Numerous students do well with homework but have difficulty taking tests. Others perform poorly with both homework and tests.  For many students, one main cause of test anxiety or poor test-taking skills  is weak or non-existent visualization skills. If students do not picture information in their mind’s eye when they study, then it is likely they will not retain the information for a test situation. This can produce anxiety, as students may study for hours, yet the information is not retained. Sometimes it doesn’t appear to teachers that students have even studied. Other students perform better with quizzes because less information needs to be retained, but may perform poorly on lengthier tests. Students often come into our clinic with very poor grades and no hope of attending college. After being trained in visualization skills, many of these students exhibit increased grades and are able to attend college. Other clients have...

Help your child to improve spelling skills with ease! Many students have difficulty with spelling and memorizing words for their weekly spelling or vocabulary tests. This is due in part to the fact that over half of the words in the English language don’t follow phonetic rules. This makes the task frustrating for many spellers. Phonics programs help students to spell words that follow the rules, but how can the rest of the words be learned? Words that fall in the category of sight words, or other words that cannot be sounded out, can be difficult for students to memorize. Many teachers have students write the word several times and use it in a sentence. This strategy works for some, but not all. Many of our clients have spent an hour per night working with their child on memorizing spelling words, and still their child did not pass the weekly spelling...

Help Your Child Memorize Multiplication Math Facts Once and For All My last blog post discussed how to memorize spelling words that don’t follow phonetic rules by using visualization skills. The same principal of visualizing spelling words in the mind’s eye for long-term retention applies to learning math facts as well. As we all know, learning the multiplication tables quickly and easily is a basic foundational skill for many aspects of higher math. It is imperative to learn the multiplication tables well. However, many students struggle with this skill due to poor visualization skills. There is not time to skip count every time a math problem is done. A child that skip counts and puts in an excessive amount of effort to complete even the most basic math problem will always struggle with math concepts – not to mention the extra amount of time he or she will need to complete...