Raising Smarter Children

Did you know that doing brain fitness exercises can not only help you raise smarter children, but save billions of dollars in long term health care expenses?

Just 10 hours of brain fitness training showed significant improvement, even after 5 years. Read the rest of this entry »

Our post today is from invited guest, Dr. Stephen C. Miller of Seeing Smarter. As a developmental optometrist, his information will help your child see smarter and even be smarter!

Did you know that we see with our brains, not just our eyes? As you get better strategies for raising smarter children, eye training can very well be one your child needs for success in school, sports and life. Read the rest of this entry »

The other day I was in the supermarket and a child knocked over a bottle of juice.  A frantic mother screamed at her child for the wrong he’d done, and it dawned on me that neither had learned anything good about responsibility during the process.

How do we raise smarter, more responsible children anyway?  Read the rest of this entry »

In a new study by the University of Sydney, persistent ear infections can influence language and literacy later in life.

As you look for new ways to raise smarter children, it’s important to take preventative measures when it comes to ear health. Language is formed in the early years of your child’s life, and frequent ear infections often cause language and literacy delays, as any reading specialist will tell you.

Read more on the ear infection and literacy study…

Remember, every child is smart in their own way,

Pat Wyman

Founder, HowToLearn.com

Did you know that too much sugar turns to fat in your body?

Did you know that if you learn to read food labels like a pro, you’ll find all sorts of unhealthy chemicals, hidden sugars and trans-fats which can dull your child’s brain?

If you think sugar and simple carbohydrates are somehow different once you eat them, consider this:  Read the number of carbohydrates on the label, divide by 5 and you’ll know how may teaspoons of sugar you’re eating. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it possible that a talking phonics program can help your non-verbal child with autism, learn to speak? 

As a reading specialist, I’ve been recommending the use of various phonics programs for years.  Some are better than others; the ones which also use speech, and are not ‘game-like’, tend to be more comprehensive, and cover the full spectrum of phonics instruction.

Something I hadn’t considered about a talking phonics program though, is how it might help a non-verbal child, with autism, learn to speak.  Here’s a letter from Caroline Winship, a parent whose barely verbal autistic child, using a talking phonics program with his brother, suddenly began to speak clearly.  What a miracle this is! Read the rest of this entry »

When my daughter, Erin, a Pediatrician and co-founder of this RaisingSmarerChildren.com blog, was in the first grade, her teacher called me in and said she wanted her to repeat the first grade due to reading problems.

I was horrified as you can imagine, because Erin could read at age 4, and I am a reading specialist.   What was I missing?   

Fortunately, and I believe there are no coincidences, the mother of a child I was coaching in faster learning strategies, told me her son was taking vision therapy. She said her son had visual perceptual problems that weren’t picked up in the school vision exam on the distance eye chart, and she discovered he didn’t see the printed page the way he should.

Just today, I read a story on Fox Business News about the NFC West champion wide receiver for the Arizona cardinals, Larry Fitzgerald, who credits vision therapy for his success.

He says, like I have been saying, teaching and writing about  for just over twenty years now, “that most people don’t know that there are over 15 visual skills that every person needs to succeed in reading, learning, sports and life.  Reading at 20/20 distance eyesight is just one of those skills”.

My daughter, Erin, who had vision therapy in the first grade, was more than just lucky.  When she was finished the therapy, she read well above grade level.  She too, credits her much of her dream of becoming a medical doctor to the vision therapy she received as a child.  Had her visual perceptual problems not been solved right then, she may have struggled with reading all the way through school. Read the rest of this entry »