Emotional Quotient (EQ): Good for Leaders and Autism

Experts in the field of leadership believe that truly effective leaders possess a high level of emotional intelligence or emotional quotient (EQ) focusing on self and relationship management. 

It’s about social competence. Raising a child with autism can assist with elevating your own emotional intelligence.

The 5 Components of  EQ
Dr. Daniel Goleman, psychologist, brought EQ to the mainstream public in 1995. His research concluded that EQ is made up of five components:

1. self-awareness,
2. self-regulation,
3. motivation,
4. empathy and
5. social skills.

Those with a high sense of self-awareness understand how their emotions impact others and their job performance; they can regulate their feelings successfully. 

How we manage our emotions or regulate them makes the difference for leadership success. 

Goleman states that without EQ, a person can have the best training, analytical mind and be good technically, but won’t make a great leader. 

Some leaders possess these traits naturally; however, can EQ be learned?

How to Teach EQ
As Lori Ciccarelli started training leaders in the corporate setting with regard to EQ, she realised that there was not much offered on “how” to raise EQ. 

There are countless articles and books that address “what” it is but no real tools offered to improve EQ. 

Lori started thinking about tools used with Social Cognitive Deficit Disorders (SCDD) since it is about social competence. 

Over the decades these tools became ingrained in her as she taught her son, which in turn assisted in raising her own EQ. 

The best way to learn is to teach. Since the components that support EQ equate to social competence, then why couldn’t these tools used for SCDD work to raise EQ? 

Lori Ciccarelli started bringing forward these techniques in her leadership and customer service development trainings which have proven to be very successful. 

Those who attend her classes are, generally, excited to head back to their jobs with new tools for success.

• Empathy: Tools that have shown success include Michelle Garcia Winners’ perspective-taking behavioural map to enhance empathy. This tool helps one visually and concretely map out behaviors by showing “how” it can make others feel and the consequences or outcomes associated with them. Taking it a step further, you can ask your audience to develop a plan in which to better display empathy, the next time.

• Social Skills: Another effective strategy to help develop appropriate social skills was created by Winners; imaginary “friend files” in the brain. This technique helps store information about others to help initiate conversations. This interactive exercise of getting to know someone by interviewing them, writing down three items about that person, and then storing the information in an imaginary file in the brain help to initiate future conversations. Also, one can keep a journal or card index file to help organise “friend” information.

• Self Regulation: The Incredible 5-point Scale developed by Kari Dunn Buron and Mitzi Curtis can help regulate moods recognising and managing emotional responses. This tool focuses on the “how” by rating the mood on a scale according to intensity and matching it to solutions. According to the authors, how we act, react, and interact in difficult situations depends on our ability to quickly and efficiently assess what is happening and consider the consequences of our actions. This tool can be extremely effective.

As we focus on social competence for our kids with Social Cognitive Deficit Disorders, we can also benefit by raising our own emotional intelligence. A key to effective leadership.

Estella and Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1 - YouTube

Estella was a beautiful baby girl who passed away from Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1, aged 8 months.
This video was created to tell Estellas story.

Follow her on twitter www.twitter.com/estellastar1

Please sign the petition and campaign for screening. http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/25997

Find out more about her here;
www.bluebellwood.org.uk/estella

or here
www.smashsma.blogspot.com

or finally here
www.facebook.com/estellameansstar

Dyslexia action: Dyslexia Still Matters - PetitionBuzz

Dyslexia Action are calling for a National Dyslexia and Literacy Strategy to enable the best evidence and solutions to be brought forward to increase the literacy standards in all UK schools. 

Our schools and teachers need our support, with access to training and expertise to better enable them to support the learning needs of children with dyslexia and literacy difficulties.

In the light of planned reforms of the Special Educational Needs system and considering other key changes, we put forward positive suggestions and solutions in our report 'Dyslexia still matters'. 

This Dyslexia Action report looks at the situation for children with dyslexia and literacy difficulties in our schools today.

It explores the progress that has been made and examines what still needs to be done to ensure school is positive and rewarding.

To read the full report, please visit www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk 

Go to Pettition Buzz to sign the petition: Dyslexia Still Matters - PetitionBuzz

Raising Awareness: Teach Dyslexic Britain - YouTube

Learning about dyslexia should be mandatory for all new teachers. Dyslexia affects 10% of all school children.

Teach Dyslexic Britain requests that you please sign the online petition http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20674.

See more videos at Teach Dyslexic Britain - YouTube

Phonological Awareness: Instructional and Assessment Guidelines

This article defines phonological awareness and discusses historic and contemporary research findings regarding its relation to early reading.

Common misconceptions about phonological awareness are addressed. Research-based guidelines for teaching phonological awareness and phonemic awareness to all children are described.

Additional instructional design guidelines are offered for teaching children with learning disabilities who are experiencing difficulties with early reading.

Considerations for assessing children's phonological awareness are discussed, and descriptions of available measures are provided.

Row, row, row your boat
gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily;
Life is but a dream

Bow, bow, bow your boat
bently bown the beam.
Berrily, berrily, berrily, berrily;
Bife is but a beam.

Sow, sow, sow your soat
sently sown the seam.
Serrily, serrily, serrily, serrily;
Sife is sut a seam.

Activities like substituting different sounds for the first sound of a familiar song can help children develop phonological awareness, a cognitive substrate to reading acquisition.

Becoming phonologically aware prepares children for later reading instruction, including instruction in phonics, word analysis, and spelling (Adams, Foorman, Lundberg, & Beeler, 1998; Chard, Simmons, & Kameenui, 1998).

The most common barrier to learning early word reading skills is the inability to process language phonologically (Liberman, Shankweiler, & Liberman, 1989).

Moreover, developments in research and understanding have revealed that this weakness in phonological processing most often hinders early reading development for both students with and without disabilities (Fletcher et al., 1994).

No area of reading research has gained as much attention over the past two decades as phonological awareness.

Perhaps the most exciting finding emanating from research on phonological awareness is that critical levels of phonological awareness can be developed through carefully planned instruction, and this development has a significant influence on children's reading and spelling achievement (Ball & Blachman, 1991; Bradley & Bryant, 1985; Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1989, 1991; O'Connor, Jenkins, Leicester, & Slocum, 1993).

Despite the promising findings, however, many questions remain unanswered, and many misconceptions about phonological awareness persist.

For example, researchers are looking for ways to determine how much and what type of instruction is necessary and for whom.

Moreover, many people do not understand the difference between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics.

Still others are uncertain about the relationship between phonological awareness and early reading.

Read more of this article here: Phonological Awareness: Instructional and Assessment Guidelines | LD Topics | LD OnLine

Dyslexia Awareness: DAC Interviews Dyslexic Students - youTube

1) Was there a particular reason for you coming forward for the assessment?
From DAC / Dyslexia Assessment & Consultancy http://www.workingwithdyslexia.com/

Dyslexic Advantage - Memory and Dyslexia

Dyslexic Advantage - Memory and Dyslexia

A recent study from Norway shows what people with dyslexia have known a long time...that working memory is affected in dyslexia. In the picture below, control subjects trying to keep letter sounds in mind vs. subjects with dyslexia.

One of the most common mistakes we see in educators approaching the subject of dyslexia is to think the only issues is phonological awareness. Some students have both, but for most, the memory is a problem as big or even bigger than distinguishing sounds.

Problems from Working Memory Challenges

•Hard time following conversations in background noise
•Trouble learning a foreign language
•Problems following a foreign language speaker
•Dismissed as 'inattentive ADD'
•Have to write auditory information down to remember

The importance of realising that working memory issues are affecting dyslexia is that working memory seems to be highly trainable.

Some of greatest leaps in IQ's we've seen over the years have been in students who acquire more strategies to organise their ideas and who work hard at tasks to train up their working memory.

It doesn't always have to be expensive software programs to train up working memory - it can involve persisting at difficult working memory tasks like mathematics, writing, or acquiring an 'easier' foreign language.

Working memory problems also highlight the need to employ multisensory approach to learning sounds. Making images, humorous, or other more interesting information to forgettable facts or sounds can help the data to 'stick'.

What is dyspraxia? How does it impair development?

Developmental dyspraxia is an impairment or immaturity of the organisation of movement. It is an immaturity in the way that the brain processes information, which results in messages not being properly or fully transmitted.

It can create a clumsy child that is more uncoordinated, slower to walk and develop good motor and hand to eye skills.

Praxis
The term dyspraxia comes from the word praxis, which means 'doing, acting'. (The largest DIY retail hardware outlet is named Praxis.) Dyspraxia affects the planning of what to do and how to do it. It is associated with problems of perception, language and thought.

Dyspraxia is thought to affect up to ten per cent of the population but like many disorders the child may experience only minor disorder. Unfortunately, some children will experience severe symptoms but they are only two per cent.

Males v Females
Males are four times more likely to be affected than females. Dyspraxia sometimes runs in families and like other developmental disorders, the child may experience other related conditions. If you are concerned then simply seek the advice of a qualified consultant.

Name magic
Other names for dyspraxia include Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD), Perceptuo-Motor Dysfunction, and Motor Learning Difficulties. It used to be known as Minimal Brain Damage and Clumsy Child Syndrome.

Statistically, it is likely that there is one child in every class of 30 children. We need to raise the awareness of this debilitating condition and make sure that everyone understands and knows how best to help this significant minority.

Morphological Awareness: Recognition of parts of Words

In our last blog we discussed Orthographics. Continuing on our voyage of discovery in the land of sounds, letters and words, we would like to introduce you to the term Morphology as it is used in language and learning.

Morphology
Morphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of words. While words are generally accepted as being the smallest units of syntax in a language, it is clear that in most languages, words can be related to other words by rules.

Words contain other smaller words that lend them greater meaning, a 'root' that connects them together in a structure or wordy relationship. One that you can easily build on. In this way, morphology is the study of patterns of word formation within and across languages

Learning the basic Rules

As an example, children recognise that the words - dog, dogs and dog catcher - are closely related and refer to things that involve the animal 'dog'. At an early age children learn to recognise these constructs and relationships, and build up a knowledge of the rules of word formation.

The parent and teacher can help them to learn that 'dog' is to 'dog catcher' as 'dish' is to 'dishwasher'. On a more complex level, the rules understood by the child, reflect specific patterns in the way words are formed from smaller units and how those smaller units interact in writing. Provide them with plenty of opportunites to re-enforce this knowledge.

More Complex Words

Unfortunately not all words have a straghtforward relationship between speaking and spelling. For example; who, niece, although, etc. These are words that do not sound the same as they are spelled. There are additional rules and relationships to be learned and that's OK, as long as you are aware of that and make it known to the children.

Prefixes and Suffixes

many words that we use have standard beginnings (prefix) and some have standard endings (suffix), to convey meaning and to show a 'change' to the 'root' meaning.

Prefixes e.g. un, dis, over, etc. are all part of a consistent and regular rule that governs them and their effect on the 'root' of the word. Spend time with your child exploring the different un-, dis- and over-, words.

Show how they change the meaning of the 'root' word e.g. unable means to be not able, disentangle means to undo an entanglement, overtime means to work beyond your official hours of work.

Even in trying to translate and expand the meaning of the chosen words you will find that you have to use a lot more words to ensure that the listener understands your explanation. Thus, proving the value of using prefixes and other shortened terms to convey meaning and understanding quickly and clearly.

Morphological Awareness

What we have been discussing here is already raising your morphological awareness. You are recognising how the use of prefixes and suffixes affects the 'root' word and how they convey different meanings or can create some subtle variations of the same meaning, i.e. variations based on an established rule.

Summary

Your part in this is to work with the children and to raise their Morphological Awareness, not in an advanced linguistic and complex way but in a pleasant and fun way. Show them how big words are constructed from smaller words and explain to them the rules that govern prefixes and suffixes.

Word Games

A great way of doing this is by cutting out words from a magazine or with word cards. An ideal game for this is Scrabble but I realise that this is not as popular as it used to be, which is a shame. However you decide to do this, it is all about spending quality time with your children and at the same time making it easy for them to learn something new.

Dyslexia: Print Awareness in pre-school children

We are not born with the inate or genetic knowledge of how books, paragraphs and sentences are constructed, nor are we aware how print is formatted, in our language or our part of the world. We have to learn this from a teacher or preferably, from a parent.

In the West, we start reading a piece of text from the top left of the page and move along the line from left to right, finishing at the bottom left. Can you remember who showed or taught you that? Was it your parents or an older sibling or did you have to wait until you went to school to discover this?

First School day
Unfortunately, a large proportion of the population turn up on their first day at school not knowing some of these basic things. Things, that would not only make their school days so much easier and more enjoyable, but it would also make for early detection of reading and learning issues.

When reading to a child, the parent or nurturing adult can easily demonstrate by pointing, where they are starting to read and by continuing to follow the text with their finger, as they read the words. Thus, a non-reading child will become 'familiar' with this method of examining and following text, even if they are still unable to recognise the words they are looking at.

Print Awareness
A child who is experiencing dyslexia may have difficulties in this exercise of following text, even after being shown where to start and how to follow the words. The parent or adult needs to persist with this exercise to be sure that this is indeed an issue and not just a lack of interest or concentration by the child.

Bedtime Stories
Bedtime stories are a great opportunity to share this knowledge with your child and it is also an important piece of 'quality time' that you will spend with your child and one which they will cherish forever.

If you do share bedtime story reading with your child, do so in a position that the child can see you pointing to the text and following it with your finger. After a few sessions you should allow your child to point to the words and follow along as you read. This will show you their level of 'print awarenss', or not.

Do forgive them if they get sleepy during these periods and lose their concentration. Remember, it should be a pleasant and enjoyable experience for you both. One that leads to a restful night's sleep for the child, as well as a low key learning activity.

Summary
Print awareness is essential in the development of reading skills. Encourage your child to watch carefully when you point and read words and text, then ask them to do it with your help.

Don't panic! If you have any concerns about your child's print awareness or reading skills, consult a qualified consultant for their opinion and they will be able to provide re-assurance, pertinent comment and specialist observations.