ILT Blog and News
By Dr. Shirley Kokot
Systems supporting learning
At Integrated Learning Therapy, you might often hear us comparing children to a house. Strange, but true! Let me explain. It’s important to remember the way a child’s brain develops and how that development may impact on learning. We tend to look at a child’s...
Should we teach children cursive handwriting?
A posting on Facebook reported that education departments in some countries are reconsidering the need to teach cursive (joined up letters) to learners. It seems that there is an argument for abandoning cursive writing because of the decreasing need to write at all. ...
Printed books still best for learning to read
Madeline Strauss, of Michigan State University reports on a study into the comparative value of digital methods versus ‘old fashioned’ simple ways of learning to read among pre-schoolers. It seems that writing letters and spotting words in print in everyday life in a...
Stress in children
With thanks to Drs Yiming and Fung, authors of ‘Help your child to cope: Understanding childhood stress’ We all experience stress in varying amounts in our lifetimes. Adults under stress are advised to talk to others, get help in managing stress, increase physical...
Why ‘active’ story time helps a child’s development
Research over the years shows consistently that children whose parents read stories to them from a young age show better language skills than those who don’t have a ‘story time’. Listening to stories is obviously a fun way for children to spend quality time with...
Building skills for Maths and Science
Skills needed for success at maths and science depend on a child’s spatial reasoning ability. This is the ability to visualise how shapes and objects move or fit together and the sooner this develops, the better the chances that the child will cope in the scientific...
How much fruit should children eat?
We are constantly hearing about the dangers of sugar to both health and brain function and that we should limit the amount our children eat. Fruit contains high amounts of sugar, so does this mean children should avoid too much fruit? Nick Fuller, writing for ‘The...
The power of play in childhood
We are very aware of how children love to play. Indeed, they need to play. Not only because it gives them pleasure but also because it is a vitally important part of their learning. Texas A&M University published an article stressing the power of play. In it,...
What is the best treatment for attention problems?
So many parents hear that their children have concentration problems, can’t focus or show limited attention span. Along with these descriptors, they see that their child daydreams, fails to complete tasks, loses things, fidgets excessively and so on. Seeking medical...