Ashley is in the fourth grade and is struggling academically, especially in language arts. Her teacher reports that Ashley frequently loses her pencils, forgets to hand in her homework and her desk is full of loose papers. When Ashley comes home from school, she has a tough time starting homework and is easily distracted. Ashley complains to her mom that homework is “boring” and she’s too tired to complete it. As Mom tries to encourage Ashley to finish the homework, Ashley starts to become more agitated and frustrated. In a matter of minutes, Ashley is in a pool of tears.
Sounds familiar? Young school children need more support and direction from adults to feel secure and confident. At this young age, the schoolwork is gradually increasing, learning styles are identified and academic strengths and weaknesses become more prominent. As students approach fourth and fifth grade, more executive functions are needed to breed success in school.
At this educational level, students are introduced to graphic organizers to help with brainstorming and organizing their thoughts for writing. They are instructed to check over their work before handing in an assignment or a test, and shown some acronyms or ways to chunk their work to improve their recall. Some students are very successful at implementing these skills. However, there are other kids who need constant reminders to use these strategies.
Services
STEP 1 90 minute intake in person or via Skype will consist of the following:
- Review the child’s academic history
- Review educational/psychological evaluations
- Inspect the current schoolbag and how the student organizes it (don’t worry, we’ve seen it all..lol)
- Assess the student’s Organizing Style
STEP 2 Consist of weekly sessions with the Academic Organizer to include the following topics:
- Academic Organizer and student will review assignments/test/projects that are due in the coming weeks
- Introduce goal setting and strategies to implement these goals
- Help student’s identify distractions and help reduce procrastination
- Introduce study skill and test taking strategies that best match the students Organizing Style
- Brainstorm with parent and student on setting up the best home study center for the student’s Organizing Style
- Discuss techniques to keep more organized at home and in school
- Discuss products (types of folders, binder, notebooks,etc) to use based on the student’s Organizing Style
STEP 3 Once the student has mastered these skills, it’s time to “fly solo” and reduce the sessions to once a month!
50 minute sessions with an Academic Organizer in our office in person $125
50 minute sessions with an Academic Organizer out of the office in person $150