Jane Radcliffe, M.A, Director
(415) 586-4577

To reach me, send an email to jradcli AT mystudybuddy.org.
When you type it in, be sure to use the @ instead of the word "AT".

In this page:
1. Homework Problems You Can Count on When There Are Learning Differences
2. Homework Problems You Can Count on with Teens
3. When Math is Greek to You
   

Also available are:
• SAT, SSAT, PSAT: Whatsat?
• Deadlines Can Get You If You Don't Watch Out
• Why a Postsecondary Program Should Pick YOU


Email us at jradcli AT mystudybuddy.org to send us your email and request these extra tips. When you type it in, be sure to use the @ instead of the word "AT".

 

TIP SHEET #1
Homework Problems You Can Count On When There Are Learning Differences

 Sometime along the way, you may have noticed, in your child, some of the following: slow vocabulary growth; trouble learning numbers, colors, shapes, days of the week; fine motor skills slow to develop; difficulty following routines; restlessness and inability to keep focus; chronic difficulty interacting with peers.

This checklist is obviously inclusive of what we all see in our kids from time to time.

But you may have seen several of these, over a period of time, and decided you needed to ask about possible learning-differences in your child.

If so, and you started on the long and complicated road of getting extra help for your child through the school-district, you may already be seeing the benchmarks of progress. Assuming you've also found support for yourself, life may be getting more comfortable both for you and for your child.

 There's still homework; and it's often a hassle. When StudyBuddy works on a child's behalf, here's what we look for: we ask the student and the parent for permission to set up a weekly telephone checkpoint with a staff-member at the school. We then identify the person most willing to talk with us weekly and get concurrence that we can track assignments that way. We ask the student to commit to writing down assignments daily for the first three weeks. At that point we decide whether we need to ask this be done by a staff person instead. Then we ask the family to adjust its routines so that homework time is before dinner, unless the student is in senior high school and capable of attentive work for several hours. If necessary we check this homework time by phone between sessions. If the parent has been reminding, telling the student to pay attention, or attempting to correct the student after errors have been made, we ask that that stop.

The next step is to find out just how the learning-difference is impacting completing assignments. Is the student avoiding reading and writing or avoiding math? Is the student able to work alone at all? Is the student capable of focus for 15 minutes at a time, if given a 5-minute break before starting something completely different? Do we need to reward at the end of every session; and if so, how? Then we try to find at least one subject the student loves and is excited about, whether that's a school subject or not. That interest is what we'll use to reward effort, to make math problems more fun, to make reading and writing worth doing. With high school kids we'll often make the reward something about music or sports or cars - reading, writing, and math problems lend themselves easily to these areas. We may even reward with a big event if that's warranted, perhaps after mid-terms. With very young children, or children who haven't yet found anything they think is of the greatest interest, we just bribe: stickers, little toys, little treats the parent approves of, sometimes outings, whatever. See Testimonials for what people have said about working with us. 

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TIP SHEET #2
Homework Problems You Can Count On with Teens

Somewhere along the way your curious, interested child turned into a teenager.

Maybe school is still interesting, but maybe for different reasons. You may know a lot is going on inside that head, but you may be the last to know just what. You try hard for a genuine dialogue, and sometimes you actually get one. Sometimes.

There's still homework, and it's often a hassle. Teenagers will often be very highly motivated in one area, and yet totally neglect the big picture. No matter how successfully they maintain a cool image, they usually have a lot of worries, and homework is in there too. Even those who are very computer-savvy are rarely capable of researching a subject thoroughly. Even those who maintain a Daytimer or Palm-Pilot with their assignments and other obligations will procrastinate when it comes to the big report that's due six weeks from now, or the mid-terms that are coming up at the end of March. The allnighter before such events is expected to take care of it; and they'll start on THAT after dinner.

When StudyBuddy works with a teenage student, we ask permission for a weekly checkpoint, usually by email, with someone at the school. Our first task is to find out what's working and what isn't. We ask the family to adjust its routines so homework is begun before dinner, and we monitor the amount of time it normally takes the student to meet the expectations of each teacher. If we need a checkpoint with the student between sessions, we ask for a call or an email. If the student is easily distracted and we feel it necessary, we ask the family for a limitation on television and computer games. We make sure the student hasn't missed out on basic concepts due to some difficulty in a prior year.

All of this supports the student in becoming all s/he can be, and turning all those school hours to something of benefit. To reinforce this point, if it's new, we talk with the family about implementing appropriate ways to reward effort, maybe with a special event after midterms or finals. The confidence that comes with being a good student will soon be its own reward.

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TIP SHEET #3
When Math is Greek to You

It's often how we feel about math in the middle-school years that settles us, permanently, into "I hate math," or "Hey, it's OK: I can do this." Before that, if we could add, subtract, multiply, and divide, that's all we needed.

Now, we're expected to keep doing those things with decimals, fractions, mixed-numbers, percentages, and ratios. Even worse, we're supposed to extract, from lengthy word-problems exactly what calculation is called-for.

Along the way, we're expected to get comfortable with all sorts of weights and measures (even metric); and to store visual pictures--not only of shapes-- but also of perimeters, bisectors, radii, area, and even volume.

That's just about enough, many kids say. Then they're introduced to scientific notation, and to graphs with negative as well as positive values. Don't worry, all you parents out there: it's just arithmetic. We all use it every day, right?

By ninth grade, kids find out that, if they got all that, they'll be fine in algebra and geometry. If not, they won't. So what else is new?

What's new is that StudyBuddy has found a way to help. We call on our associates who play with math for fun in their free time (yes, there are such people). We get them to help in pinpointing exactly where the student missed a basic concept. Once we find the blank, we fill it in. The student now can do those calculations that depended on the basic one he had missed. Problem solved.

Why it works: It works because we use a creative process that enlists the student in finding the missing piece. Then we show how, with that building-block in place, the student can do problems that had been a mystery. Students learn techniques to process math problems, helping them to overcome fear and anxiety. If we're lucky, it may even be fun. Someday.

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