Deborah Jepsen | January 31st, 2010
All the kids go back to skool...
All the children go back to school and the parents cheer “hooray”!
It is important for parents and children to be organised and prepared for school. Here are a few important tips to help:
- Get back into the routine as quickly as possible.
- Talk to your children and teenagers about the routine they will need to follow during the week and establish clear guidelines and boundaries. This will avoid fights and arguments. For example, what time they will wake up and go to bed, what time they will need to be ready to leave for school, what time they will have any sporting or other commitments afterschool and what time they are expected to do their homework.
- Have clear boundaries about the amount of TV, phone/texts and internet time. Differentiate between computer time to complete homework and computer time for socialising. Young people don’t need to have MSN, MySpace or Facebook open while they are completing their homework! Instead, that sort of activity should be used as a reward after homework and any additional study is completed.
- Try to eat together and talk about the day. Yes – without the TV on!
- Talk to young people about their day at school. Yes – even those reluctant-to-talk teenagers! Be creative with your questioning techniques. Ask them to tell you about their maths teacher or how well they think their teachers will be able to teach them this year. Ask them to tell you three good things about school and three things they would like to improve.
- Make sure there are heaps of healthy foods for each main meal and as snacks. Young people don’t need to drink soft drinks (that should be a special treat). Chips and lollies should be for parties ONLY, or again as a special treat. Kids need fruit, veggies and wholegrain food. Try to be creative and healthy with lunch. Water is often the best solution for drinks. Low fat flavoured milk is also ok.
- Try to be positive about school and talk about why school is important. It is essential that children develop a healthy opinion of school and how it will help them achieve their goals.
- Set goals with your children. Help them to set realistic goals and time-frames to achieve them. Place written goals up on the fridge or in your child’s room. Have fun with goals and display them visually and use lots of colour and stickers.
- Celebrate your Child’s success! Have a special dinner or a special toast, go out for dinner or give your child a small reward for making a smooth transition back into school.
- Enjoy the fact that your children are back at school learning new things. Easter Holidays are 8 weeks away!
filed under: Opinion
Deborah Jepsen | January 20th, 2010
Flash cards are a great way to summarise your notes, learn definitions and answer single sentence questions. They are good for true and false test questions.
Example of a definition flashcard:
Side 1: Dyslexia ( put the key term in the middle of the card).
Side 2:
1. Impaired ability to learn to read.
2. A learning disability in which a person finds it difficult to read and write.
You may like to include a picture of a person reading a book! (Having a picture to go with you definition helps you make visual links with the key word.)
Tips for making good flashcards:
- Use a reasonable size card and write legibly!
- Don’t try to cram too much information onto one card. (The general rule is no more than five key ideas).
- Always try to understand what the concept or definition before you write a flash card for it.
- Where possible use your own words, never just copy! (I know it is tempting to just copy!)
- If you are writing flash cards by hand, draw a picture of symbol that might help you recall the information more easily.
- Test yourself often and make a pile of the ones you might struggle with memorising and review these more often.
- Get a friend or family member to test you.
- Most of your time should be spend learning the flash cards, not creating them!
The Flashcard Machine
The flashcard machine is a free web application that enables users to create interactive web-based study flash cards and share them with others. It is easy to use and user-friendly.
There are several groups of flash cards up on this site with various VCE subjects already in the data base!
Website: flash card machine
filed under: Opinion, Study Skills
Deborah Jepsen | January 15th, 2010
Children get stuck from time to time and they need expert help to manage their emotions and deal with issues.
Children Need Help Too!
We see children every day that benefit from counselling. Children need a safe and secure environment where they can express themselves and get help with anything that they might be struggling with.
At School Psychology Services we specialise in working with children and young people. We work with young people, because love it, and that is what we do best! We are child and adolescent friendly psychologists!
Goals
Counsellors have identified four levels of goals when working with young people . These include fundamental goals, the parents’ goals, goals formulated by the counsellor and the child’s goals. (Geldard & Geldard, 1997). All these goals are need to be taken into consideration when working with young people.
Fundamental goals address painful issues, allow the child to feel good about who they are and empower the young person to control emotions such as anxiety, depression or anger.
Fundamental goals enable the child to accept their limitations and strengths and help to change any negative behaviour. Furthermore, these goals help the child adapt and thrive in their external environment and reach their full potential.
The psychologist working with the child addresses the fundamental goals, parents’ goals, formulates their own goals and works with the child’s goals. At times this may appear to be a bit of a juggling act, but with careful planning and negotiation, all needs and goals can be addressed.
We set goals with the parents and young people so everyone is clear about the direction each counselling session will take.
We focus and specialise in the following Child Psychology Issues:
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Anger Management
- Asperger’s Syndrome
- Anxiety in Children and Teenagers
- Building Positive Relationships with peers and parents
- Bullying
- Conflict Resolution
- Career Counselling
- Depression in Children and Teenagers
- Divorce and separation
- Dyslexia
- Educational Assessment
- Friendship Issues
- Gifted and Talented Assessment
- Goal Setting
- Grief and loss
- Learning Disabilities
- Learning Issues
- Learning Styles
- Life Coaching
- Motivation for school
- Organisation Skills
- Parenting
- Problem Solving Strategies
- Psychological Testing
- Relaxation Techniques
- Self Development
- Self Esteem Building
- Stress Management
- Special Education
- Social Skills
- Study Skills
- Thinking Skills
The more quickly an issue is addressed the faster it will be resolved. Don’t wait until your child has a serious issue, contact us today!
Help your child be all they can be and live life to their fullest potential!
filed under: Opinion
Deborah Jepsen | January 13th, 2010
Establish Good Routines
It is important to establish positive working routines that include work, rest, exercise and play!
With study and work it is essential to be organised and on top of things. The saying, “don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today”, may be helpful to keep in mind. Having set hours to study and work are important and will certainly ensure long term success.
Tip: Use your diary or weekly planner to block out times for school, work and study and stick to them!
Rest and relaxation are also very important. How many hours of sleep do you need per night? The average person needs 8 hours, however children and teenagers need more. With increased stress levels sleep also needs to increase (however, often the opposite is true!).
Tip: Make a list of activities that help you relax. This may include things like, playing with your dog, drawing or listening to music. Try to do one activity per day.
Sleeping Tip: Aim for 8 hours + of sleep every night! Make a commitment to this in 2010!
Exercise needs to be a part of daily routine. Exercise needs to be fun and part of everyday. There is no use starting a strenuous gym program that you can’t possibly sustain over the long term. Brisk walking, a jog around the block, a few laps at the local pool, or a roller blade with friends is a great way to enjoy exercise.
Tip: Write down all the activities you can do for exercise. Then write down one activity into your daily planner and stick to them. They need to become a habit.
Time to play and enjoy hobbies and interests are essential to enjoying life. Socialisation with friends and family is also part of life. TV is a good way to unwind and escape and so is reading a novel. In your weekly routine you need to include a few activities that help you “play”. This may also include playing a fun game!
Tip: Make a list of new and old play activities. For example, if you have never tried Yoga, you might like to buy yourself a DVD to try it, or sign up for a class. After you have written your list, try to do once play activity per day!
Tip: Schedule time to play in your week.
Good routines help us live life more fully. We are more in control and we are also able to deal with stressful events and people better. What can you do differently today that will make a difference to your weekly routine? Challenge yourself – you will be glad you did!
filed under: Opinion, Study Skills
