Good Sensory Learning Blog

This blog discusses the problems of passive learning, where students often struggle with planning, organization, and focus. To address this, it suggests creating active learning environments that promote engagement through creativity and hands-on activities. Ten practical strategies are offered, including understanding processing styles, brainstorming with students, and using multisensory teaching methods. Dr. Erica Warren's resources for improving executive functioning skills are also highlighted.

Learning to follow both oral and written instructions is a vital skill that students need to learn at an early age.  However, grabbing their attention long enough to learn the complicated process can be challenging! Why are Following Directions a Difficult Skill for Young Learners? Following directions involves a combination of mental tasks. Therefore, for a student to be good at this, he or she needs to be proficient at the following skills, and he or she also needs to be able to do them simultaneously: Attention is the ability to maintain focus on a selected stimulus, sustaining that focus and...

Many students have difficulties reading text from left to right and from line to line. Although some outgrow this difficulty, other's need extra help to develop this skill.     What Exactly is Tracking? Tracking is the ability to move one's eyes smoothly across the page and from one line of text to another.  Problems can arise such as eye fatigue, word omissions, reversals, losing one's place while reading and most importantly these difficulties can negatively impact reading comprehension.    Tracking can be improved by strengthening eye muscles as well as getting the eyes and brain to work together. There are three...

Although reading disorders were recognized back in the late 1800s, the term dyslexia didn't become a recognized condition until the 1970s-1980s.   Since then, it has received an enormous amount of research and professional-based attention.  However, many educators and clinicians are still mystified about how to best pinpoint the specific needs of each student with dyslexia.   The primary underlying cause of this confusion is the fact that there are many cognitive weaknesses or deficits that can trigger a diagnosis of dyslexia.  So much like a dart board, if service providers continue to aim interventions at the wrong place, they may...

Dear Friends: This is my second post on processing speed. Last week, I addressed the definition, causes, assessment options, and revealed 5 ways that a slow processing speed can impact learning. This week, I discuss 7 power strategies for student success as well as reasonable accommodations in the classroom.  A Quick Review: Processing Speed: The speed at which one makes sense of incoming information from the senses and then generates a response. Tests such as the WISC intelligence test and the Woodcock-Johnson IV Test of Cognitive Ability and Test of Oral Language offer subtests that assess some types of processing...