave Maria a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PPP-NOS). Saying that they sought more ‘diagnostic clarity’, the County recently referred Maria to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH) located in Stanford, CA.

Though County Menal Health initiated the referral to Stanford hospital (LPCH) they did not send along their own mental health records. The Mental Health therapist or psychiatrist could have put relevant mental health summary records in an envelope and given it to the family to take with them. That did not happen.

Nor did County Mental Health assist so that relevant school psychological assessments accompanied their referral to Stanford hospital (LPCH). With a Release signed by the mother the County Mental Health therapist could have ensured that school assessments accompanied the County’s referral to Stanford hospital. That did not happen.

As a result, there was no collaboration between County Mental Health, the local schools and local physicians. As a result Stanford hospital (LPCH) lacked up-to-date relevant records available for review. Very importantly, and one wonders about arrogance by Stanford hospital, LPCH routinely does not seek out additional information other than what it gets from their own assessment.

The family had to travel two to two and a half hours each way to go to Stanford hospital (LPCH). Although there are numerous licensed psychologists trained in assessment and diagnosis the County routinely chooses to refer outside the County to LCPH. If they wanted to, County Mental Health could reaadily refer to the local Psychological Association. Every County in CA has a psychological association.

Maria was recently assessed by Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH). Of importance, the LPCH assessment did not request nor review Maria’s multiple prior school assessments. And LPCH did not review Maria’s medical records nor her mental health records.

LPCH limited the assessment of Maria’s current functional abilities to the ratings that they obtained that day from Maria’s foster mother. No ratings were obtained from Maria’s teachers. Based on a one day assessment, done in English using a Wechsler IQ test known to have strong cultural biases, LPCH gave Maria diagnosis of Intellectual Disability/ Mental Retardation.

Yes this 9 year old child suffers from dificulties related to in utero drug exposure. And she has not yet stabilized her language abilities because she hears only Spanish at home and English at school. And yes on certain tests of executive functioning, attention and concentration she scores quite low.

Maria and other children referred by County mental halth deserve an accurate diagnosis based on a thorough review of relevant school, medical and mental health records. County mental health should collaborate with local psychological associations and use locally trained psychologists who can visit schools and observe children in their home enviornment. When referring outside the County, County Mental Healh should see that relevant school, medical and mental health records accompany their referral.

As I wrote above, to make a referral to Stanford hospital ( LPCH) as County Mental Health did with Maria is simply wrong. County Mental Health’s actions and lack of actions harm children who disserve better.

With an erroneous diagnosis in hand, County Mental Health will close Maria’s case saying that her supposed diagnosis of intellectual disability makes it impossible for her to profit from therapy. And with this diagnosis the schools probably will refer the family to social security.

What Maria truly needs is: 1) time to develop and stabilize her language abilities; 2) training in how to use schedules and other techniques that assist persons with problems with attention and concentration. Just because this eight year old tends to skip from step 1 to 4 does not mean she cannot learn to do tasks correctly. With correct interventions, Maria will be happier and society will not have to support her as an adult.

Commnets welcome. Send to: DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

So the fuming felon filed a federal suit against “I Don’t Know My Lawyer’s Name” for the truly astounding sum of “one houndred dollarys” in damages.

Some portions of Wilfredo Rodena’s self-filed suit against “I don’t know” are incomprehensible, but he filed the action as part of a civil-rights bid to overturn his 1989 conviction for kidnapping a young woman at knife point.

In his Manhattan federal court filing, Rodena claimed that “I don’t know” and he did “not fight for me at all. He did not said one word in my behelf.”

The suit also names Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson — whose name Rodena spelled correctly — and says, “the stenographer is envoled to. But I don’t no her name.”

Instead of typing, Rodena said, “All she did was Smirk at me. And kept her fingers over the machine, and never typed one letter.”
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After 20 plus years in the prison library, he gets his jailhouse degree.

jaj48@aol.com

Lying in the interst of a higher truth is OK per Boston teacher and Obama

Thus spake President Obama: “I had a chance to meet a young man named Robert Baroz. He’s an English teacher in Boston … In the last few years, he’s received three pink slips because of budget cuts. Why wouldn’t we want to pass a bill that puts somebody like Robert back in the classroom teaching our kids?’

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Is that “hire truth”or higher truth?
FirenzeSage48@gmail.com