The importance of toys in a child’s development
Plenty of evidence shows how playing with toys is an essential aspect of children’s development. Children of all ages enjoy playing with toys and the different roles toys play in their make-believe games and fantasy worlds. But toys are much more than simple playthings. Many studies have shown that children learn through interaction and toys […]
What is working memory and why is it important?
To do an activity, children depend on both incoming information and information stored in working memory. If they have poor working memory skills, it can become difficult to do both these tasks. As a result, it can become challenging to follow multi-step directions. Children with poor memory skills also find it difficult to think about […]
The sequence in which Early Numeracy Skills develop
Numeracy skills help us navigate important everyday tasks such as shopping, cooking, understanding sports scores and even travelling. But before we can start teaching children formal maths concepts at school, we need to first make sure that they have a solid foundation of early numeracy skills. Rote counting is the first step in numeracy development: […]
How to help your baby’s brain grow
Let’s first look at what science has taught us about how your baby’s brain grows: Thanks to research we now know that our brains develop and change throughout our lifetimes, but the most important foundation for brain development is laid in early childhood. The experiences we have as young children affect the physical architecture of […]
Learning Difficulties: What to ask teachers and therapists
In the new term meeting with professionals working with your child is a priority. It can be very daunting, especially for parents whose children may have learning difficulties. Frequently, the professionals end up talking and the parents try desperately to follow the conversation and very often only pick up on the negative information. A small […]
The problem with the current schooling system in South Africa.
I have always been a big advocate of the benefits of education, but I have to admit that lately I find myself more and more disillusioned with the current schooling system in South Africa. I’m finding it increasingly difficult to defend a system which I feel has lost sight of its primary objective – giving […]
Education: A teacher’s frustration
Elizma Vlok, a friend and teacher posted the following on her facebook page recently and I totally agree with the sentiment. I become incredibly angry when parents expect teachers to “educate” their children … I obtained a 4 year B.Ed. degree so that I can TEACH your child and yes, I am more than prepared […]
Unschooling
For a while now I’ve felt that something needs to change in our current mainstream education system – I’m just not convinced that it’s working the way it should. I’ve seen the flaws from both perspectives: For the most part the kids I work with are completely disengaged from the content they are expected to […]
Kids learning – guiding principles for parents
With so many different types of Education programmes, products, philosophies and schools of thought out there it can be incredibly confusing for parents to know how to stimulate a young child’s development or how to approach teaching and learning with older children. Children all learn in different ways, but no matter which school of thought […]
Kids learning to read: visual figure-ground perception
Visual figure ground perception refers to the ability to distinguish a figure or object from it’s background and is a vital element to reading. This ability enables emerging readers to focus on words and letters and ignore background prints or blots and smudges on a page. Practice this skill by letting your emerging read information […]
