Catherine Joubert Educational Psychologist

21/08/2023

W-sitting is when a child sits on their bottom with their knees bent and feet positioned outside of their hips. If you’re standing above your child, you will see their legs and body make the shape of a W.

19/08/2023

Life is full of ups and downs and it can sometimes feel like everything is out of our control. While it’s true that many circumstances are beyond our power to influence, there are still plenty of things that we can do to take charge of our lives and improve our well-being. With this in mind it is important to teach children to distinguish between what they can and can’t control. Whether they’re feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or anxious, offer them practical and empowering solutions to support their emotional well-being.

photo source unknown

16/08/2023

Orthographic processing is the ability to visually recognise and remember written words and parts of words. It includes the ability to immediately recognise letter sequences and patterns and to spell phonetically irregular words.

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10/08/2023

What are your glimmers 💜

05/08/2023

"Proprioception is often known as the sixth sense, as it is a sense that is not commonly known. To put it simply, proprioception is the sense that tells the body where it is in space. It’s very important to the brain, as it plays a large role in self- regulation, co-ordination, posture, body awareness, the ability to focus and speech. Proprioception is the sense that lets us know where our different body parts are, how they move and how much strength our muscles need to use. Playing the piano, handwriting, and playing sport are all activities that require a lot of proprioceptive input."

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04/08/2023

"Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) is extreme emotional sensitivity and pain triggered by the perception that a person has been rejected or criticized by important people in their life. It may also be triggered by a sense of falling short—failing to meet their own high standards or others' expectations."

The volatile (and sometimes destructive) emotions associated with ADHD can manifest as frustration, sensitivity, or tendency to feeling sad. Here’s what you need to know about rejection sensitive dysphoria, and how to control it.
👉https://www.additudemag.com/slideshows/adhd-emotions-how-they-affect-your-life/

04/08/2023

To learn to read, children must develop both fluent word reading and language comprehension. Fluent word reading stems from underlying skills: phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding, and automatic word recognition.

14/07/2023

"Kids who haven’t developed Spatial Awareness may have a hard time following directions or copying words from the blackboard onto paper. They may have trouble with the space between himself and the blackboard and then again when they try writing letters on the page (hence why their writing may be crooked or their letters are different sizes). It may also cause them to not understand the difference between letters like “b” and “d” or “m” and “n.” You may also find when your child does math that they crowd all their arithmetic problems to one side of the page"

Activities to improve your child's spatial awareness for better learning development.

13/07/2023

Teaching consent to children. Keeping them safe.

How do we ensure children and teens know about consent? Here’s a guide to changing the culture early to prevent sexual assault

10/07/2023

29/06/2023

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29/06/2023

“People with inattentive ADHD are not lazy, stupid, unwilling, or oppositional. They have a biologically based challenge with attending to the task at hand, and their brains tire more quickly.”

https://www.facebook.com/100064739408806/posts/648154890685819/?mibextid=Nif5oz

“People with inattentive ADHD are not lazy, stupid, unwilling, or oppositional. They have a biologically based challenge with attending to the task at hand, and their brains tire more quickly.”

27/06/2023

27/06/2023

📣 We need to talk about stimming.

It’s not bad, it’s not wrong, and it should NOT be blocked because it’s actually helpful to maintain regulation. 🎉

23/06/2023

Dr. Stanislas Dehaene, a respected neuroscientist findings reported in his keynote speech, “How Learning to Read Changes the Brain: Implications for Education,” at Learning Ally’s 2023 Spotlight on Dyslexia Reading Conference.

Many children struggle with learning to read. Neuroscience offers a better way.

22/06/2023

Dyslexia is a learning difficulty which primarily affects reading and writing skills. Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed. Dyslexia occurs across the range of intellectual abilities. It is best thought of as a continuum, not a distinct category. Co-occurring difficulties may be seen in aspects of language, auditory processing, motor co-ordination, mental calculation, concentration and personal organisation, but these are not, by themselves, markers of dyslexia.

It is important to remember that there are positives to thinking differently. Many people with dyslexia show strengths in areas such as reasoning and in visual and creative fields.

photo via .org

22/06/2023

Executive function are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and manage multiple tasks successfully. The brain needs these skills to filter distractions, prioritise tasks, set and achieve goals, and control impulses.

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