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Turning Homework Into Home Fun

Motivating students to complete homework assignments can be tricky. After a long day at school, few learners look forward to tackling academics in their free time.  So what can we do to make the ...

26 Best Homework and Learning Sites

Educational therapist, Dr. Erica Warren, discusses some of her favorite online homework and learning sites.  Come learn more!

7 Great Free Homework Help Sites

The internet offers a growing number of wonderful resources for students, and there are quite a few free websites that can help to make the learning process both fun and memorable. Here is a list o...

11 Strategies to Make Homework Fun and Manageable

Doing homework after a long day of school can be a real backbreaker for many young learners! Downtime is both limited and cherished, so making assignments enticing is key. So, what can we do to mak...

Soothe Your Students and Increase Homework Productivity

Dr. Erica Warren discusses a variety of tools that can be used to soothe students after a long day at school.  Come check out these valuable resources today.

Social Media Disrupts Homework - Five Management Strategies for Success

Although many students think that they can manage an onslaught of distractions while they are doing their homework, there is a price to pay. Pings from social media and bleeps from electronic devic...

8 Successful Ways to Help Students Complete Homework

After a long day of school, many kids are cognitively spent, and they have little patience and energy to pull out their assignment pad and slog through more academic work.  Often, what should take ...

Problems Using Academic Assignments or Homework as a Punishment

In the heat of the moment, it is not uncommon for both teachers and parents to assign academic work as a consequence of inappropriate behaviors. In addition, pleasurable breaks such as recess are o...

Top Three, Free Technology Picks for Homework Help and Test Preparation

There is a vast sea of websites and software tools washing up all around us, and staying on top of these resources can feel like an overwhelming tsunami. I’m a learning specialist and educational ...

10 Ways to Release Worries in the Classroom

With stringent common core demands, burdensome homework, and competition for high test grades, many students spend a lot of time worrying about school performance. However, many of these children ...

Creating the Ultimate Student Planner - Executive Functioning Success

Why is it that more and more students are struggling with the process of recording, completing, and turning in homework assignments? It used to be that every teacher had a similar process. They: ...

Simplifying what's best for ADHD Students

Students who struggle with ADHD battle maintaining their focus on classroom materials, and it can be a challenge to hook and reel them in for any teacher.  Many teachers and parents ask me to help ...

12 Easy Metacognitive and Mindful Strategies for Student Success

Multitasking seems to be a habitual challenge that many students face.  For instance, juggling modern-day technology while completing homework is a common undertaking.  As a result, many young ...

Executive Functioning: Helping Students with Planning Time Management and Organization

Executive functioning is a cognitive process that has gained recognition in schools over the past decade, and accommodating students who struggle in this area is often neglected. Inappropriate lab...

10 Ways Help Struggling Students in 2020 | Good Sensory Learning

Come learn about some empowering strategies to assist struggling learners and also learn about ready made materials that can help make the process fun and memorable.

Important Dyslexia Accommodations in the Classroom

Getting a school to recognize, test, and then accommodate your child with dyslexia can be an arduous and frustrating task.  Although public school systems can accommodate the individual needs of o...

Why are Games the Best Teaching Method for Learning?

In my practice as a learning specialist and educational therapist, I quickly learned that games were the secret weapon to learning.  Candy, toys, and other bribing forces trigger limited and brief...

Do We Need to Reform Education? Why So Many Students Are Struggling With Executive Functioning.

In my journey as a learning specialist and educational therapist, the surge in calls from concerned parents has been nothing short of a tidal wave. Each conversation echoes a similar refrain...

Why Train as a Tutor When You Can Be a Learning Specialist?

A tutor is a teacher who assists students outside of school. They provide support and review concepts with difficult subject matter or classes. Oftentimes, they help with homework completion and ma...

9 Terrific Ways to Teach Inferences and Have Fun

Inferences or implied meanings are often subtle, hidden messages that can be challenging for many young learners to recognize and understand. They require abstract reasoning skills, and for concret...

Back to School Checklist for Parents

Getting prepared for the upcoming school year can be a complicated task that involves gathering school supplies, connecting with new teachers and administrators, establishing individual needs, cre...

Tutor, Learning Specialist and Educational Therapist: What's the Difference?

Are you a parent who is trying to get the best support for your child outside of school? Perhaps you are a teacher who wants to consider starting their own private practice. There are a number of...

Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity

Mindfulness-based approaches to learning are attracting more and more teachers, therapists and school administrators. Mindfulness refers to being completely in touch with and aware of the present ...

How to Uncover the Source of a Student's Procrastination

Procrastination is a common problem that parents report when their children are meant to do their homework, but they just don't feel like doing it.  This can be an overwhelming feeling that tempts ...

How to Teach Executive Functioning to Struggling Students

Many teachers are miffed when apparently simple tasks, such as using an agenda or turning in an assignment, are difficult for their students. Many of my own students have shared that some teachers ...

List of Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications for Students with Learning Disabilities

Getting the best reasonable accommodations for struggling learners with disabilities can be a challenge.  The list of possible options is rarely made available to parents, so many remain unaware of...

Working Memory: Definition, Symptoms, Impact on Academics, Solutions, and Freebie

Do you have students who constantly forget to bring a pencil, misplace homework, blurt out unrelated comments, or struggle to follow multi-step directions? These everyday challenges often trace ...

7 Powerful Strategies To Improve Processing Speed

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. ...

Why Early Detection for Struggling Students is Important

Struggling students often show signs of academic problems at an early age.  They may complain about homework, independent reading, or going to school altogether.  Parents might also witness other t...

Asking Students to Sit Still Can Have Dire Consequences

Sitting and limited activity can have detrimental effects on the elderly, but did you know that this can also have negative consequences for children too? What we are discovering is that excessive ...

Routines - Stimulating Student Confidence and Productivity

Dr Warren discusses the importance of establishing a healthy routine or daily practice.  She also gives some examples of morning, daytime, and evening schedules. 

How to Strengthen Executive Function for Students

Most teachers have excellent executive functioning skills, so when they come across students who struggle in this arena, they may have little compassion or patience. For many students, executive fu...

Back to School Executive Function Skills: Establishing a Routine, Planning, and Managing Time

Having a great school year is largely determined by a student’s ability to plan out their day, manage their time, and stick to a routine. In other words, they need to have well-developed executive ...

Executive Functioning: Problems and Solutions

Many young learners are being diagnosed with executive functioning weaknesses, and schools are struggling to meet the needs of this population of learners. The problem is that many teachers and adm...

Back to School: Planning, Time Management and Organization Instruction

Many teachers can not fathom how apparently simple tasks, such as using an agenda or turning in an assignment, can be very difficult for some of their students. In fact, many students need comprehe...

PhotoMath and ModMath - Best FREE Apps for Struggling Math Students

Serving the needs of struggling math students can be challenging, and giving them the assistive technology tools for independent learning is vital. This week, I’m excited about sharing my two favo...

How to Help Last-Minute Learners Self-Initiate: Strategies to Stop Procrastination

Ben, a high school junior, used to pride himself on pulling all-nighters before every major assignment. "I work better under pressure," he'd tell his worried parents. But after a particularly gruel...

How Can I Improve my Executive Functions?

Executive functions, or what I like to call the conductor of the brain, are the process of the mind gathering together and making sense of all the information we receive from our senses or instr...

Struggling Students - Energize the Body and Fuel the Brain

One of the most important things we can teach our children is that the food we eat plays a vital role in our health and cognition. Unfortunately, we live in a consumer society, and children are con...

Why Do Finnish Schools Finish First? 10 Ways to Improve US Education

Let’s face it, the US education system is a mess. Most kids are anxious and stressed, many teachers are fearful and disrespected, countless parents are confused and annoyed, and scores of administr...

Popular Following Directions Worksheets are Fun and Effective

Learning to follow directions is a critical skill for young children. Whether they are complying with a parent's directives, teachers' written instructions, or following oral commands from a coach ...

5 Paragraph Essay Freebie | Make Lessons Fun and Memorable

Many learners struggle to master the five-paragraph essay. When I work with students on an individualized basis, I'm continually teaching this concept. To help students confidently approach acade...

Fun, Following Directions Thanksgiving Activities

This colorful Thanksgiving digital download (PDF) offers engaging, printable activities that build essential language processing skills while keeping students excited about learning. It's part o...

Remediating Dyslexia with Orton Gillingham Based Reading Games

Students with dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities often learn differently and require an alternative approach to learning basic reading. In addition, most of these young learner...

Helping Students that Struggle with Executive Functioning

Many students struggle with organization, time management, and planning. In fact, capable and intelligent learners can sabotage their grades.   How Do Executive Functioning Weaknesses Manifest i...

Awesome, Fun Online Tool that Builds Vocabulary - Infercabulary

I am so pleased to announce my 12th Go Dyslexia video podcast: Dyslexia: Building Vocabulary and Semantic Skills with Infercabulary, featuring Guest Beth Lawrence and Host Dr. Erica Warren.   T...

DIY 5 Paragraph Essay Templates: A Creative, Metacognitive Tool

Although there is a common formula to writing a five-paragraph essay, students soon learn that each teacher has their own unique preferences. I can remember a teacher who didn’t allow students to u...

Episode 13: How to Motivate Student to Do Their Homework

In this episode, Erica and Darius explore motivation through the lenses of executive functioning, intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, and real-world teaching and parenting strategies. Using the pow...