Raising Smarter Children

It occurs to me, as the new year approaches, that President Elect Obama, has made one of the wisest choices possible, amidst the thousands he needs to make - and that is to concentrate some of the resources on early childhood education.

The question is – will he focus on the two most overlooked issues that have created the dysfunctional educational system we have now?

So, Mr. Obama, if you’re listening, here’s some significant advice, based on proven statistics and 30 years experience as a reading specialist, teacher, university instructor and author of Learning vs. Testing.

Fact:  Nearly 70% of our children do not read at grade level.  Science scores are lower than that, math not much better, and it gets worse as we go.

While many try and spin these numbers, check the National Center For Education Statistics, or at the least, most local schools.  Reading levels are lower than ever, and the real reasons must be considered a national crisis in order to make any headway.

What we’ve done has not worked – so let’s get to work on change and fresh ideas. 

Children who receive the following services early, continue to enjoy learning success, higher self-esteem, a better chance of attending college, and will become people who truly contribute to our society in a positive way.  They are an integral part of the solution to our nation’s problems in every area.

If you want to insure your child’s learning success, it is imperative that you do many things; foremost among them:

1.  According to the American Optometric Society and other organizations, studies show that nearly 1 in 4 children have undetected visual problems.  Imagine how that might impact their ability to read.

Get your child an eye exam by a developmental optometrist (these are optometrists who perform regular eye exams, plus a special exam which relates to your child’s learning and reading success). 

Visit these four sites for more information and read the personal information from two former Presidents whose children or grandchildren experienced hidden visual problems themselves:  http://www.howtolearn.com/ireadisucceed.html   http://www.covd.org   http://www.oep.org and http://www.infantsee.org

Make certain your child has an eye exam before 12 months of age.  Why?

Read more about former President Jimmy Carter’s grandchildren at http://www.infantsee.org – your pediatrician is not trained to see things like lazy eye, that could lead to blindness if not corrected, and you can prevent a multitude of other visual problems early.

Luci Johnson nearly dropped out of school when her dad, Lyndon Johnson was President?  Why?  Because she had hidden vision problems to nobody diagnosed until she was 16 and ready to just quit.  If you kept failing over and over, and words on the page didn’t look the same to you as they did for the A+ students, how would you feel?

Continue with the eye exams as the demand on the eyes from computers and reading increase – don’t just visit a regular optometrist – they will only look at the health of the eye and check for visual clarity.

See a developmental optometrist once a year or once every two years, and immediately if your child of any age seems to dislike reading, has reading problems, or complains about writing and doing homework every night.  They may be giving you signals that they need this special type of exam, so you know how the world looks through their eyes.  Go to http://www.covd.org and http://www.oep.org to locate a doctor.

I did this for my daughter, and if you’ve been following my work for any time at all, you’ll know that she needed vision therapy, and is now a Pediatrician who can better help her own patients.

2.  Next, teach your kids “how to learn” and don’t let anyone just tell them what to learn.

There are very specific brain compatible and scientifically proven strategies for memory, study skills,reading a text book,  how to ace a written test, and how to write.  Use them.  You’ll do your child good for a lifetime!  One example that can truly help is in the e-book, Instant Learning For Amazing Grades – 210 pages of practical and proven strategies that have worked with well over 250,000 kids.

Read it on Friday, use the “how to learn” strategies on Monday. Some include learning math facts in half the time, cutting learning time in half, how to become a spelling bee champion, how to read and recall the information in a text or other written material for a test and much more.  There is even info on what foods help you stay focused longer.

This is at http://www.howtolearn.com/amazinggrades.html

For Mr. Obama, our next President, I urge you to think about this – if we insure that our children can read well, diagnose reading problems in the most foundational way, fix them if we find them, and then teach them “how to learn”, everybody wins. 

Kids are happier, families aim higher for their kids, values are stronger, and we hit the delete button on most behvior problems.

Thank you for listening, and if any of you have comments, we always welcome them – just press the comment button below, add those two numbers together so we know you’re a real person, and we’ll respond.

We thank you too, if you want to spread the word to help our nation’s reading and educational crisis - hit that submit button and share this post around the social networks.  They do make a difference in how many parents this information can help.

Thank you, and remember, every child is smart!

Warmly,

Pat Wyman and Erin Mavredakis, M.D.

Visit our other website for more information on helping your child solve learning and reading problems: http://www.howtolearn.com