summer
Summertime Tips for Early Childhood Development
Summertime can provide endless opportunity to enrich early childhood development.
Summertime for young children means splashing in water, squishing sand between toes and endless hours of creative play. Still, there are ways for parents to guide a child’s play, here and there, to make sure they’re getting all the developmental support and enrichment they need to be ready for their next level of learning.
Summer tips for early childhood development – 2-6 year olds
The therapists at Child Success Center share some simple ways parents can foster early childhood development during the summer break.
Literacy:
- Sit and read with your child everyday. Choose books with illustrations and have your child talk about the story and images as you read it. When you’ve finished reading the book, ask your child to tell you what happened in the book in the beginning, middle and end. Books with little or no text encourage a child’s imagination to create the story.
- Consistency and accessibility can foster early literacy. At home, create a reading corner where you and your child can sit and enjoy books whenever you want. When traveling over the summer, take some favorite books along in the car or plane, and find some new ones that might be relevant to the places your visiting or the activities you’ll be experiencing.
Social Brain Building:
- Facilitate social skills building by challenging your child to get acquainted with one new peer each week during the summer break. Ask them to find out another child’s name and 2 fun facts about that child, such as what grade they’re going into and if they have a pet. This exercise helps a child build confidence when placed in new social groups or when entering a new classroom environment.
- Invite some of your child’s friends over to collaborate on building a fort or obstacle course. When completed, have them explain why they made the choices they did, and ask for a walk thru or demonstration.
- Limit screen time each day. With the extra “down time” during the summer break, it’s easy for a child to spend too much time in front of a screen. Limit screen time, making sure there’s plenty of time spent playing, exploring and socializing.
Communication:
- Encourage your child to share thoughts and words. One way to help build “communication temptation” is by keeping toys out of your child’s reach. This requires your child to use their language to ask you for what they want. As a child learns to request, provide two options, asking, “Do you want _____ or _____ toy? By doing this, the child is empowered with ownership over their choices.
- Language is everywhere! Increase your child’s exposure to language input by narrating, commenting, and labeling everything you see while playing, eating, and driving.
- Engage in activities that involve and stimulate the talking muscles, tongue, lips and jaw: Blowing bubbles, blowing kisses, drinking with a straw.
- Take pictures of your child’s day and talk about what happened first, next and last. Make a photo album of your child’s summer activities that he can talk about with friends and family.
Communication and social brain building skills come with shared play experiences, including just getting messy! Play with water, take out the finger paint, dig in the garden, build sandcastles. Have a great summer!
Summer Reading and Fluency Program
Summer Reading and Fluency Program—give your child the gift of a lifetime.
At the Child Success Center Summer Academy, our goal is to effectively impact a child’s academic learning problems by preparing the brain for learning.
Gaining and developing reading and writing skills does not come naturally for all children. For every 1 in 5 children, developing the underlying language, visual, auditory, sensory motor and attention and memory skills to process knowledge, and thus achieve academic success, can be significantly challenging. Because learning styles differ from one child to another, some learn better in an emotionally safe environment where there is ample opportunity for repetition and mastery. In addition to environment, specific programs, designed to meet the needs of individual processing strengths and challenges, can be introduced to further facilitate learning success.
Bright students just shouldn’t be struggling.
When children with at least average intellectual ability struggle to learn, even with adequate instruction, there is likely some form of foundational learning disability.
Questions parents commonly ask are: “How do I know what support my child needs? Does my child need a tutor – a summer off or time spent in a summer program, and at what level of intensity? What are the costs involved?”
At Child Success Center, the first step through our assessment process, designed and implemented by experienced education therapists, is to identify your child’s learning profile. Then a customized program that prepares the brain for learning is created to “unlock” learning challenges by developing/strengthening the underlying/supporting thinking processes and laying down the basic academic skills. Working on either area by itself may make some temporary gains, but will not correct the learning difficulties in the long term. For some children, this “work” is accomplished in a “just right” learning group. For others, individual, one-on-one support proves more effective.
Whichever approach is decided upon, daily instruction is critical to the process. The summer offers a great time to provide a child with the frequency they often need but are unable to receive during the busy school year.
About the “Summer Reading and Fluency Success” Program:
Our Educational Therapists have designed a therapeutic summer reading program for children in grades 1-4. The assessment process determines the child’s weak areas and through myriad fun and creative activities, the neurological processes that build a strong foundation for fluent reading are addressed. An individualized plan will be created and delivered one-on-one or in small groups, and scheduled as daily intervention or as needed, depending on the child’s needs. Children who have struggled with reading begin to enjoy positive reading experiences as their neurological processes are strengthened and foundational skills are acquired. The results of the summer session will be evident in the fall school term as the child experiences success in…
- Word Reading (Decoding)
- Spelling
- Passage Reading
- Fluency
- Word Meanings
Individual intensives and groups are now being scheduled. Call today for a pre-summer assessment or e-mail: officemanager@ChildSuccessCenter.com
Executive Function and Time Management Skills
Mastering Executive Function and Organization Skills
A new program offered this summer for Middle School and High School Students at Child Success Center
Is your son or daughter preparing to enter middle or high school in the fall and struggling to stay organized? Does he forget to turn in assignments? Does she feel lost when it comes to planning out long-range assignments? If this sounds like your child, he might have challenges with “executive function and time management skills”. Child Success Center offers an opportunity for you and your child this summer to help improve these skills.
Child Success Center uses an effective and proven program based upon the Sklar Process™ that helps your child learn and understand time management and executive functioning skills that are critical for success in all aspects of life. The curriculum teaches both you and your child how to use a variety of visual tools tailored to those with challenges in executive functioning and time management. An Educational Therapist who is trained in this life-changing curriculum will lead 10-12 sessions designed to foster a lifetime of effective behavioral changes for improved time management and organizational skills. This course is the beginning of an ongoing conversation between parent and child about how to effectively and more easily manage school and life.
The program will help the student and parent:
- Increase awareness about procrastination and explore ways to minimize its effect
- Learn how to organize large projects into an action plan within a functional time frame
- Explore the use of visual aids to coordinate a weekly schedule
- Dive into the brain to begin to understand how we process and organize information when managing tasks and keeping to a time schedule
- Improve self-awareness and metacognition in an effort to utilize strengths to support areas of challenge
- Learn about and create tools to manage time, tasks and organizational skills
- Improve communication with others for better time and task management at home and at school
Our Summer Program is now enrolling. Make this the summer for change. Learn more about the Child Success Center’s “Organizational and Executive Function Groups” on our website or contact Maria Fagan Hassani, M.A., ET/P at Child Success Center – 310-899-9597.
Child Success Center Announces Summer Academy!
Child Success Center Announces Summer Academy!
Summer is the time to address challenges and help your child grow their confidence to take the school year by storm! Child Success Center is orchestrating an array of summer, results driven programs designed to have your child confident and at the top of their potential when school begins in the fall. Most importantly summer is a time to have fun and Child Success Center programs are designed to be both fun and great learning opportunities. Click on our offerings below for more information and to get your child enrolled and on the road to new heights. Space is very limited, so please enroll today!
Kindergarten Readiness Camp – Give your child confidence in foundational academic skills and social skills for the best start possible.
Reading Club – Reading should be fun. If you child is struggling, help them over the speed bumps that are slowing them down.
Math Club – Math doesn’t need to be confusing. Our program makes it simple and as easy to understand as 1 + 1 = Success!
Speech Articulation – It’s time to make that lisp or other slight speech impediment go away. Set up a screening today to find out how a summer speech group can correct things within weeks!
Handwriting Club – So you want your child to be a doctor….but not write like one? Our team of Occupational Therapists will discover why handwriting is hard for your child and help them correct it over the summer. Find out how!
Social Skills Playtime Pals – Learning how to interact with others isn’t always easy. Our therapists can help your child become more engaging to make appropriate connections with peers and others. We can help.
Organization and Time Management – If your tween or teen has challenges staying organized or understanding time management, there are techniques and tools to help them function and stay focused for the rest of their life. They’ll find it fun. You’ll find frustration relief.
Kindergarten Readiness and Summer Camp 2013
Now is the Time to Ask, “Is My Child Ready For Kindergarten in the Fall?”
One of the greatest challenges in the young life of most children is making that initial big step into Kindergarten. Many parents who have had their little ones in preschool believe that Kindergarten is somewhat akin to preschool and that significant academics really don’t kick in until 1st or 2nd grade, but in newer times that is far from reality. In recent years, California Kindergarten curriculum has shifted to become far more academically skewed than in past decades and now more than ever, it’s very important to have all children properly prepared for these greater new challenges. To successfully excel in their new setting, children must achieve and master certain educational and social skills to adequately adapt and grow in a more accountable and often faster paced setting.
It may seem early, but for families who will be making the transition into Kindergarten, parents should seek counsel or advice from teachers or experts and possibly even have an evaluation for their child to ensure that educational and social skill development is on track for entry into Kindergarten in the fall.
New Program to Help Kids “Be Prepared” with proper skills
To help those who may need additional support, Child Success Center will be holding Kindergarten Readiness Camps in the summer that will not only teach and prepare little ones, but they will have a blast with the classes too! Presented as individual weekly Kindergarten Readiness Camps, kids will spend over 20 hours involved in activities designed to prepare them for the new rigors of Kindergarten. The program will help children develop confidence when taking the first steps toward handwriting and reading. The huge gymnasium at Child Success Center will be turned into a summer fun learning camp with the aim of turning “learning” into “play”. The camp will feature swings, a trampoline, climbing wall and monkey bars, which will take children on an adventure and build up their kindergarten readiness skills. The program will also feature art, music and science activities that will inspire creative interests and will offer hands-on fun through touching, exploring and games.
Parents can enroll their kids in a single weekly program, but enrollment in two or three week sessions will build stronger, lasting skills. Also, as a bonus, multiple week enrollees and those who bring a friend may be eligible for special discounts, so be sure to inquire when you call. They will also create a personalized specialty program for small groups who might be interested.
Each Week-long Session Will Teach Kids To:
- Recognize letters and match them with a name and sound
- Master holding a pencil, marker or crayon
- Develop attention and listening skills
- Socialize and communicate
- Enjoy learning
DATES: Dates: July 8, 2013 – Aug 16, 2013
TIMES: 8:45AM – 1 PM, Monday through Friday
AGE: Starting Kindergarten in the Fall
ENROLLMENT: Call the Child Success Center on 310.899.9597 or email: officemanager@childsuccesscenter.com
COST: Full Fee is $495 per week.
DISCOUNTS:
- Early Bird registration and payment by Friday March 29, 2013 is $475.
- Multiple week discounts are available. Call for details.
- Discounts are also available if you bring along a sibling or friend. Call for details.
