Parents and teachers have found that evaluations, both those provided by public school systems and private clinicians and hospitals, vary greatly in their comprehensiveness, usefulness of information and specificity of recommendations. Therefore, parents must become informed consumers when selecting who will evaluate their children as well as what…

This resource guide designed for families and educators provides information on how attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is identified and treated. The resource includes sections on legal requirements, treatment options educational and medical evaluations, how ADHD affects school performance, and helpful evidence-based hints on how to…

As a part of the increasing emphasis among schools on meeting important statewide academic goals, schools are focusing more closely on the progress of individual students. Parents have a similar goal--to monitor the progress of their child. Frequent student progress monitoring accomplishes this common goal, in that it is used to track the progress…

There are many kinds of speech and language disorders that can affect children. This fact sheet will present four major areas in which these impairments occur. These are the areas of: (1) Articulation; (2) Fluency; (3) Voice; and (4) Language. Following a brief narrative on a day in the life of a Speech Language Pathologist, this fact sheet…

With childhood obesity and physical inactivity at an all-time high, parents and physical educators alike must look to the early years to promote competent and confident young movers. Popular opinion believes that children are naturally active and motor skill development progresses as a normal function of getting older. However, if one looks at…

Online learning continues to grow rapidly across the United States and the world, opening new learning opportunities for students and families. Informed estimates put the number of K-12 students in online courses at over 1 million, as parents and students are choosing online courses and schools for a variety of reasons that grow out of their…

In this article, the author shares how she turned once-dreaded parent-teacher conferences into valuable assessments, evaluations, and action plans using the fourth-generation evaluation method. Fourth-generation evaluation has three main components. First, it includes a multitude of assessment tools. Second, it involves stakeholders in the…

This valuable and entertaining compendium of Bill Robertson's popular "Science 101" columns, from NSTA member journal "Science and Children," proves you don't have to be a science geek to understand basic scientific concepts. The author of the best-selling "Stop Faking It!" series explains everything from quarks to photosynthesis, telescopes to…

The issue of homework is now uppermost in many parents' and teachers' minds. Researchers are questioning homework's effectiveness as an educational tool. Policy makers are thinking twice about what to do about it while kids have their fingers crossed. In two national surveys conducted by the authors, they have discovered a wide range of…

Bullying is a common and damaging form of violence among children. New Jersey state law defines "harassment, intimidation or bullying" as any gesture or written, verbal or physical act that is reasonably perceived as being motivated by any actual or perceived distinguishing characteristic and has the effect of causing harm to a student…

Spring is the season when thousands of creased cardboard pests can be found lodged under the armpits of students and teachers as they observe the educational rite of spring known as the school science fair. A recent visit to a local school's gymnasium to witness one of these events reminded the authors of why they so dislike science fairs. In this…

This booklet discusses a procedure to assist students experiencing difficulty in learning the "Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary of 220 Words" and rearranges a list of 220 words to make it easier for students to learn. The procedure discussed in the booklet is based on the "word family" approach, in which words like "all call,…

Despite predictions that handwriting would become obsolete in the age of technology, it is still considered an important skill today. Examples are cited of individuals who improved their understanding of themselves and of particular concepts after writing about their thoughts and feelings. Frequently, dyslexic students are denied access to this…

Children begin to learn at an early age their "place in the world." Through their natural curiosity and in using their five senses to explore nature, children begin to understand human-environment relationships: sensing how to get from point A to point B on their own, experiencing the movement of products and people, and observing how places…

This book is a step-by-step, concise, and easy-to-read reference for school teams, providers, students, and parents to understand, design, and evaluate positive behavior support (PBS) plans for students with developmental disabilities. It provides a clear conceptual framework on PBS to think critically about how to approach a student's problem…