BUILDING SKILLS IN FOCUS & ATTENTION
Difficulties to stay on task
Easily distracted, disorganized
Poor task management
John can perform, his results are good. But he has difficulty to staying on task. He is distracted by everything. Maybe he is just a playful little boy who gets inspired easily and follows the quick flow of his interest. But at times, he seems distracted by everything, sometimes disorganized. John starts a thousand things with none of them getting finished.
Homework can be a pain. There are days where tears are involved and lots of coaxing is needed.
He does much better in a quiet one-on-one environment than in the classroom at school.
Leia is good in language. Her reading and writing is excellent.
But she struggles with mathematics. Simple sums still work. However beyond that she has a hard time understanding the problem and it is even more difficult for her to come up with the solution.
In science it is similar. Compared with her peers, it takes her much more effort to understand a concept, to draw conclusions, to compare and relate.
Mathematics is like a foreign language
A hard time to understand the problems
Concepts in science do not come easy
Jasmine has learned the letters of the alphabet early, but when it was about to start reading the problems emerged. Learning to read was a painful experience for Jasmine and it still is.
She misreads words. There is lack of fluency. She tends to rush through words she knows without respecting any commas or periods in the sentence.
A big problem is comprehension. Being asked about the story she just read, draws blank eyes most of the time. Jasmine has no idea about what she just read. It seems like all of her brain power is focussed on decoding the words with nothing left to understand the sentences and the contents.
Poor fluency, poor comprehension
Rushing through the text
Misreading words
Peter is doing well in mathematics and in science. Also in the language he is not too bad.
However his drawings are poor. He never knows what to draw. He just does not have the creativity it takes to come up with an idea.
He is able to copy an object exactly as it is. And every little detail will be correct. He can complete a complicated Lego project in following the instructions exactly. But he does not know how to build anything without instructions.
Having a hard time to come up with own ideas.
Lack of creativity.
Good in copying but never going beyond
Eva is brilliant in school. Learning is a breeze for her. In many subjects she is in the top of her class. But she has few friends. She does not know what to say in a group of peers. At times when she speaks, it comes over awkward, misplaced or out of time. She feels that she is different than her peers who often laugh at her.
She ends up staying away from the group in some distance, just observing or starting her own solitary play. She appears to be happy to be just by herself. But looking at her and following her eyes observing the group, she clearly would like to join!
Few friends only or no friends
Difficulties to read body language, intentions and emotions of others
Does not integrate in a group
Rather playing solitary than teaming up with peers
Amara is an adorable little girl. However she constantly sells herself under value. Her shyness and low self-esteem is the biggest reason for this. In a familiar and protected environment, she is a good performer, able to solve her tasks with ease.
In a new environment, she was just hides or looks away. When people talk to her she would not answer.
In class, she never raises her hands, never volunteers. Her current teacher knows that she will perform well when things feel right for her. Future teachers may not recognize her talent and may give her bad scores because she appears withdrawn.
Shy, low self esteem,
insecure, soft voice.
Avoiding social contacts
Will give up a task easily and prematurely
Clara, has difficulties following instructions at school. She is able to follow instructions when they are given slowly with eye contact. She is unable to keep a sequence of step in mind and perform them correctly.
This is exactly the problem at school. Only one of the steps of the instructions given to her will "stick" in her mind.
Since a single step out of a sequence often does not make sense, she ends up not knowing what to do.
Now she is in primary 2 only and she does receive plenty of individual attention. In the future, instructions will become more complex and detailed. Something needs to happen to help Clara with sequencing and the ability to keep multiple step instructions in mind.
Poor sequencing,
Can only keep one/few of multi-step instructions in mind
“Forgetting” steps of a sequence.
Mixing up the sequence of instructions
Paul is a good performer at school. He scores well in all subjects across the board and does not appear to have any difficulties.
There is just one big complaint: His handwriting! Everyone has difficulty reading it, including himself. Letters and digits are all over the place. Some are small, some are big, he is unable to stay within the lines, spacing between the letters seems to be arbitrary. He tends to forget the space between the words, shifting reading into a puzzle game.
He cannot estimate the size of a word on paper. He will start a new word at the end of the line, squeezing the letters in, writing them even on top of each other.
With drawing it is similar. Subjects he is drawing tend to have no relation to each other. What needs to be small becomes big and vice versa.
Untidy handwriting
Inappropriate size of letters and spaces
Excessive mistakes, careless writing
Problem solving is a higher level skill, that requires the integration of the systems.
Successful problem solving requires focus and present attention, detail orientation on one side and big picture thinking and creativity on the other side. It is supported by confidence and the ability to sequence.
Once these skills are established system integration is achieved with bilateral integration training.
To prepare your child look into programs listed in the first two rows.
Focus & Attention, Maths & Science, Literacy & Reading, Arts & Creativity
Social Skills, Confidence, Following Instructions, Handwriting & Fine-Motor
In order to integrate skills a period of bilateral integration training is required. Bilateral integration is only successful after the foundational mentioned above are established.
For this reason the program problem solving is only offered as SecretCode and GeniusPlan since it requires the input of an expert to evaluate the listening needs of the individual and design your childs/your individual listening plan.
Difficulties finding an appropriate solution.
Poor strategizing.
Too detail-oriented or to global, not seeing the details
Presentation skills are higher level skills, that require system integration. System integration can only be successfully achieved when the components to be integrated - single skills and functions - are already established and readily available for use.
In order to provide a successful presentation a number of skills is required such as focus and attention, confidence, social skills, sequencing, multi-tasking and others.
The program Presentation Skills is only offered as SecretCode, GeniusPlan and FastLane since it requires the input of an expert to evalaute the listening needs of the individual and design your childs/your individual listening plan. This evaluation will also assess which skills of the individual are already established and where more support is needed.
The primary target of the program presentation skills is the group 17 and above.
Select Age-Group to the right
Ian has talents in multiple areas. He is good in sports, good in school and his friends love him.
Still Ian seems to have a hard time when more than one task is requiring his attention. He only appears to be able to do one thing at a time. If someone is talking, he stops eating. When he is absorbed playing with his Legos, he would not notice when the door bell rings or when his parents call him.
Teachers have expressed that in the busy environment of the classroom, Ian appears to be much more challenged than in his quiet room. When a movement outside of the classroom window, a remark from his classmates or any noise or movement from the teacher attracts his attention, he is unable to continue with his present work. In consequence, he falls behind. He often runs out of time, leaving his work unfinished.
Ian is able to understand instructions and follow them well, even when multiple instructions are given in one sequence. Shifting attention however is his problem.
Select Age-Group to the right
Team skill is a higher level skill, that requires solid system integration. System integration can only be successfully achieved when the components to be integrated - single skills and functions - are already established and readily available for use.
It requires multiple skills to become a successful and efficient team leader or even a competent member of a team. Task-related skills such as problem solving, multi-tasking, focus and attention are required to create factual competence. Social skills, presentation skills and also creativity and motivation need to be present to create social and inter-personal competence.
Team skills is only offered as SecretCode, GeniusPlan or FastLane.
The primary target of the program leadership is the group 17 and above. The program leadership is also offered for the age groups 12 - 16, but not for the age group 6 - 11
Select Age-Group to the right
Leadership is the highest level of personal competence. It requires almost all of the higher level skills such as problem solving, presentation skills, multi-tasking and team skills to become a successful and convincing leader. Please refer to the details in the respective programs.
Leadership is only offered as SecretCode, GeniusPlan or FastLane. In order to achieve a substantial change in leadership skill a FastLane Intensives with coaching is required.
The primary target of the program leadership is the group 17 and above. The program leadership is not offered for the age groups 7 - 11 and 12 - 16
Select Age-Group to the right
Leadership is the highest level of personal competence. It requires almost all of the higher level skills such as problem solving, presentation skills, multi-tasking and team skills to become a successful and convincing leader. Please refer to the details in the respective programs.
Leadership is only offered as SecretCode, GeniusPlan or FastLane. In order to achieve a substantial change in leadership skill a FastLane Intensives with coaching is required.
The primary target of the program leadership is the group 17 and above. The program leadership is not offered for the age groups 7 - 11 and 12 - 16