Blog

Street Arguments Against LLM General Intelligence

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:21:28 GMT

Infants, long before they can speak, respond meaningfully to music, touch, facial expressions, and body language. Across cultures, humans also connect deeply through wordless experiences—music, painting, play—often sharing profound meaning without language at all. Meaning, for humans, clearly exists independently of words.

We see this again in everyday speech. Sometimes, mid-sentence, you know exactly what you want to say but cannot retrieve the right word. Children experience this frustration constantly; adults experience it occasionally. In clinical cases of Aphasia, the separation becomes stark: a person may fully understand spoken language yet be unable to produce speech. Comprehension is there even when there is no competence to find words.

Large Language Models (LLMs) invert this relationship. For them, words are everything. Meaning does not exist beyond statistical patterns among words and tokens. LLMs exhibit a degree of competence without comprehension. This is simply their nature. Yet popular media and discourse frequently suggest otherwise.

LLMs, especially in ed-tech and tutoring, have ignited extraordinary hype. Media outlets overflow with predictions of imminent superintelligence. Sam Altman has written that OpenAI is confident it knows how to build AGI. Dario Amodei has suggested that AI smarter than “almost all humans at almost all things” could arrive by 2026–27. A Japanese startup recently claimed to have already achieved AGI.

The gap between reality and rhetoric matters—especially for technologies aimed at children or other vulnerable users. The loudest voices tend to be true believers, doomsayers, or opportunists. The signal-to-noise ratio is dreadful, and genuinely harmful to responsible ventures that need clarity, not myth.

I have long disbelieved in the possibility of Artificial General Intelligence in computers (i.e. finite Turing machines), influenced particularly by Roger Penrose’s arguments that human reasoning is free from certain constraints inherent in computers: e.g. does not suffer from Gödelian completeness/consistency problems, and is not restricted to first-order logic (See Penrose's books "The Emperor's new Mind", or "Shadows of the Mind"). But for many, those arguments can feel too abstracted. What follows are more concrete, LLM-specific reasons—grounded in observation rather than computer theory or philosophy.

Why this matters

In education and children’s technology, hype has real costs: misplaced trust, regulatory whiplash, unsafe deployment, and eventual backlash. We have already seen many examples of misuse (links in first comment):

In Mata v. Avianca, a legal brief generated with the help of an LLM cited six completely fabricated court decisions. Similar incidents worldwide have been ending careers and polluting case-law.
Character.ai faces serious allegations, including a wrongful death lawsuit, over inadequate safeguards for vulnerable child users.
In a BBC investigation, a mental-health chatbot responded to a claim of severe child abuse by suggesting the user “rewrite your negative thought so that it’s more balanced.”

These are not minor “teething problems.” They reflect a deeper issue: LLMs are fundamentally unreliable as reasoning and judgment tools.

The reasoning cliff

LLMs do not reason; they reproduce patterns of prior human text. When problems exceed the depth of examples seen during training, performance collapses. The paper “The Illusion of Thinking” documents a sharp reasoning cliff: as complexity increases, LLMs fail catastrophically. Even so-called “Large Reasoning Models” remain LLMs—optimized for the appearance of reasoning, not reasoning itself. Why expect a statistical imitation to outperform the thing it imitates?

The data wall

Could we fix this by training on more human reasoning? Hypothetically, if there were always an example of a perfect human response to any given prompt, then LLMs could succeed in compressing all that data and extracting it when needed. In reality, high-quality human text is finite, and LLMs are close to exhausting it. Training on synthetic output only worsens the problem. The 2023 paper “The Curse of Recursion” shows that models trained on their own generated data degrade and after a few generations collapse altogether. Synthetic text seems to be of a different quality to human-generated text. Genuine human-generated content is essential—and irreplaceable. Humans use words to express meaning. LLMs use words as the entire system. Confusing the two is superstition, not science.

Vision won’t save them

Some argue that giving models vision or sensory input will unlock human-level understanding. But human visual perception is not a passive recording; it is selective, goal-driven, and value-laden. The famous “invisible gorilla” basketball video illustrates this perfectly: what we “see” depends on what we understand and care about. Sensory data without comprehension merely recreates the same problem at a larger scale.

Tool-using agents change nothing

An LLM could, as an example, detect that it is being asked to perform a mathematical calculation, and then use calculator software to achieve an accurate answer, just as a child in a mental arithmetic test could ask to use a calculator. Delegating reasoning to calculators or external software does not create general intelligence. If all genuine reasoning lives in pre-existing tools, then the LLM is merely a convenient interface—not a system that comprehends.

A clear path forward

LLMs produce responses that look meaningful, but they do not comprehend meaning (as with all AI to date). Of course it is possible for a machine to have competence without comprehension: a mechanical digger can dig competently without comprehending digging; a CPU can compute competently without comprehending arithmetic. But for a machine to deal in meaning itself, to competently act on the meaning of a prompt and provide an appropriately meaningful response, then it is an oxymoron for that machine to do so without comprehension. Competence in this case will eventually fail.

For this reason, LLMs remain unsuitable for moral guidance, emotional support, sensitive negotiation, adjudication, or leadership—especially where children or vulnerable people are involved. Safeguards are not optional; they are foundational.

At eKidz.eu, we treat these limits as axiomatic. We develop fine-tuned LLMs to do what computers do well: personalize content, recall data perfectly, and optimize learning pathways. Human judgment, values, and responsibility remain with humans.

The AI bubble will deflate—likely in 2026. What survives should be both the fittest and the healthiest for society. We can make that transition less painful by abandoning the myths and retiring the term “Artificial Intelligence”, perhaps replacing it with a less sexy and less loaded term, such as "Trained Software" which better expresses the true nature of technology.

Clarity—not hype—is the path forward.

John McDonagh
CTO at eKidz.eu

]]>

eKidz Opens Child-Specific Speech Recognition to Power an Inclusive Literacy Ecosystem

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:22:05 GMT

By making specialized ASR affordable and accessible, eKidz enables the entire literacy field to rise

MUNICH, Germany | February 9, 2026 — eKidz today announced a major step toward inclusive, voice-based literacy by opening access to its child-specific speech recognition technology through affordable licensing and APIs. By making specialized automatic speech recognition (ASR) models available to education and assessment providers, eKidz is enabling multilingual learners and students with learning differences to be accurately understood at scale, no matter where or how they learn.

This approach marks a shift in how voice technology serves education. Rather than keeping advanced models locked inside a single product, eKidz is opening its ASR infrastructure so curriculum publishers, assessment organizations, and EdTech innovators can build high-quality, child-safe voice experiences without prohibitive cost or technical barriers.

Built specifically for young learners, eKidz’s ASR platform performs in real-world classrooms where general-purpose voice systems often fail. It recognizes children’s speech with phoneme-level precision, handles classroom-grade background noise, and supports diverse accents, dialects, code-switching, and disability-related speech patterns.

“Voice is becoming a primary interface for learning, and children deserve technology that is built for them and available to all,” said Nataliya Tetruyeva, CEO of eKidz. “By making our child-specific ASR inclusive and accessible, we are helping ensure that every child is accurately heard, not just those using a single platform or product.”

This commitment to inclusive infrastructure was recently recognized by the Global EdTech Startup Awards (GESAwards), which awarded eKidz for its AI-powered, child-specific speech recognition Advancing Children’s Literacy worldwide.

“eKidz exemplifies what meaningful AI in education should look like,” said Avi Warshavsky, Founder of GESAwards and CEO of MindCET. “Their technology is purpose-built for children, grounded in research, and designed to ensure every child is truly heard.”

Enabling an inclusive literacy ecosystem through licensing

eKidz’s licensing strategy provides specialized ASR models for children through APIs and tailored commercial frameworks. This allows partners to integrate safe, high-quality voice recognition into reading instruction, oral assessment, and formative learning tools without building ASR systems from scratch.

The result is faster innovation, better interoperability, and voice-based learning and assessment tools that are inclusive by design rather than limited by access to proprietary technology. Initial pilot integrations are already underway, signaling a move toward a more connected and equitable literacy ecosystem.

“eKidz is tackling one of the hardest problems in educational AI: generating trustworthy evidence from children’s speech at scale,” said Alina von Davier, Senior Research Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University and advisor to eKidz. “Their child-specific ASR sets a new bar for how voice technologies can support learning and assessment across multilingual and diverse learners.”

Designed for safety, trust, and school readiness

eKidz’s platform is built with a kid-safe approach that prioritizes privacy, reliability, and responsible use in educational settings. Development emphasizes safeguards, developmentally appropriate interaction design, and alignment with classroom realities shaped through educator collaboration and pilots.

Validation today, access for millions tomorrow

Today, eKidz’s ASR platform is used by more than 300,000 students across classrooms and homes in the United States and Europe, providing strong real-world validation of its performance. In Europe, deployments include Germany and Luxembourg, while in Latin America the company is advancing major initiatives in Colombia with additional programs in development across the region.

While these hundreds of thousands of learners validate the technology, eKidz’s open licensing strategy is designed to ensure that millions of children worldwide benefit from accurate, inclusive voice-based literacy through the broader ecosystem.

About eKidz

eKidz builds a kid-safe conversational platform powered by inclusive, child-specific speech recognition and guardrail AI. Its technology recognizes diverse accents, dialects, code-switching, and disability-related speech patterns, enabling equitable coaching and assessment across reading, writing, and learning.

Media Contact

Nataliya (Natasha) Tetruyeva
Co-Founder and CEO, eKidz
nataliya.tetruyeva@ekidz.eu
+49 176 72811809
www.ekidz.eu

]]>

eKidz app implements an integrated learning system with automated evaluation of reading skills using AI

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 10:47:20 GMT

Empowering literacy with AI

eKidz app implements an integrated learning system with automated evaluation of reading skills using AI

Despite all efforts in recent years, the downward trend in the basic skills of young learners has not been halted.

The Munich-based startup eKidz, together with its partners at Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg, the University of Regensburg and Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, has now completed an innovative solution for use in schools as part of the “LeseKind” (Reading Child) research and development project (Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany project code: 01IS22009). The system for reading and language support combines automatic analysis of reading skills with AI, adaptive feedback and a systematic learning program. The program sets in motion an AI-driven cycle of learning, analysis and support that is often too complex and time-consuming for teachers to create on their own in the classroom.

As part of the project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Oldenburg contributed its automatic speech recognition algorithms for children's speech and jointly with eKidz and partners adapted them specifically for reading aloud. An important project focus of the developers was the applicability of automatic speech recognition for children's speech in a noisy classroom environment, as well as the final integration and evaluation of the assessment algorithms for reading diagnosis. The language analysis is integrated into the eKidz app and is based on both the initial level assignment and the ongoing assessment of learning progress in the context of 12 AI reading fluency tests.

Since October 2024, the final component of the integrated learning system—automated placement into reading levels—has been offered to all users. An AI-supported oral reading fluency assessment is displayed in the eKidz app when the user first logs in, and the automatic scoring is conducted placing a student at an appropriate level of the program. The AI level assignment makes it easier for the child to start learning at the optimal level and for the teacher to provide appropriate support from the very first lesson.

The AI reading fluency tests, which measure reading accuracy, reading speed, and reading comprehension, provide an ongoing reading skills analysis of each child. It automates the formative assessment of reading. Teachers can determine exactly when the ongoing reading assessment is administered to their students with just one click. The necessary kind of support is made visible in the app for individual students, the class, and the entire school.

The eKidz app leads to greater personalization of learning, since the AI reading analysis is carried out at a differentiated level. It addresses the first to six grades of elementary school as well as the language support classes in middle and high school.

The number of tests, which can also be taken several times by a child, allows a more succinct, yet thorough, individual assessment than traditional assessment procedures, which are only carried out once or twice a year, if at all.

The eKidz solution does not require any additional teacher resources, as the data is collected in the eKidz app's program, which has already been tried and tested in schools. This means that the data that is regularly collected during reading classes in the safe environment of the eKidz app is readily available to the teacher. They no longer have to spend time determining the learning status of their students. The AI feature created in this project takes care of assessment, feedback, and progress tracking. The “LeseKind” (Reading Child) project has created a combination of AI-supported automated reading diagnosis and personalized support based on this that is unique in Europe and internationally.

“Compared to conventional reading support programs, the eKidz app enables continuous monitoring of the reading learning process and feedback on learning progress to the children and teachers. This close-meshed feedback is particularly beneficial for learning.” – Dr. Anita Schilcher, professor from the University of Regensburg

“The speed of the analysis and the accuracy of the evaluation increase motivation during learning. The adaptation of our speech recognition technology to the field of reading exercises and children's language is very important for this and has also proven successful in the “LeseKind” (Reading Child) project.” – Jan Wellmann, Group Leader Audio System Technology & Automatic Speech Recognition at Fraunhofer IDMT.

“We can now offer school administrators, involved in learning assessment and individual diagnostics, a sound, state-of-the-art solution. In view of the growing number of students struggling in the core subject of literacy, we can relieve the burden on teachers and make it easier to support young learners. This includes ongoing assessment of the learning situation.” – Nataliya (Natasha) Tetruyeva, founder and CEO of eKidz.

“Automated grading using AI opens up new ways of supporting children in learning to read. It is also highly scalable and offers potential for further research activities in reading support.” – Dr. Peter John, professor from the Flensburg University of Applied Sciences

The international award-winning start-up eKidz was founded in 2017 and is developing an app for teaching children to read and learn languages at school. The AI reading fluency assessment developed as part of the “LeseKind” (Reading Child) research project is incorporated into the eKidz app. To learn more about eKidz's current program, visit www.ekidz.eu.

eKidz.eu GmbH

eKidz provides a personalized learning and reading experience and targeted language development support for primary school students. eKidz facilitates the incorporation and education of multiple language learners who are insecure in a school’s taught language medium. eKidz achieves this by making acquiring literacy and language competencies interactive and accessible for every child. Working in conjunction with teachers, eKidz provides personalized instruction for K-12 students utilizing purpose-built AI speech diagnostics and adaptive feedback. A universal reading and language app, eKidz was designed for self-guided reading practice; for multiple language learners and for interventions and for literacy instruction. Personalized language development is also being used successfully in special education.

Further information:

www.ekidz.eu

Press contacts:

Nataliya Tetruyeva, CEO
Tel. +49 89-20940905
info@ekidz.eu

Flensburg University of Applied Sciences

Flensburg University of Applied Sciences is a public university in Schleswig-Holstein. Its teaching and research focuses on the fields of technology, economics, and computer science.

Further information:

https://www.hs-flensburg.de

Press contacts:

Torsten Haase
https://hs-flensburg.de/hochschule/personen/haase

Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology HSA at Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg

Founded in 2008 by Prof. Dr. Dr. Birger Kollmeier and Dr. Jens-E. Appell, the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT’s Branch for Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology HSA stands for market-oriented research and development with a focus on the following areas:

Speech and event recognition
Sound quality and speech intelligibility
Mobile neurotechnology and systems for networked healthcare

With in-house expertise in the development of hardware and software systems for audio system technology and signal enhancement, the employees at the Oldenburg site are responsible for transferring scientific findings into practical, customer-oriented solutions. Through scientific cooperation, the institute is closely linked to the Carl von Ossietzky University, Jade University of Applied Sciences, and the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer. Fraunhofer IDMT is a partner in the »Hearing4all« cluster of excellence and in the Collaborative Research Centre »Hearing Acoustics«.

Further information:

www.idmt.fraunhofer.de/hsa

Press contacts:

Christian Colmer
Head of Marketing and Communication Oldenburg Branch HSA
Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT
Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology HSA
Marie-Curie-Straße 2
26129 Oldenburg, Germany
Tel. +49 441 2172-436
christian.colmer@idmt.fraunhofer.de
http://www.idmt.fraunhofer.de/hsa

University of Regensburg

Chair of Didactics of German Language and Literature at the University of Regensburg

The University of Regensburg (UR), founded in 1962, is a modern campus university. As a comprehensive university, it unites twelve faculties on one contiguous campus and has one of the most modern university libraries in Germany. Initially planned as a regional university, in the new millennium it has developed into a renowned, internationally oriented center for research and teaching. Research at the UR is extremely successful in the natural sciences, life sciences, and humanities.

Further information:

https://www.uni-regensburg.de
Dr. Johannes Wild / Prof. Dr. Anita Schilcher

Press contacts:

Presidential Department
Communication & Marketing
Press Officer Bastian Schmidt
Tel. +49 941 943-5566
E-Mail: presse@ur.de

]]>

The new AI enabled superpower for kids

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 11:00:34 GMT

Hi I'm John McDonagh, the CTO of eKidz.eu, and I'm going to talk a bit about how artificial intelligence is contributing to a boom in language education and language development both for children and for adults. eKidz.eu is a mobile learning platform that currently has content in English, German, Spanish and Ukrainian. Coincidentally I have a 3 year old daughter, who is being raised bilingual in German and English, and also she's picking up some Spanish from her mother's side of the family.

Language problem

So, why is language development and education different from other areas of learning? Well, every child in the world quickly picks up a language without the need for lessons. The linguist Noam Chomsky was one of the first people to explore the idea of language innatism. His insight started with the observation that our native language development occurs automatically and without anything that resembles traditional teaching.

Typically a child is presented with stimuli. Say, simple sentences they hear from their parents. And once children are physically mature enough to create the necessary sounds, they start to attempt their own sentence formations. The responses from the parents are rarely explicit corrections or formal descriptions of the target grammar, but rather just general, albeit relevant, sentences from which the child can continue to attune their understanding. For continued strong language development the child will need richer stimuli from varied sources, for instance from school, from teachers and fellow students. One might reasonably ask, "If everyone naturally and automatically develops the language faculty, why would any further help be needed?"

The first reason is that even where a native language is concerned, children will have widely varying proficiencies, deficiencies and learning impediments. Children come from different backgrounds, being exposed to different stimuli and hence, will be learning different dialects. For a teacher, this makes maximizing each child's progress an impossibly complex task, since they will be working with restricted time, individualized focus and limited expertise.

When it comes to second or third languages, these obstacles to progress grow exponentially.

tech revolSo is where an exciting technological revolution comes in. For the first time in history we have the ability to start engaging children's language development both on a mass scale, whilst also with incredibly individualised guidance.

There are two reasons for this revolution. The first is the quantum leaps that have been made in natural language processing and speech recognition in the 21st century. Deep Learning Neural Networks in recent years have made massive advances in fields such as speech recognition; and we're all beginning to see the results of this in our everyday lives. So far most of the technology we commonly experience is very generalized.

But the second reason, and what really creates the synergy here - is the saturation of powerful and cheap mobile devices in peoples hands. Every child with access to a phone or tablet is a provider of the data that fuels our machine learning models. Every sentence they utter using our app helps us become better at what we are trying to do.

Imagine an 8 year old Spanish girl trying to read aloud a German text. The individualized experience should be that her competency, say with enunciating certain phonemes or with understanding certain sentence structures, should be accurately assessed by the platform, and then the most fruitful stimuli should be provided back in a constant feedback loop that maximizes the progress towards mastery of the target language.

This is precisely what eKidz aims to do. As hardware becomes widely distributed to schools, the software for home and blended learning is becoming ever more required and mandated in schools. A commensurate mandate for enhanced quality and intelligence in the educational software inevitably follows, and eKidz.eu wants to be ahead of the curve. As we build a large and diverse corpus of speech data, we also assemble a diverse constellation of algorithms, neural nets, graphs and other processors so that we can profile each child accurately and comprehensively. We constantly engage them with content that challenges them in the most productive manner possible. Of course these profiles will inform, and be informed by parents, teachers and mentors of users.

These AI and machine learning systems will be constantly expanded, updated and improved. Therefore it is necessary to have a solid and generalized underlying architecture, which can categorize, process and deliver large amounts of content, via interfaces to these current and future processors. Many auxiliary processors and tools are also essential to the success of such a solution, such as tools to clean up audio and remove background noise from rambunctious classrooms and noisy homes.

Crucially, privacy is a huge current and future concern with children’s personal data. To this extent, ekidz.eu uses secure data centers and has its own built-in encryption. Furthermore our data storage systems are organized in such a way as to allow for federalized data centers for countries or school districts, who request isolation of their own data, as well as specific geographic location of their dedicated data centers.

In summary, the vision for ekidz.eu is a personalized engagement with students from any demographic or background, and targeting a growing range of languages. Not only will ekidz.eu continue an exciting engagement for the student, but we will also keep an ongoing conversation and information exchange with teachers and parents.

]]>

Technology in its Glory: Capability to Meet Educational Needs of the Future – Women in Cloud

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 11:32:17 GMT

Looking back at my journey, I have come to realize that over the years I worked hard to independently forge an international way in the business while nurturing a thriving family – it would have been so much easier with a network of like-minded support. A platform where ideas are shared and problems solved by people who experience the same barriers was missing; Women in Cloud offers this – a place where women can help each other progress in a world dictated by men, after all, a problem shared is a problem halved.

Women make up roughly 50% of the world’s population. I believe this is a significant force that can and should be used to empower all that is good! Instead of continuing the traditional and destructive pursuit of GDP, I believe a collective of women with positive, proactive, and purposeful ideas can rethink a sustainable economy and improve the quality of life for everyone and everything that shares the planet.

I am not the first to say that “Education is the Answer.” Despite this 175M children lack basic literacy skills. Around 2/3 of the world’s illiterates are women (UNN, 2010). Children and their facilitators in deprived areas have even less of a chance to succeed in life.

The reasons for this are 1) Gender bias 2) Poverty 3) Lack of resources. Utilizing shared knowledge, resources, and technological prowess, we can level the playing field and improve world prospects by uplifting women from the ground up and providing every child – irrespectively of gender, culture, and parenting background – equal opportunities to access education. At the Women in Cloud Digital Summit 2021, I want to share my ideas on ways to utilize AI to reduce barriers, and positively impact families, and nations.

“If women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well.” — Hillary Clinton

With my association with Women in Cloud, I aim to enable the use of AI educational tools – giving remote, poor, and underprivileged children access to high-quality tuition, feedback (AI enables recording, data collection, and analysis)

Partnering with Cloud hyperscalers such as Microsoft, afford memory and storage of lessons, data, and feedback to populations that could not otherwise access tools that can propel and certify their academic progression.

Technology has been underused in the furthering of rural women’s educational and economic opportunities with men being the primary adopters of assistive technology. This is mirrored to a lesser degree of 60%-40% in modern settings (Gill et al, 2010). Policies that would lessen the educational gap by means of technology, need to be focused on 1) delivery of energy to support electronic technology 2) refocusing of the hardware development lifecycle from marketing, aesthetics, and profit to longevity, user-focused simplicity, and affordability. 3) finally this hardware needs to be connected, so free cloud and internet coverage of rural and impoverished areas need to be implemented.

“Modern technology enables us to meet the needs of those on the fringe of society, making technology a necessity in the realization of these children’s potential.” – Nataliya Tetruyeva

]]>

Five Activities to Keep them Clever Kinaesthetically

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 10:09:40 GMT

If your household is anything like the rest of ours during lockdown – keeping sane while controlling the kids is a challenge. Boredom. No outlet for energy. Trouble sleeping. A recipe for rebellion!

Moving and learning go hand-in-hand so here are some great ways to burn off the kilojoules while exercising the brain!

ABCDExercise

Give your child a printed list of the alphabet, like so.

If you have one child, tell them that you are going to give them 30minutes (just over 1 minute per letter) to find an object in the house that starts with each letter and write it down. If there is a letter that they are struggling with, they can find two of another letter. Alternatively, they can miss a letter and do five burpees.

If they beat the clock – give them a reward (preferably not sweets… maybe let them off a chore for the day)

If you have more than one child, you could turn it in to a race and handicap the older child by making them find three objects for each vowel.

To make it more challenging for secondary students, why not let them use a translator and give them the challenge in Spanish or German…

Hide and Seek Story puzzle

Do an internet search for “short stories for kids/children/teenagers”. Alternatively, for shorter texts use a poem (kids love Roger McGough and Kens Nesbitt poems for kids). Roald Dahl, Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, Grimm’s Fairy Stories, myths and legends are some sources you could use.

Print off the story, making sure to save the location of the original text as a key, and cut up the text into paragraphs or verses. Hide each paragraph or verse in a different location. Your child then needs to find all parts to the text and arrange them in the correct order. if you have used a poem, your child could memorize it and recite it the family.

Silent cinema scriptwriting activity

Select age appropriate video cartoon or short video (five to twenty minutes long) that is has no spoken words (such as Mr Bean or The Children’s Tree). I searched “children’s wordless cartoon” and a variety of videos came up. Aim to choose a video that has the same amount of characters as who will be able to act the play out.

Instruct the child to watch the short video and to invent the words that the characters are saying. They are to write them down in playscript form with character’s names on the left in italics and script on the right along with stage directions, like so:

Remind your child that plays happen in real time – in the moment, so what tense should they write in? Chiefly present tense.

Once the script is complete, your child takes on the role of director and allocates roles to other family members (including themselves) in order to perform their play.

Duplicating the script can be problematic if there is no scanner or printer… but if each person re-copies the script for themselves (or the child can write extra copies), it would be a great memorising activity for the play!

Orienteering

Ask your child to draw a map of the property. Before they draw the property, tell them that they are to measure the distance from each wall in steps and write down on the paper, how many steps long each wall is.

Once they have completed the map, use it to mark a X to show the approximate location where you have hidden a question (Geography questions tie in with the theme of orienteering). For age appropriate question ideas, do an internet search for kid’s quizzes – with answers!

Once your child has found all the questions, they can use whatever resources they like to find the answers. For each incorrect answer there is a burpee penalty and of course a reward for each correct answer.

Maths Big Bang

For this activity, you will need plain balloons, a felt tip and paper.

Fill up the balloons with a treat. Using the felt tip pen, write a mathematics problem on each balloon (dependent on the child’s age of course). You can find suitable sums and equations by doing an internet search for “Maths for Kids”.

On separate pieces of paper, write down the answers to each of the problems. Your child must select a balloon problem and pick out the correct answer from the pack of cards. Once they have selected the correct answer, they can pop the corresponding balloon problem.

String up the balloons just out of reach so that your child must jump in order to pop the balloon and win the reward.

If you want to extend the activity, instead of putting the reward into the balloon – write a clue to where you have hidden the reward on another piece of paper. Place that in the balloon so that your child then must go and find the reward before coming back to solve the next problem.

These are just a few of the entertaining activities that the gang at eKidz have come up with. Visit our website at: https://www.ekidz.eu/en/es/ForParents to follow our blog for more ideas or sign up for a great eKidz language learning trial for your child. Entertaining stories narrated Karaoke style, in Spanish and German for beginner learners – allowing them to learn vocabulary, learn correct pronunciation as well as reading in a foreign language.

]]>

How Speech Delay Affects Language Development in Children

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:31:54 GMT

Most children who show difficulties in reading have or have had a form of speech disorder such as speech delay, dyslexia or stuttering. In this article, we explore what kind of role speech disorders play in a child's literacy development.

Speech therapists and psychologists believe that speech disorders are responsible for the failure of some functions critical in acquisition of literacy – reading and writing skills. Disorders affecting phonetic-phonological, psycholinguistic, and pragmatic-communicative levels of language have different effects on how children learn.

Examples of linguistic disorders and speech delay affecting how children learn:

Incorrectly formed sounds
Weaknesses in the auditory distinction of sounds
Inadequate vocabulary
Incorrect use of grammatical structures

First of all, we should define speech disorders.

What is "Normal" Language Development and How Are Speech Delays and Disorders Diagnosed?

It is important first to understand that a speech disorder is a deviation from the developmental norms for speech. These "norms for speech and language " are common forms of language use.

Language disorders are, therefore, deviations in the language development of a child from these norms, which are defined as rules, age and development stage appropriate use of the mother tongue. Deviations are caused by a psychophysiological malfunction of the speech system.

Experts diagnose speech delays and speech disorders in the following cases and after the initial phase of language acquisition is accomplished by a child:

The language development is not age-appropriate.
The language of the child is not a dialect and the child is not an illiterate.
There is no connection with language being foreign.
The speech disorder is sustainable, i.e. not "just a phase".

These disturbances can extend to one, several or all structural levels and subfunctions of the speech system.

How Do I Know if My Child is Dyslexic?

In widely accepted scientific literature, dyslexia is defined as a sustained developmental delay in reading or writing in children.

Dyslexia refers to a cognitive difficulty with reading and writing due to inadequate development of higher cognitive functions (visual and spatial perception, attention and self-control, etc.), thus resulting in a speech delay. Dyslexia manifests itself in repetitive and persistent reading weaknesses. It also results in low reading accuracy and fluency.

Key signs of dyslexia in children:

Substitution of similar sounding sounds when reading (voiced and voiceless p, t, k and b, d, g)
Difficulty recognizing mirrored letters (b - d, p - q, Z - N, W - M, J - L)
Synthesis difficutlties: has trouble blending several sounds to make syllables and words
Show difficulty taking away the middle sound from a word or replacing it with a new sound
Insufficient reading comprehension of single words, sentences or the entire text
Incorrect reading aloud, often skip over small words i.e. prepositions
Reversed reading of words: from right to left

Most of the above difficulties are also quite common in beginner readers, and in this case it is not a reading disorder. However, if these difficulties are persistent even after the child has completed learning all the individual letters and understood the principle of reading, then such errors may indicate a reading disorder.

How Do Speech Disorders and Speech Delay Affect the Process of Reading Learning?

Since speech disorders in children are manifold, they have a diverse impact on reading.

Reading is a process that activates a variety of analyzers: visual, oral motor, speech auditory. The reading process starts with the visual perception, differentiation and recognition of letters. Children with speech disorders often have difficulties with visual perception in the initial phase. This leads to problems with the differentiation of graphically similar letters and with the recognition of the letters in a letter series. It often leads to replacing, omitting in and adding letters and syllables to the words.

In the next stage of reading, the connection between letters and corresponding sounds is practised with the help of an initial sounds alphabet. As a result, the sounds in the words can be connected and read. If a child shows difficulties with the reproduction of sounds (skipping or distortion of the sounds), which is common in speech delay, the child learns to read the words incorrectly. This makes the reading indecipherable to the child itself or listeners.

In the final stage of reading, the word and its meaning are linked. As a result of incorrect pronunciation or inability to memorise many words, the child does not comprehend the meaning of what is read. He or she can understand the meaning of each separate word, but forget it while reading.

Thus, due to speech disorders and the associated cognitive disorders, the reading process is adversely affected and such children have to overcome technical and semantic hurdles. Comprehension problems are often overcome with the accomplishment of therapy focused on the specific speech impairment. However, often there are cases where a child’s language skills are fully developed, but the reading disorder is persistent.

In this case, the expert must determine the cause of the reading disorder and the correspondingly affected cognitive function. Then, the form of dyslexia can be identified and and an individual support program can be created.

Today, it is proven that the earlier the speech disorders and speech delay are corrected in children, the lower the risk of learning disabilities in reading and writing will be.

]]>

What to Expect when Your Bilingual Child Starts Learning to Read

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:42:13 GMT

A quarter of one million people migrate to the UK each year¹, increasing the number of children growing up bilingual or multilingual. As both a practicing child psychologist and speech therapist, I am often asked questions by parents of bilingual children learning to read. Some of the most common are:

Does a psychological conflict cause reading impairments in multilingual children?
How is reading fluency connected with verbal language development in multilingual children?
Are reading disorders a consequence of language uncertainty or bilingual education?
Which prevention strategies can help alleviate reading impairments in multilingual children?

In this article, I'll address each in turn. Many children who learn two or more languages simultaneously while growing up -- for example, the mother speaks English and the father Spanish -- learn both languages with relatively little delays in development and pace of learning. However, other children might struggle and experience delayed speech and literacy development. These children often mix languages, use false words, or form grammatically false sentences.

Does Bilingual Education Affect Literacy and Reading Development?

The opinions of even foremost experts in this field differ. In this article, we look into causes of reading impairment in a specific case of multilingual upbringing. At the end, we'll formulate recommendations and prevention strategies that could help parents and educators.

Does a psychological conflict cause reading impairments in multilingual children?

Scientists and educators point out to the psychological conflict with multilingual children, which can be one of the causes for language disorders. The psychological conflict derives from the child’s natural inclination to his native language and the necessity to communicate in a different language, language of the country of living etc. For example, in the case of multilingualism the child uses one language at home, another at school and on the street (the language of his environment). In another case, the parents speak two different languages at home and in addition to this, a third local language is added.

Multilingual children are forced to used words and sounds to communicate that are foreign to them. This can lead to internal dissatisfaction and create a communication barrier. Some children need time to determine their native language which leads to the child being more silent. The consequence of insufficient verbal exercise can lead to a stagnation in the early language learning process and delayed language development.

The psychological conflict described above can lead to language impairments and in some cases dyslexia, a persistent reading disorder.

How is Reading Fluency Connected with Verbal Language Development in Multilingual Children?

In a multilingual upbringing the following factors can have a negative impact on reading competencies:

Psychological conflict
Language impairments
Learning disabilities

Language therapists agree that psychological conflict and emotional insecurity which a child may experience are secondary reasons for the development of dyslexia. The real reason is the particularities in verbal language development and expressive language disorder in multilingual children.

This leads to an impairment in acquisition of literacy, which is characterised by the following disorders:

Speech impediment: unclear pronunciation due to imprecise articulation or lack of fluidity in speech
Simplistic language structure and insufficient comprehension skills
"Mixing up" vocabulary

Children growing up bilingual can experience difficulties with the generalisation and transfer of linguistic concepts. All languages have different rhythmics, sound systems and grammatical structures. The rules of a target language can contradict the rules of other target languages. This results in multilingual children handling contradictory rules in early stages of language learning before they have fully comprehended the rules of their native language. As a result these children tend to speak in more simple sentences and often use grammar incorrectly. Bothe pronouncation and choice of words in this case can be wrong.

These specific disorders in the earlier stages of verbal language development, as well as delayed learning of language rules lead to dyslexia in multilingual children. Hence, the psychological conflict is a secondary problem.

Are reading disorders a consequence of language uncertainty or bilingual education?

Reading disorders affect the social-emotional development of the child. Stagnation in the language acquisition process and failure to progress in learning to read can intensify child’s insecurity, shyness and anxiety. It can also lead to anger and aggression. In these cases bilingual and multilingual children get caught in a vicious circle:

The emotional reaction increases poor reading ability. In order to avoid further frustration, the child becomes reluctant to read and poorly articulate phonemes. This deepens negative emotional reaction triggered by continued failure in reading.
Some bilingual children are irritated on the occasions of verbal communication due to insufficient language understanding and lack of vocabulary required to express themselves.

Common reading problems in multilingual children

Incorrect reading of words and phrases
Children speculate or guess rather than read
Difficulties in reading comprehension of single words and whole sentences

Clearly, children growing up in a multilingual environment experience very specific reading difficulties. The main reason for which is the delay in early speech development. This delayed begin of speech acquisition in the dominant language reinforces the suspicion of a language disorder. However, multilingual education in itself is not the underlying cause of reading disorders.

Which prevention strategies can help alleviate reading impairments in bilingual and multilingual children?

Spend longer amounts of time learning each letter: Let the child paint, flip, cut and colour the letters.

Playfully introduce graphically similar letters bd, pq, ZN, WM, JL: Discuss the graphical differences or similarities, help children develop their own recognition rules and reminders. Practice recognition and read these letters often in different words.

Begin with one language and introduce the second language only after the child has developed strong reading skills in the first one.

The most important rule: Use only one language at a time during your learning and playing sessions!

With multilingualism, you give your child the great opportunity to develop themselves in our modern and international world. For a growing number of children, bilingualism is becoming a natural environment, learning to think, speak and later to read and write in two languages. Preventive strategies can help bilingual and multilingual children to avoid potential language development problems.

The old addage "practice makes perfect" works miracles.

Sources:

¹Net migration statistics in the United Kingdom, The Guardian

]]>

Is Being Left Handed Connected to Learning Difficulties?

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 10:53:55 GMT

One of the most common questions posed to me as a child psychologist and speech therapist is a question about reading disorders. And more often than not, they come from parents of children who are left handed.

Already at the stage of gathering information about the history of the child's development, as soon as I understand that the child is left handed, I have a number of hypotheses about the origin of the learning difficulties, literacy acquisition, counting, etc. Parents themselves say that they have repeatedly heard from specialists in response to the disorders identified: "Aha, that makes sense now. He's left handed!».

The Connection Between Left Handedness and Learning Difficulties

It's important to note that the mental development of a left handed child still leads to heated scientific discussions to this day. Scientists argue about the origin of left-handedness, the differences between left-handedness and the lefty, the specifics of their mental development and language processing. There is a clear conclusion, however, amidst all the discussions: among the population of people with reading disabilities, the number of left handed persons is significantly higher than right handers.

Analysing the cases that I had to face, I can definitely confirm the high frequency of the disorders mentioned among left handed children.

Related article in the New York Times: Some Disorders Appear to be Linked to Being Left Handed

Why are Left Handers So Different?

The presence of left-handedness in a child (full or partial), in most cases, means atypical mental development i.e. different from the generally accepted statistical average. Therefore a number of developmental delays can be observed with the lefties in particular in their oral and written language skills, counting and mastering math operations. These children are at risk of becoming stutterers.

The number of left handed children with learning disabilities is approximately two and a half times higher than the average figures for right handers.

The reasons for this are manifold. However, the key factor is the inextricable and intimate connection of the left-handedness and the hemispheric dominance that leads to a specific functional organisation of the brain work. This means that the left-handed brain works and complies by some other rules in comparison with right-handed people.

A characteristic feature of left handers is the insufficient and specific development of visual perception, which normally creates the basis for mastering reading and writing. For these children, difficulties in the interaction of the cerebral hemispheres are typical, which leads to information processing and response to be slowed down: visual, auditory, tactile ...

Unfortunately children with left handedness do not receive adequate assistance in school, since education and upbringing are focused on right handed people.

{{ "How-do-left-handers-learn-to-read-560x560.png" | asset_url | img_tag }}

How Do Left Handed Children Learn to Read?

Of greatest interest is the fact that they successfully learn global reading, but when studying individual letters they experience serious difficulties: each letter is studied over a long time period and there is a lack of fluency in letter-recognised experienced by these children. Children have difficulty sounding out written words, matching the letters to sounds to be able to read a word.

ifficulties in reading that left handed children experience are very diverse. Some children experience them from early stages of literacy education, while others occur at a later stage while reading texts. In comparison to right-handed people, left-handed people are 2.5-3 times more likely to have difficulty in mastering written speech -- in both writing and reading.

The most common difficulties in reading by left handed children:

Remembering letters quite slowly
Confusing similar letters (L-M, P-T-H, S-C, etc.)
Do not recognise letters in an inverted form, i.e. shaded, crossed out, without one of its elements
Sometimes reading right to left or from the middle of the page, jumping through the lines
Difficulty combining single letters into words
Spending the majority of time on reading during reading technique tests due to their slow reading pace
Not understanding what has been read if there are variations in the correlation of a word, even though the reading technique has been mastered

In some cases, left handed children easily memorise individual letters, but find it difficult to combine them into words. When reading, they "drop out" entire syllables of words, do not pronounce endings or say them erroneously.

The difficulties often faced by lefties described above arise due to various reasons: violations of visual/spatial perception as a result of unstable ocular dominance, as well as difficulties in processing and storing information.

Should I Retrain my Lefty Child to be Right Handed?

As a parent you might ask yourself: is it possible, before it's too late, to retrain the child? To educate the right-hander instead of the lefty? Perhaps this will prevent any potential reading difficulties later on?

My answer to it is a resounding NO!

I have already mentioned that science says: left handedness is associated not only with left handedness, but, first of all, with the special organization of the brain's work, and hence of mental development! Therefore, any retraining will not only slow down the process of mastering reading and writing, but can also cause many neurotic symptoms: stammering, tics, enuresis, social maladaptation of the child.

Instead of retraining your child to be right-handed, you need to engage with your left handed child and enable him or her to function adequately within his or her given abilities. Consider practicing key skills that are prerequisite for mastering reading. There are plenty of free resources that eKidz offers to help your child learn to read both offline - with the use of flash cards and games - as well as with the app. Letting your child learn to read in a fun, engaging way and at his or her own pace is the best way.

]]>

Get Ready For School: Intellectual, Psychological, and Social Aspects

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 10:54:00 GMT

It’s very normal as a parent to be concerned about your child getting ready for school. Skills related to reading and writing, counting and arithmetic, and the ability to solve logical problems become very important for the first time in your child’s life when they start school. Usually, parents are the most worried about these things. Many parents are so concerned about their kids that they teach them to read and write before they actually enter school in an attempt to prevent the challenges that their children may face — but this is only one aspect of readiness a child could have before beginning school. Read on for the full scope of skills and ‘soft skills’ that your child needs to get ready to start school.

Assessment of Psychological Readiness for School Admission

In pursuit of knowledge and skills, many parents do not think about how to psychologically prepare their kids for this huge adjustment. It is not only the academic challenges that will be new to the first graders or year one students, but there will also be new children, teachers, and a system of rules, regulations, and assessment.

When assessing a child’s readiness for school, specialists usually consider such indicators as the child’s:

desire to learn new things;
ability to concentrate and hold attention in accordance with the instructions and rules;
ability to initiate and maintain conversations with teachers and children, to ask clarifying questions, and to defend their point of view;
ability to organize and maintain group interaction in class and free time;
self-control and self-organization;

knowledge and understanding about the world around us; As you can see, reading and writing skills are not required when entering school, with the main emphasis of determining if a child is ready for school being personal and communicative aspects of children’s development.

Getting Ready for School Intellectually

When considering getting ready for school, most parents are primarily focused on the intellectual readiness of the child for school. Intellectual readiness includes:

sufficient knowledge and understanding of their environment,
development of cognitive functions, such as attention, memory, critical thinking, perception, imagination, speech, etc.
understanding of knowledge required for school learning (awareness of the concepts of mathematics, reading, and writing)

Without a doubt, the above described knowledge is very valuable, however, perfect adaptation of the child to school is never guaranteed. There will be challenges no matter what, but your child’s interest in learning and gaining knowledge along with sufficient communication skills will surely be crucial. It is absolutely vital to remember that parents only need to pay attention to preparing their children to learn to read and write, and not their actual reading and writing skills. Teachers will teach them how to read and write at school!

Personally and Emotionally Getting Ready for School

Aside from intellectually getting ready for school, there are also important aspects to consider such as interpersonal relationships and maturity. Personal preparedness for school involves a set of considerations such as:

motivation to learn: Does the child wants to go to school? Do they understand the importance of the learning process? Are they interested in acquiring new knowledge?
ability to behave according to the rules: Does the child have the capability to act in accordance with the school rules, even if the child does not want to? Does the child understand when rules need to be followed and that they should respect and listen to their teachers?
self-control, proper behavior, ability to identify own mistakes and correct them. Can the child sit still for multiple hours and behave? If the child makes a mistake, do they have the emotional maturity and insight to realize it and apologize? Most importantly, can they learn from their mistake and not repeat it?

According to many scientists and practitioners, it is personal maturity that is the critical factor of a child’s readiness for school. The child’s desire to learn new things and their ability to manage activities and behavior will generally be proportional to the intellectual readiness of the child, and subsequently contribute to the sociometric status in the group. Personal maturity of a child includes the ability to fulfill the requirements of the teacher, and to control their own behavior.

Social and Communicative Readiness for School

Childrens’ adaptation to school depends largely on their ability to communicate with other children and teachers. Communication readiness includes the following:

child’s willingness to communicate with other children, to participate in group activities, to accept opposite opinions and to obey the rules of children’s groups;
the ability to initiate and maintain the activities of others, to negotiate and compromise, and to express a personal point of view;
sufficient emotional stability and self-regulation — ability to adequately assess the situation and constructively express own emotions in communication with others while reducing the number of impulsive reactions.
Obviously no first-grader will be completely emotionally mature, but in general it is important that the child is not at a significantly different level than their peers. Remember that there will definitely be social challenges no matter what, so try to patient and help your child be patient at first.

Suggested reading: How to Deal with Emotional Bullies at School

Psychological and Physical Readiness for School

In addition to all the above, the psychological readiness of the child to school will be influenced by the physiological factors:

development of small muscles of the hand: how confident is the child with scissors and pencil?
spatial orientation, coordination of movements: Can the child correctly determine the relative positions of objects and movement directions: higher-lower, more-less, forward-backward?
motor dexterity, including different motor skills such as running, jumping, tying shoelaces, etc.
lateralization (which hand is leading) that affects the orientation in space and on the paper. Does the child know left and right?
visual-motor coordination in the eye-hand system: can the child can draw simple shapes that are recognizable?

Considering the above, school readiness is a combination of skills and abilities that characterize the maturity of the child and their ability to socialize appropriately and do various learning exercises. However, a child will face emotional and psychological challenges in the case of the absence of some of the previously discussed crucial skills.

If you clearly understand that your child lacks some of the skills mentioned previously, make every effort you can to help them with the development of such skills before your kid enters school.

Suggeseted reading:

Left-Handed Children Have A Higher Tendency to be Dyslexic

Games to Help Dyslexic Children Learn to Read

What is the Global Reading Method, and How to Use it at Home

Don’t forget that although this can be a challenging time, it is also one of the most exciting times! 4

]]>

Cognitive Development in Children

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 10:54:11 GMT

Learning how to read and write is an important stage in the development of the child, the effectiveness of which depends on his general cognitive abilities. There are cases when the difficulties in reading are due to the fact that the child quickly forgets the meaning of the read, could not connect the letters in syllables, syllables in words, etc.

Therefore, the general cognitive development of a child in preschool age is a necessary condition for his or her successful school learning, including learning how to read.

Let’s learn some games and exercises for the memory, thinking processes, and attention development of the preschool children.

How to Develop the Memory of a Preschooler

The children’s need to remember the material can be stimulated primarily in the process of games, as well as household tasks, and in special classes in kindergarten. Faced with the necessity to remember something, the child begins to look for ways to remember.

Children usually find it easier to memorize the material in connection with the actions, images, because their visual memory dominates over other types of memory. Considering that, it is important not to overload the preschooler with a lot of verbal information. Learning short poetry for children and counting-out rhymes by heart or reading and retelling short stories and tales is more than enough.

“What’s missing?” game. To play the game you need 3 to 7 small items (depending on the age of children), for example, small animal figures.It is better to play individually or in a group of no more than three children. Figures are lined up in a row, each is called and discussed. Then the child is asked to close his eyes, and the adult quietly removes one figure. In the example of animals game task for the child may look like this:

“Look who is missing? Who is left?”. The child should remember all figures which were shown, and determine which figure is missing. This game is suitable for children from three years old.

“Remember and name” exercise. To perform this exercise, you need to find a picture, for example, with playing children. The child looks at the picture, names the objects on the picture and describes them. After that, the picture is hidden, and the child is asked the question: “Remember what you saw in the picture?” If there are difficulties, you can help the child asking additional questions. For children from 4 years old.

“What’s in the bag?” game. It requires a small bag and 3 – 8 small objects e.g., a ball, a bell, a pencil, an apple. By looking at the objects, the child comes up with associations, for example, a ball looks like the sun, a pencil – like a stick. After that, all the items are going in the bag, and the child is asked to name the objects in the bag by its definitions: the sun – a ball, a stick – a pencil and so on. For children from 4 years.

The Logical Thinking Development

An ability to establish logical links between objects and to notice cause and effect chains is an important condition for the full intellectual development of the child. Thinking processes allow children to learn the world around, to learn at school, to acquire various skills, including the ability to read.

Usual daily communication with the child and his involvement in different activities are the main preconditions for the development of thinking processes. Additional games and exercises will help to improve the operations and facilitate the absorption of new learning material in the future.

“The 4th Extra” game. Find an irrelevant image in the row.

“Find a Pair” game. Find a pair to the object, establish the connection between several objects (by purpose or meaning).

“Association” game. Children are invited to continue the semantic series, try to name the last word.

A wolf – a rabbit, a cat – …

Quick – quicker, slow – …

A fox – a little fox, a wolf -…

A squirrel – nuts, a bear – …

A man – a house, a mole – …

A forest – trees, a field – …

A coat – Winter, shorts – …

The Sea – water, land – …

Water – a tap, light – …

A teacher – a school, a tutor – …

“Continue the pattern” game. The child is given a card with a certain sequence of geometric shapes and asked to determine the pattern and independently continue it. For example, a circle – a square – a circle – a square: what is next? Gradually, the patterns are getting more difficult, in terms of the color, size, number of figures in the pattern, etc.

“Ridiculous” game. Look at the pictures and discuss with the child what actually exists in real life and what does not. Option for the game: who can find more ridiculous things.

Solving puzzles and riddles are other examples of useful exercises for the development of children’s thinking processes.

Computer games may also help develop thinking. For example, Minecraft is really an educational game: it develops spatial thinking, mathematical and logical abilities, involves solving various problems by building algorithms.

How to Develop the Attention

Attention is a mental process that is present in all cognitive tasks, so it ensures the success of the overall intellectual activity of the child. The following games are recommended for children over 5 years old.

“Find and cross out” game.

Special tables can be used for this task, but the old magazines are also quite suitable.

Within 5 minutes children cross out any letter in the text, for example, “A” or any geometric figure. The number of found letters, figures are counted. The exercise can be complicated by a few conditions, for example: cross the circle, encircle the square.

“Don’t say “Yes” and “No” game.

A child is asked to answer several questions. A preschooler can answer in different ways, but he or she has to follow one rule: not to use forbidden words (for example, “Yes”, “No”, “Black” and “White”, etc.). An adult asks questions that imply the use of a forbidden word, for example: “What color is the doctor’s robe?”. The child must answer with the rule of the game in mind. When someone makes a mistake, the roles are reversed. The game should start with only one forbidden word, gradually introducing others.

“Find the differences” game.

In order to play the game, you need to prepare a pair of pictures containing from 5 to 15 different elements. A child is invited to look carefully at the pictures and find 5 (6,7 or more) differences. The winner is the one who found all of them.

There is an unlimited amount of games. Every parent and teacher can create their own games for the further cognitive development of the child. The main task of adults is to maintain and stimulate curiosity and cognitive activity of children, encourage their interest in different areas of life, to feed the need for knowledge.

The games and tasks mentioned above can be adapted according to the preferences of the children.

]]>

Development of Spatial Orientation and Eye-Hand Coordination

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 11:07:05 GMT

Learning process of reading and writing is based on the child's spatial orientation skills (top, bottom, right, left, understanding of prepositions) and visual-motor coordination, especially eye-hand communication. When these functions are sufficiently developed, the child quickly understands from which side to start reading / writing, easily follows the line with the text, and also consistently writes letters in a line, without going beyond it.

Accordingly, if the child is not sufficiently oriented in space in general, it will also be difficult for him or her to navigate on a sheet of paper. Moreover, in the case of limited visual-motor coordination, child’s eyes can slide away from the line, which leads to the misunderstanding of the text.

Such difficulties can lead to serious problems with child’s ability to read. However, the training of spatial perception and visual-motor coordination from pre-school age will help not only to avoid that issues but allow the child to master literacy.

How to Develop Spatial Orientation

At the preschool age, it is very important for kids to develop the following skills:

navigate in the scheme of own body;
determine the location of objects in the space (near and far);
change the spatial arrangement of objects;
navigate on a sheet of paper;
move in a given direction and change it.

It might be quite difficult for children to determine the distance to the objects, the volume, the depth of space, the allocation of the ratio between the different parts (objects) in the perceived space, the change in their position. It is important to teach children to measure objects in space, to determine their own location, to simulate different spatial situations. For this purpose, there are some exercises:

Determine how many steps are to the desk, to the doll, to the intersection (on the street), etc.; who sits farther: Nikolai or Marina; who is higher: Sasha or Tolia, etc.
Find the objects of the same ratio in size as the sample (two toys of different sizes).
Show the ratio of two items by height using strips of different length, etc.
Divide a circle, a square, a rectangle into 2, 4, 3 equal parts.
Cut the ribbon into equal parts.

For older children, you can complicate the task, offering to determine the distance in centimeters, meters. It is also possible to use exercises and games for orientation in space (see below).

Based on the understanding of the scheme of the body, there are several games which can help the child to understand the concepts of right and left:

“Which hand?” - In the picture, a child needs to determine in which hand the girl is holding the box, in which hand the boy is holding the ball, on which leg the girl is standing, etc.

“Right-left” - The teacher suggests children play the following game: to name all the objects which are located on the right side, then - which are on the left side. The same can be done with older children on a sheet of paper with different images, but in the center, there should be a hint in the form of schemes or words.

“What's farther, what's closer to us in the room?” - Children answer the question and then check using several measuring instruments the correct answer.

“Name the highest and lowest items in the room” - Children name objects, explaining where they are located, and then compare some of them with a measuring instrument.

“Ladder” - Task: determine the location, for example, of the Smurf on the stairs. The adult asks the child to answer the questions in detail.

Questions:

Who stands on the third (second) step from below/from above (on the top\bottom)?
Where the Grouchy Smurf is sitting?
Who is standing next to the stairs? “Pathfinder” - According to the figure-scheme of the room children try to find a hidden toy. Options can be different: children hide the toy themselves and draw a scheme of the room with the place where the toy is hidden or the adult is drawing the scheme.

How to Develop Good Eye-Hand Coordination

It is very important from an early age of the child to pay special attention to the coordination of the movements of the hands and eyes of the kid. Visual-motor coordination develops effectively while doing various motor exercises:

walking and running,
cycling on the lines and on the tracks;
throwing various objects in games, like “Frisbee”, “Flying caps”, “Darts”, “Ring Toss”, “Hit the target”.

Very rewarding will be the tasks related to the drawing with the stencil and contour images, drawing geometric shapes.Repetition of movements and actions after adults also helps in developing a specified function.

Table games, such as, “Hockey”, ‘Basketball”, “Football”, “Billiards”, “City roads” and others contribute to the formation of the ability to trace moving objects and simultaneously assess their position in space.

Some games could be played just on the piece of paper:

Labyrinths;

Tracking and circling with the index finger the trajectory of movements (then drawing the lines);

Tracking and circling with the index finger the trajectory of movements (then drawing the lines);

Exercise “Eye Routes”. The child is invited to track the line with his eyes. Regular use of the described games and activities will prepare the child for the perception of letters and numbers, will help him or her navigate the sheet of paper, and most importantly – to be successful in further learning.

]]>

Fun reading games to help children learn to read

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 11:12:00 GMT

Learning to read is likely the most challenging task a child has faced in their lives at the age when they start learning to read. Learning to read can feel impossible to the child, especially if they are dyslexic. Dyslexia is a type of reading disorder characterized by different symptoms. Dyslexia may occur due to different reasons, mainly phonemic hearing disorders and neurological problems. To read more about how to know if your child is dyslexic, check out this article on the eKidz.eu blog. If a child has any neurological symptoms, then he or she should be assessed and possibly treated by a doctor. Correcting speech and learning challenges caused by dyslexia may need special treatment by therapists, teachers, and psychologists. Also, even children who are not dyslexic may have difficulties learning to read. Fortunately, teachers and parents may be able to successfully prevent reading difficulties for their children (and have fun while you’re at it!). In order to do this, starting from preschool age, you can play games with words and images that are aimed to develop visual and auditory perception, visual-motor coordination and spatial orientation, memory, and attention with your children.

The great thing about this is that it’s easy to integrate reading games that will help with development along with whatever games that would already be played. Also, these games can help foster a love of learning at a young age. Let’s learn some games for auditory and visual perception development!

Reading Games for Auditory and Visual Perception Development

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words and the understanding that spoken words and syllables are made up of sequences of speech sounds (Yopp, 1992). Phonemic hearing begins to develop right after birth and even at a very young age, a child already has an idea of the acoustic characteristics of sounds. However, in the case of speech underdevelopment, there can be pronunciation violations, and difficulties in reading and writing in the future.

So, here are some game ideas for the development of auditory perception and attention, recommended for kids starting from age 3:

“Recognize the object by the sound” - determine the object making the sound:

“Guess that sound?”
"Guess what I'm playing?”
For example, have the child wear a blindfold and then make different sounds such as snapping, clapping, or tapping on a table.

“Where's the sound?” - identify the location of the sound:

"Guess where it's ringing? ,
For example, hide an object that will make noise (such as a timer or your cell phone) in a room and then have a race to see who can find where the object is hidden first.

“Recognition on the onomatopoeia of animal sounds”

"Guess who's making that noise?", "Who hid in the house?”
For example, make noises such as “Ruff, ruff” like a dog, “Meow” like a cat, or “Mooo” like a cow and have the child guess the animal.

For speech (phonemic) hearing development, which is responsible for distinguishing speech sounds, it is recommended to regularly involve children in games from 4-5 years:

“Catch the sound in your hands” - develop recognition of sounds.

For example, ask the child to clap their hands as soon as they hear a certain sound such as “p” and then say “Once upon a time, there lived a Princess named Penelope”.

“Where's the sound?” - determine the place of a given sound in words, putting a chip in the scheme of the word.

For example, write out the sentence “Two plus Two equals four” and have the child point out everywhere the sound that the letter “T” makes is.

“How many sounds?” - show so many fingers, for how many sounds were made.

For example, say the word “cat” and help the child realize that there are 3 sounds for each letter in the word.

“Choose a picture” - select a picture where a certain sound is present when the object name is read out loud.

For example, have a picture of many colors and ask the child to point out each one where the sound of the letter “B” is present and help the child realize that the words for the colors blue, brown, and black all have the same sound.

Games for the Visual Perception Development

Due to insufficient visual processing development, children may confuse similar letters, incorrectly name them and have difficulties remembering them. To avoid this, you can incorporate games with different images for a fun and productive time!

“Spot the difference” - look at a pair of pictures and try to find the differences.
“Superimposed images” - Look at 3-5 contour images (objects, geometric shapes, letters, numbers), superimposed on each other. Try to name all the images.
“Hidden images” - Give several figures consisting of elements of letters, geometric shapes. Try to find all of the hidden images
“Noisy” images” - Present several contour images of objects, geometric shapes, numbers, letters, which are noisy, for example, crossed out with lines of different configurations. Try to name and identify all of the objects.
“Find a pair” - Look at an image with several objects that look similar but have subtle differences. Try to identify the two objects that are identical.
“The unfinished images” - Study an image with unfinished elements, for example, a bird without a beak, a fish without a tail, a flower without petals, a dress without a sleeve, a chair without a leg, etc.. Name the missing details or finish the drawing so it’s complete.
“The images made of dots” - Show images of objects, geometric shapes, letters, numbers, made up fromf dots. Try to name the objects.
“The inverted images” - Demonstrate the schematic images of objects, letters, numbers, rotated 180°. Then try to draw an object rotated.
“Cut images” - Make parts of 2-3 images (for example, vegetables of different colors or different sizes, etc.). Children should collect the whole image from these parts.

For school-age children, all the proposed games can be played with letters and numbers so that you’re working to develop not only visual perception, but also fluency with numbers and letters The following games can be really fun and educational!.

“Letters” - Offer several rows of randomly arranged letters of the alphabet. Then try to find and circle:

Everytime there is the letter“i”;
all vowels;
mark with one color everytime there is the letter “B”, and with different color “P”.

“Find the letter” - ook at the text and underline with one line the letter “A”, with two lines the letter “N”, and put a dot under the letter “O”.
“What has changed?” - The child is offered to look at the several cards with letters (words, numbers, geometric shapes, etc.) and turn away (leave the room). The teacher removes (adds or swaps) cards. The child should determine what has changed.
“Find mistakes” - Give a card and try to explain and correct the following mistakes:
Spelling - one letter is mirrored (skipped, inserted extra letter);
Arithmetic exercise - a mistake in the calculation, for example one digit is mirrored;
In sentences - the wrong word is omitted or inserted.

Regular use of the mentioned games will positively influence the intellectual development of the child and will prevent difficulties associated with visual and auditory perception, in writing and reading. Go ahead and try to start playing these games with your kid and see how it can be fun to learn and play at the same time! You’ll be amazed at how fast they will learn and get better as well. Let us know if you have fun playing these games with your child and good luck!

References:

Yopp, H. K. (1992). Developing Phonemic Awareness in Young Children. Reading Teacher, 45, 9, 696-703.

]]>

Changes to MFL Teaching in the UK: Let’s Get Them Young!

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 11:12:10 GMT

{{ "adult-child-enjoyment-1312023-560x560.jpg" | asset_url | img_tag }}

I spent the last five years teaching in a German High School. I learnt a lot (especially German!), which made me reflect on how Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teaching is being done back home in the UK. In addition to this, I formed wonderful relationships with my students who enjoyed the different teaching ideas and methodologies that I brought with me from my UK teacher training and experience.

What is MFL? It stands for Modern Foreign Language Teaching, and is a way to teach children not only a foreign language, but teach them subjects IN that foreign language being learnt.

Some of my students decided to visit me on my return to the UK, electing to spend a term in UK High Schools. I was privileged to be asked to take on the role of guardian for one of my past students. I shall call her X (after the chromosome of course, and for data protection purposes).

I had taught X English since she was ten years old (high school starts at the age of ten, year five, in Germany). A diligent, intelligent and humble student, X excelled. Her writing improved rapidly as she kept handing me back the same homework for re-marking, having taken onboard all the feedback written on the work. I would routinely mark the same piece of coursework three or four times in her determination to get it perfect.

Despite being 14 and in Year Nine at home in Germany, she entered Year Ten for her “term abroad”. She flourished. She passed her LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art) speaking examinations with distinction; she was in the top set English class and scored 39/40 on her An Inspector Calls coursework and was put forward early for her Biology and French GCSE’s (General Certificate of Secondary Education)..

Chatting to X, I asked her what differences she noticed between Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teaching in Germany and the UK. Upon reflection, she told me that the standard of French and Spanish is much much lower in the UK than in Spain and Germany. (Her Spanish and German friends she made at the school agreed wholeheartedly.) I bit my tongue. I started feeling defensive - I want the UK, my adopted homeland, to be best at everything!

{{ "auditorium-benches-chairs-207691-1024x731.jpg" | asset_url | img_tag }}

“Why do you think that is?” I asked the three girls as we all tucked into a Sunday lunch of pizza in the sun, enjoying a sunny day near dry stone walls and frolicking lambs. This is what they reminded me of and told me…

German children are often sent to bilingual kindergartens to receive a solid base in a second language as well as their mother tongue
By the time they are in primary school, they are already having formal lessons in that second language, and sometimes even a third!
At high school, their MFL lessons are more advanced and interesting than the ones they have experienced in the UK. This is because their vocabulary is more expansive (having begun learning MFL at a very early age). As a result MFL classes at home in Germany and Spain, they can have proper debates, write about issues that are important to them and engage in reading that is more sophisticated than the basic (and often boring for a 12 year old) narratives and lessons that are needed to learn a lesson from scratch.
In addition to this, in Spain, they use the CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) method and employ native speakers to assist in their lessons to help with correct pronunciation/grammar explanations and writing conventions.
The UK teacher in me screams with sentiments I'm sure you feel, too. Is there a way to actually find money to pay and employ people to help in lessons when there is not even enough money to keep the school running? Well, setting adequate budgets for education is clearly more important in Germany and Spain than in the UK. Let’s give UK politicians yet another pay rise anyway!
Special monetary awards are given to schools to help implementation of language learning programmes and to cover the cost of technological equipment.

I am not sure how well received bilingual kindergartens would be in the UK, but MFL in primary schools is definitely doable. Unfortunately, primary school teachers tell me that they do not feel confident delivering lessons in French, German or Spanish, when they have not studied the language themselves! I can understand this. In front of 30 savvy kids with answers for everything except the questions you ask - you want your wits about you.

This is where technology can come to help -- especially if your school cannot afford to pay a native speaking classroom assistant. Apps like eKidz.eu mean children can learn to read and speak independently using electronic devices with the support of traditional material supplied with the application to support the electronic texts. Comprehensions are marked in app and progress reports sent to the teacher who can monitor individual students' work rate and academic success in the language - WITHOUT ever having to lift a pen or be fluent in the language being learnt. Because the eKidz.eu material starts at basic level 1, primary school teachers will soon be learning the language themselves, and year on year become more confident in delivering MFL lessons. An inexpensive, practical and valuable solution!

Don’t allow the government to Brexit children's brains. Get kids learning a second language soon - get them young!

]]>

8 Useful Tips on How to Learn the German Language

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 11:12:31 GMT

In this article, we will have a look at mechanisms of human memory in order to understand how to best learn the German language, or any other foreign language! By understanding the brain’s processes while learning a language, you can start speaking German fluently without long pauses, hitches, or glances to the floor.

eKidz.eu has simplified this for you here. Follow the simple tips outlined below and you will see that some minor changes to your study program will make the learning process more effective and help you as you’re learning German.

What Your Brain Needs in Order to Master Learning the German Language

The human brain is the engine of knowledge. Every time you intend to speak German, regions of your brain that control memory and language processing are activated. Just as with almost every other process your brain completes, the process of memorizing new words and forming sentences as you are learning German is complex.

The brain consists of approximately 100 billion cells called neurons. They communicate with each other through electrical and chemical signals. During any learning process, including learning the German language, the connections between certain neurons, called synapses, are strengthened. Repetition is crucial to building a network of strong and long-lasting synapses so that you can effectively learn German languages.

It is often said that it is more difficult for adults than young children to learn a foreign language. Children absorb knowledge like sponges. They need less time and effort to learn than adults. This is due to the fact that with age, the brain’s plasticity decreases, making it more challenging to learn new things and build a network of synapses. With age, the brain adjusts to the sounds that it hears most often, while losing the ability to differentiate “stranger” sounds. This is why to an untrained ear, some foreign language may all sounds like repeating the same sound over and over.

Easy Ways to Train Your Brain to Speak German Fluently

We cannot argue with physiology, but we can learn from the way children learn a second language:

Children learn languages just by going for it. Kids learn language by listening, trying to communicate, playing, and having fun. It is not that theory does not matter, but we must pay more attention to practice and immersion. Surround yourself by the German language as much as possible!
Children do not translate. As adults, we decide what we want to say in our native language and then translate into German. Children will immediately link everything that they see, hear, smell, taste, and touch to the German language. They even think in a new language.
Children are not afraid of failure. Our fear of mistakes is what prevents us from speaking German and therefore quickly learning German. Small children are not afraid of mistakes. They just work to understand their environment and try to say what they want to say.

Use these tips in your German lessons — immerse yourself in German without hesitation, without fear of failure, and avoid translation from English into German. Speak German, again and again, every time you have an opportunity.

If you understand these children’s methods of learning the German language with the use of the following bits of advice, then each day of learning will get you closer to fluently speaking German.

{{ "book-communication-composition-1120347-300x200.jpg" | asset_url | img_tag }}

The power of memorization: 8 useful tips on how to learn the German language.

The knowledge of how learning occurs in the brain has helped to develop more effective learning strategies.

1. Study a little bit every day.

Cramming grammar and words without understanding the context before the exam will help you to memorize the material for a day or two, but you will probably forget it in a week.

Our brain needs time to process new information and save it. Memorization of large amounts of information simply overloads your brain.

15 minutes of exercise each day will be much more effective than a few hours of studying on Sunday evening. Make sure you don’t skip even a day of practicing German!

2. Repeat, repeat, repeat again.

The key to the success of musicians, athletes and language learners: practice, practice, and more practice.

To speak German fluently, you will have to practice the same words and phrases over and over again. Your brain needs to get used to thinking quickly in German.

Repetition is a proven method of remembering, which includes increasing the time intervals between repetitions of words and phrases. Use flashcards or language apps such as eKidz.eu to learn German.

When you do an exercise — say the words out loud. Pronounce every German word when you read it.

3. Find an interesting topic.

There’s no point in learning random vocabulary that you’ll never use.

Choose the themes you like. If you are an artist, you may be interested in such a topic in German – Deutsche Kunst. If you like history, why don’t you study Deutsche Geschichte?

Learning something that interests you is a good motivator.

4. Find yourself some company to learn German together.

When studying in groups, you can work on learning German language with other people more effectively. Group lessons are a good opportunity to improve your speaking and listening skills — the basis of fluent communication in German. Learn together with your friends, colleagues or other students. If possible, find native speakers and invite them to join you.

Be creative and spend your classes having fun. For example, if you like food and cooking, why not learn food vocabulary and cook German food together? This German sandwich recipe is the perfect snack for your group activities.

You can practice your speech by playing German games, such as charades or German Rollenspiele (role play). Games require a lot of talking, which will help your fluency.

5. Combine the old with the new.

When learning German, you must memorize lots of new words while remembering the ones you already learned. When memorizing new words or rules, look for associations to something already familiar to you. These connections will make it easier to remember the new information.

Combine things that are connected to each other. Instead of learning one topic after another, mix them up! You will move on to the old subjects to refresh them in your memory, and you will surprisingly realize that you know more than you thought at the beginning.

6. Learn the German language before going to bed.

According to science, sleep helps our brain process information and consolidate memories.

Why not study a little bit of German before going to sleep?

Repeat an exercise, watch a short German video, or listen to a dialogue in German before going to bed.

For example, you can read German fairy tales such as “Rotkäppchen” (“Little Red Riding Hood”) or “Aschenputtel” (Cinderella).

Who knows, maybe when you wake up, you will be speaking German fluently?

7. Start thinking in German.

Most likely, at an advanced level, your mind will automatically switch to German when surrounded by German speakers.

But even at an earlier stage of learning, you can consciously try to think in German for at least a few minutes a day.

Instead of translating the words from your native language, try connecting objects directly to German words and phrases. Describe things around you in German in your head. Start with simple things like “die Blume ist Gelb” (the flower is yellow) and gradually move on to more complex phrases.

8. Use it or lose it.

As we have written many times above, practice is the key to mastering the German language.

You may have the best teacher in the world. You can study grammar for many years. But if you don’t listen and don’t speak, you will never speak German fluently.

The best opportunity to practice is a trip to Germany. Spending some time in Germany will give you a real practice of the German language, as well as an idea of a different culture and lifestyle.

Of course, not everyone can go to Germany to study. But don’t be upset. There are more opportunities for immersion in the German language at home than you can possibly think of.

Surround yourself with the German language as much as you can. Watch German TV shows such as “Tatort “or “Wetten, dass…”. Listen to the news in German. Listen to German music and read simple German books such as “Cafe in Berlin”. Switch the language on your phone to German and download the eKidz.eu app.

eKidz.eu has a unique technique of immersion. Instead of forcing the user to learn bland words and rules, the application offers more than 70 colorful stories on 9 levels of difficulty. There are no translations or formulas to memorize, just fun stories to listen to and understand as you read along with the animations.

Get together with other students and speak German. You can also find a language exchange partner among native speakers who will help you with German. In exchange, you can offer your knowledge of your native language.

Last but not least: don’t be afraid to make a mistake! Mistakes are an important part of your experience and will ultimately help you speak German fluently.

Are you ready to start learning German?

Follow our simple pieces of advice and you will reach German fluency faster than you think. It all comes down to knowing how the brain works.

]]>

Top Teacher Hacks for Classroom Hacking

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 18:23:47 GMT

After 15 years of High School teaching, I have picked up a number of teacher hacks.Some things have become second nature – but I can still remember those first years when each day seemed like a matter of classroom coercion, student second-guessing and learning luring. Here are a few tips to help you hack it in the learning zone.

1. Make it yours for keeps. We all know how things go missing in schools… especially prized possessions like staplers and hole punches. Keep your classroom organised by writing your class or name onto valued objects with permanent marker then seal it on with clear nail varnish. Make this a learning hack by teaching your students to do the same with their belongings.

2. Get kids to sweat the small stuff – put them in charge of classroom organisation! This is a great learning hack, as by giving them responsibility, you not only preparing them for real life - but also make your life easier. Create a list of unimportant “teacher organisation” tasks for example:

packing away equipment
watering the plant
changing "the word of the week"
writing up the date each day
homework buddy for absentee student
End each day with a classroom clean up, so add sweeping and tidying to the job list

Divide up your class list into a year-long rota so that students rotate responsibilities and give yourself a pat on the back for the learning hack of “social responsibility”.

3. And for those learning organisational tasks that are tedious… but help kids hack the lesson. I generally prefer rewarding and find withholding reward a good enough punishment when needed, but detentions… can be very useful things! Allowing detainees to do their homework during detention is not a detention! Punishing them by giving them extra Mathematic, English or other subject related work might make them associate your subject with punishment! So instead of having them sit silently for 60 minutes, make them feel useful. Laminate, alphabetize, hole punch, sharpen pencils, cut out resources for lessons… All those jobs that make lessons more meaningful but take time which you could be using more wisely.

4. Teaching makes you sick! Students will liberally share their germs with you. We all know, this usually seems to happen just before we go on our “work from home” break (people who don’t teach mistakenly call these “holidays”. In the battle against bacteria, use a bottle of hand sanitiser as the “toilet pass”. This will encourage students to disinfect their hands on a more regular basis and reduce everyone’s chances of getting ill.

5. Sign Language! Teach your students some signs for occasions that are inevitable. This will prevent them from disrupting the flow of the lesson. For example form a T with two hands to indicate toilet request, or a C to indicate completed task…

6. and for those C for completed tasks: Pre-prepared extension activities… students become disruptive when they are bored. As an English teacher, I have a wealth of

English puzzles,
dictionary activities
mini projects on back up.

When a student finishes something a long time before classmates, it is just a matter of selecting the appropriate activity to challenge them further.

7. If your students must buy their own reading or text books, make them write their names along the edge of the book, as well as inside it. This makes your life easier if books go missing and students are tempted to “borrow” their classmates’. It is easy to remove one page with a name on it but pointless to remove all the pages!

8. Make a self-service spot for students who were absent. Create the role of Homework Buddy (point 1) who needs to collect extra sheets and work each day. These are filed in the classroom under the day of the month. When the absentee student returns, they are responsible for visiting the self-service box to collect the work filed under the days they missed. .

9. Save time AND give constructive feedback. If making a set of stamps is out of the question, print off a pile of ready-made marking templates according to your subject criteria. For example, in English I had:

What you did well……………………………

Where you can improve………………………

Revise these spellings………………………

10. Time Counts. This may seem obvious – but keep the kids on track with a countdown/stopwatch. Tell them they have 10 minutes for a task, set the countdown clock and give them a five minute and one-minute warnings… This helps to keep them on task and keeps your lesson running to schedule. Obviously, flexibility is required and sometimes extensions need to be given, but they don’t need to know that https://www.online-stopwatch.com/

11. Make friends with the real bosses! No, not the headteacher. No, not the bursar… I mean the caretaker, IT person and the cooks! No matter how tired you are, treat them kindly, with respect and communicate frequently – not just when you want something! These are your allies and hold the real power in school to make your life more manageable!

]]>

How to Help First-Graders Prepare and Adapt to School

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 18:06:13 GMT

Entering school is one of the most important and challenging periods in a child’s life. The transition from kindergarten to school can be an emotionally challenging situation due to all the changes in life, including increased psycho-emotional stress. Even kids with emotional maturity sometimes have difficulties adapting to school life. Parents and teachers can play an important role in easing the transition process by helping first-graders have adequate preparation for school.

{{ "matese-fields-233175-unsplash-300x199.jpg" | asset_url | img_tag }}

Adaptation to School

Adaptation to school includes the acclimatization of the child to the new conditions and school rules.

School is a new social institution for a child, where everything is different, including:

new educational activities such as learning to read and a first introduction to math
new schedule of the day,
new environments: classrooms, dining rooms, etc.
new teachers with different communication style,
new classmates: a child will meet new people and form new relationships.

Adapting to school can last from several weeks to several months, but on average, the transition process takes ~2 months. During this time, a first-grader learns a lot of rules and social norms related to behavior in the classroom, assignments, and communication with teachers and classmates.

Criteria for Successful Adaptation to School

Assessment of the first-grader's adequate preparation for and adaptation to school includes subjective and objective criteria. Objectively, one can look at the child’s productivity and success in educational activities, involvement of the child in school life, his or her social status among classmates (friendships, microgroups, leadership positions) as a measure of successful adaptation. The subjective criteria of assessment of adaptation to school includes the emotional health of the child, how active is a child at school, his or her physiological conditions and satisfaction with studies.

{{ "rawpixel-463437-unsplash-300x200.jpg" | asset_url | img_tag }}

So, the main indicators of successful school adaptation of the child are:

positive attitude of the child to school,
adoption of school rules and regulations,
academic motivation,
good emotional state of the child and overall positive emotional condition,
adequate behavior in the classroom and during free time
Difficulties in Adapting to School

From the first days of school first grader faces a number of problems that are associated with the personality of the teacher, the classmates, the new regime of the day, the strict school rules, etc.

During the adaptation to school, the child may feel disappointed or insulted. All these problems might also manifest themselves in different ways: failure at school, reduced motivation to study, unwillingness to go to school, negativity, laziness, distraction, etc.

Difficulties in Adapting to School

From the first days of school, a first grader may face a number of problems associated with the personality of the teacher, the classmates, the new regime of the day, the strict school rules, etc.

How Teachers Can Help First-Graders Adapt to School

It is important for the teacher to remember that the child is new to the school system and the main tasks for the child at this stage are to adapt, develop new skills, learn activities, and communicate with other children and adults.

The task of the teacher is to provide a harmonious transition period for the child, during which they will learn the school rules through a variety of situations.

It is vital for a first-grader to feel as though they have the ability to master any new skill or activity, so a teacher should encourage the self-confidence of the child.

To a great extent, it is the teacher who is responsible for establishing a friendly atmosphere in the classroom and encouraging a positive attitude without fear of making a mistake.

The interpersonal relations of first-graders often depend on the pedagogical style of the teacher. An open-minded teacher inspires children to communicate with their peers, which adds positive incentives for communication in the classroom.

Remember: a first-grader wants to perform well and be "good", and if they do not succeed – it is a stress and disappointment for the child. A teacher’s praise for the student is a hugely important incentive, so always find something to compliment, and only after that, give critical feedback on what can be improved!

Of course, all the efforts of teachers are nothing without the collaboration with parents. All adults around the child should act together: only uniform rules and requirements will help the first-grader to adapt to school.

]]>

How to deal with Bullies & Emotional Bullying at School

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 17:51:21 GMT

Emotional bullying at school and psychological harassment at school is an unfortunately frequent phenomenon. Regardless of the objectives and number of participants involved, it has a two-fold negative impact: on one hand, the bullied child’s feelings toward school are negatively impacted. On the other hand, the effects of bullying impact the development of social relations in the entire school community. How to deal with bullies and emotional bullying, in particular, is a big challenge.

Leading child psychologists (myself included) believe that mobbing and bullying do not only set a precedent for communication challenges between the students involved but also indicate the strained social relationships of the entire class. The teacher is in a unique position to mitigate the effects of bullying at school. The teacher responsible for the class plays an instrumental role in preventing and overcoming this negative social phenomenon by creating a positive learning environment. Regardless of the types of bullying, the development of positive social relationships in the classroom depends on the teachers:

Contact with students
Level of authority
Emotional involvement
Awareness of children's interpersonal relationships

It is the teacher who can first notice the bullying at school by observing the negative trends in the relationship between students, stop them, and inform the parents quickest and most effective. Also, parents’ support and their interpersonal relationships with children create the foundation for the personal development of the child and prepare them for coping with various life situations, including potential harassment and emotional bullying at school.

The Role of the Teacher in Preventing Mobbing and Bullying at School

There are several myths about teachers and the effects of bullying at school, including:

Bullying, like other forms of discipline violations, is only likely to occur in the classroom of a bad or disorganized teacher;
Only cases of physical violence rather than all the subtle conflicts and cases of emotional bullying among students that should become a concern for teachers.

Studies have confirmed that mobbing and bullying at school can be found anywhere and in any class, even under the supervision of a good teacher whom children respect and listen to. Every instance of violence and emotional bullying must be addressed by school staff consistently, even in the case of a teacher who is universally respected and liked. No matter the individual personality of the teacher in question, appropriate actions should be taken and situations should not be ignored.

The second myth about bullying in the classroom is also very dangerous. It is well known that psychological abuse and emotional bullying, mainly through verbal aggression such as insults, ridiculing and obscene jokes, verbal provocations, name-calling, and also ostracism, can be the cause of teenage suicide. Therefore, all instances of harassment should be reported to teachers and different school specialists who can initiate preventative measures.

The number one rule for teachers: do not ignore even the smallest instances of bullying or mobbing in the classroom! No matter what the type of bullying is— physical or emotional bullying, the effects of bullying can be caustic. Do not think that children will settle the problem themselves— the teachers should intervene immediately. The students may not know how to deal with bullies, and therefore the teacher is needed to step in.

Teachers also should communicate clearly to the children that they should not try to resolve the situation on their own. This is because oftentimes, it is not possible to find a common language between the victim and the aggressor. In other words: bullies don’t always want to find a solution or change their behavior. There are many different types of bullying and frequently, the bullies don’t even know why they are picking on other children and are not fully aware of the psychological damage they are causing and the effects of bullying. It is better for children being bullied to talk to parents, teachers, or elders whom the child trusts and who know how to deal with bullies. In turn, is is better if an authority figure communicates with the bully and explains the effects of bullying, rather than the victim talking to the bully themselves.

How Teachers Can Stop School Bullying and Deal with Bullies with Effective Teaching Methods

With primary school-aged children dealing with bullying at school, the most effective methods to prevent and stop bullying are conversation and condemnation. Regardless of the type of bullying, the effects of bullying and how to deal with bullies needs to be discussed.

At this young age, students are still in the process of developing moral principles and children rely largely on the guidance of the teacher. The teacher is an exemplary authority figure for younger students, and it will be enough for them to simply have a conversation with all participants involved in the bullying. A simple confrontation can show the teacher’s own condemnation of bullying and the unacceptable nature of the aggressor’s behavior.

With older students, on the other hand, the negative influence of the aggressor’s behavior should be explained by a group of peers rather than the teacher. The teacher should involve the opinion of classmates in the discussion because the opinion of teachers is less important for children of that age.

It is very important to engage other authoritative adults, teachers, and psychologists whose opinion could be respected and valued by the kids both being bullied and doing the bullying.

During the conversation with children, occurrences should be called by their proper names: bullying, mobbing, violence, harassment. It can also be helpful to give examples of when aggressors themselves become victims of harassment to explain the effects of bullying. An effective method for how to deal with bullies is also to discuss with the class the rules and consequences for their misbehavior so that children themselves propose the rules on which they agree to live and communicate in school.

The involvement of a psychologist or counselor in group work helps to unite the class, as well as to provide effective psychological assistance not only to the victim but also to the aggressor, who often tries to attract the attention of adults through aggressive actions. Especially for emotional bullying at school, a school counselor can provide unique insight.

The teacher is obliged to inform the parents about the bullying situation, but the parents of the victim should be prohibited from punishing aggressors on their own or from punishing other children. The most constructive way out of this situation is to discuss the problem with the aggressor's parents.

The teacher should not pity the victim, present bullying as a personal problem of this child, or provoke retaliatory violence against the aggressor.

If the described methods do not help address the bullying at school, it is necessary to involve the school staff and administration of the school, who are obliged to demonstrate a rigid position regarding school violence, emotional bullying, and those students involved.

In exceptional cases of long-term bullying at school, it is recommended to remove the victim from class or the environment and help them to adapt to new conditions with the help of psychotherapy and counseling.

Parents’ Role in Preventing Bullying at School and How to Deal with Bullies

The first task for parents is to establish clear communication with their child to promptly recognize the bullying or harassment at school, which is, of course, easier said than done. It is worth paying attention to the following behaviors of the child because they can all be effects of bullying:

If he or she does not communicate with classmates outside of school and is not interested in the social class community
If the child is one of the last children to leave school (to possibly avoid being beaten up or harassed after school)
If the student does not want to go to school, has insomnia, depression, irritability, complaints of pain, reduced academic achievement
If he or she has frequent injuries, bruising, or school items being lost and broken

These behaviors can all occur regardless of the type of bullying, be it emotional bullying or physical. If there are fears regarding bullying or the fact of harassment is not in doubt - it is necessary to discuss the problem with teachers, parents of other children, and sometimes even to consult law enforcement authorities.

The task of the family is to emotionally support the child who is being bullied and to help them cope with the situation.

Show willingness to listen to the version of the situation without criticism; let your child cry or express feelings; share your experience in similar situations in childhood and how you dealt with bullying or witnessed it in your own school experiences. Make sure to inspire hope for a positive outcome and carefully plan actions both for parents and children to solve the problem.

Dealing with bullies and overcoming psychological abuse and emotional bullying in school requires the participation of all involved adults as well as building a close relationship with children at home and in school based upon rules, authority, and trust.

]]>

The Global Reading Method

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 17:39:53 GMT

In recent decades, teachers have started to implement the new way of teaching children how to read using the analytical, so-called “global” method. The Global Reading Method could be seen both as an alternative approach to the traditional teaching methods of reading comprehension skills and as a first step in teaching literacy. Some learning centres even recommend using the new method of teaching kids to read from an early age.

What is the Global Reading Method?

It relies upon flashcards, basically combining letters with pictures. The Global Reading Method became popular after Glenn Doman, the father of the method, suggested that children are taught to read using what he called the Global Reading Method.

The Global Reading Method is also a popular way of teaching children with dyslexia and various developmental disorders who experience certain difficulties in learning reading.

What is the Difference Between the Global Reading Method and Traditional Methods of Learning to Read?

The Global Reading Method includes the presentation of the whole word to children and relies on his or her visual perception and the ability to remember visual information. Thus, the child does not read the word letter by letter, but remembers it as a picture, which consists of letters. However, unlike the ordinary picture which depicts a particular object, it denotes a generalised idea about the object or event, i.e. has a certain meaning.

When learning to read with the traditional analytical and synthetic method, the child must first learn the letters, then the sequential reading, and finally the full sentence reading. Learning the analytical reading is often difficult because it involves both visual perception and analytical and synthetic thinking.

It is believed that a child’s ability to memorise and use global words and sentences facilitates the further transition to analytical reading.

How to Learn to Read with the Global Reading Method?

Teaching reading using this method is as follows:

Make “Glenn Doman Flashcards”. These should be in a bright colour and with large-print font. You can even make them at home. Each set should follow a certain theme, such as fruits or kitchen items.
Children are shown these flash cards. Demonstration of cards takes place at a rather fast pace and at the same rhythm. It is assumed that the child will absorb information at the subconscious level.
Repeat on a regular basis, generally thrice per day for a week and a half. Don’t explain each letter or sound as you go along, in contrast to the Standard Reading Method which relies upon first learning the alphabet as part of English comprehension. Would you like more flash cards and free resources to use at home? Visit our Free Resources page now!

The demonstrative process itself involves the display of an average of 10 cards of one theme. Thematic sets of pictures are shown and named. It is recommended to show the same pictures three times a day for 10 days. Then you can add new elements and expand the themes of pictures.

An important principle of global reading is not to force, but to arouse the interest of the child.

Using Global Reading in Teaching Children with Developmental Disabilities

The method of Global Reading gained special popularity in correctional pedagogics, in work with “special” children or children with special needs. Speech and verbal cognitive mental processes of children with developmental disorders (intellectual, speech, autistic) are always more disturbed that figurative processes and visual memory, which are usually better developed.

When using the global method while learning reading, children with developmental disabilities perceive the information as a whole, see it as a picture or a photo. Sound accompaniment helps to form an additional link between the visual and auditory images of the word, so the process of memorisation is more productive. Use of accompanying pictures, especially during initial stages, helps to establish the associations and to create semantic relations.

The Global Reading Method allows children to develop impressive speech and thinking before mastering the pronunciation skills necessary as part of English comprehension. In addition, global reading develops visual attention and memory. The most children with developmental disabilities also have speech development delays, so the elaboration of the impressive speech allows them to enhance the mechanism of speech development and stimulate the child’s active speech formation.

See related article: Singing as a Learning Tool for Speech Development

4 Fun Reading Tasks and Games for Teaching Global Reading with Glenn Doman Flash Cards

Global reading is not limited to the demonstration and naming of the words-pictures. You can vary the tasks and organise them in a playful way to teach your child reading comprehension skills. Here are some examples.

1. “Pick a pair” game: search for the similar image with the word among the set of different cards. The first level of complexity involves the use of images with captions. The child learns to match similar words. Then captions or drawings in the album are covered and the child is required to remember the required caption on the card and put it to the picture. The closed word is opened and compared to the selected caption.

2. “Match a word with the picture” game: After learning a specific theme set a child is given separately the pictures from this lexical theme and the captions to them. The adult takes two cards with words and offers to find the matching images. Words should not be similar in writing to each other.

After learning the two cards, gradually new cards should be added. The order of introduction of new lexical topics is random and depends on the age and interests of the child.

3. Task “Show me” is dedicated to developing an understanding of the instructions and should be given to the older children. Words should be used without the captions related to them. Sentences of 2-3 words should be made with different nouns and the same verb.

The theme of the sentences may be different. The child is invited to perform the action, for example: “Show me your mouth”, “Show a square”, “Show a small ball”, “Go to the window”, “Take a pen”, “Give me a red ball”, “Give me a big car”, etc.). When showing the cards, draw the child’s attention to the different spelling of the second/third words in the sentences.

4. Exercise “Read the sentence”. The child is offered several sentences that are similar to the picture or series of pictures on which one person performs different actions: the girl draws (plays, washes, sleeps), the dog sleeps (eats, plays, runs), etc.

Please, remember that learning to read with the Global Reading Method must be based on words that are well known to the child. You need to start with those that are associated with the world surrounding the child.

Do not complicate the task until the child is able to match the object and its image and can easily find a pair of objects or pictures.

If traditional reading is easy for the child, the Global Method will stimulate the kid’s interest in the reading process. However, if the child has developmental problems that make it difficult to master sequential reading, and therefore slow the development of reading comprehension skills, then the global method can be the only one for your child that can teach him or her to read.

And remember: do not overdo it! Both global and traditional reading method should be taught in an entertaining way and be really interesting for the child!

]]>

6 Tips for Selecting a Tutor

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 14:44:03 GMT

Throughout history, teachers have enjoyed a high status in history. And it’s understandable why that is. Having a great teacher can be truly life-altering. And this is certainly something you should keep in mind when selecting a tutor for either yourself or your child. Choosing the correct tutor is one of the most important steps you can take to make learning a lot easier. While it’s difficult to give an exact recipe because everyone’s needs are different, here are a few tips you should keep in mind when selecting a tutor.

1 - Focus on your goal

The most thing to focus on when choosing your tutor is your goal for learning in the first place. Do you need to pass an exam? Want a better grasp of the topic in general? Just want to keep your mind busy? It’s important to keep your goal in mind so that you know what to look for in potential tutors. If you’re preparing for an exam, for example, you can focus on short-term efficiency and not worry too much about whether you and your tutor have matching personalities. The opposite is true if you’re looking for someone to work with for a long time. In that case, you’d want someone who you’d be happy to meet and collaborate with week in and week out.

So, the first step in selecting the right tutor for you is to think about why you want one in the first place. Write down the characteristics or qualities the prospective teacher needs to have and arrange them according to importance. That way you’ll have a very clear picture of what to look for in the perfect tutor going forward.

2 - Consider your options

When choosing your tutor, there are also some things you can’t control. For example, your location. If you happen to live in a small town, you are going to have a much smaller pool of potential teachers than what you might like. In a big city, the problem might be the opposite - too many qualified candidates, which can make the job of choosing one rather complicated.

That’s why you should adjust your strategy accordingly. When faced with a lack of options, consider moving your lessons online. That way, you’ll be able to choose the right online teacher regardless of their (or your) physical location. And if you feel overwhelmed with options, make a pact with yourself to only look at (or meet with) a certain number of teachers. Opt for the “good enough” strategy to avoid getting swamped.

3 - Know where to look

This point also has much to do with where you happen to live. If you’re looking for online lessons, there are a number of websites dedicated to connecting you with the tutor of your dreams and a simple Google search can take you a long way. But even if you’re looking for in-person lessons, the Internet should still be the first place to turn to. In many cases, a simple “private [topic] teacher [your location]” search will provide a number of results for you to start with. Another time-honoured way of finding a great tutor is to simply ask people in a similar position. Looking for a tutor to help your son with maths? Start by asking any of the other parents in his class.

While hanging up flyers or putting an ad in the local paper might be the way these things used to be done, much of that has now moved online and will be much less hasslesome. However, you can still find music teachers by putting up flyers in your local conservatory, for example. And university message boards are another great place to start if you feel like doing it old-school.

4 - Do your research

The part where the Internet really shines for your tutor-hunt is that it makes it easy to find out a lot about your prospective teacher even before meeting them. Most websites designed to connect you with a tutor will also provide references for them from former students. This information will help you save time when choosing which tutors to contact and meet with.

But remember to read between the lines when dealing with public references. It’s only rarely that anyone writing a reference would have anything outwardly negative to say. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still gather valuable information. This is where the list you made in step #1 comes into play. You can start by scanning the references for the keywords important to you and only then make note of anything else that gets mentioned. And remember that what is missing in the references is usually more important than what is present.

5 - Contact and meet with several potential tutors

Before making your final decision, you should certainly meet with at least a few alternatives. It’s one thing contacting someone online but, if you’re looking for in-person lessons., you should definitely meet with your future teacher before committing to lessons. Most of the time, tutors will be happy to provide a free initial meeting and test-lesson (and you should be apprehensive of the ones that don’t).

During the first meeting, you should assess the potential tutor according to the goals you set and ask about the details of the lessons. Feel free to also ask about any qualifications, demanding to see a valid certificate. You should also simply pay attention to what information the tutor provides upfront and how they make you feel in general. Often, you can intuitively recognise an excellent tutor just by how they present themselves. However, having a prepared list of questions also does wonders.

6 – Be upfront about what you want

However, just as it’s important for the tutor to give you enough information, it’s also vital that you’re upfront and clear about what you’re looking for. Talk about your goals, learning styles, hobbies and interests, special needs, or anything else that might be of importance going forward. Since most great teachers adapt their lessons and style to your personal needs, they need to know what you want to be able to do that. It might feel awkward telling a tutor what to do but, the clearer your instructions are, the easier it is for them to do their job. And remember to give honest feedback all throughout the process to help both yourself and your tutor.

Conclusion – Take your time to select the best tutor

Selecting the right tutor can make all the difference. That’s why it’s important to take your time and do your research before settling on one. To help yourself make the decision, first figure out your own goals and draw up a list of qualities that are important to you. That way you know what to focus on in your search. Search the Internet or ask for recommendations to settle on a few candidates and then meet them face-to-face to determine who works best for you. It’s also important to be upfront with and honest with prospective tutors so that they know the best way they might be able to help you.

If you follow all of these tips, you’ll be sure to select a tutor who not only teaches but also inspires you.

]]>