Proudly Hosting Nigel Latta

Say Nigel Latta to any parent in New Zealand, and they'll smile. We all love the common-sense approach to parenting this renowned psychologist offers in his books and, even more famously, in his TV appearances. You just have to be intrigued by anything called "The Politically Incorrect Parenting Show". The contents won't disappoint. It lets you off the hook when your parenting style is human instead of textbook. It tells you it's ok to discipline your kids if they don't want to do their homework. It's a parent's best friend.

Here is an excerpt from the book "Politically Incorrect Parenting: Before Your Kids Drive You Crazy, Read This!" about the art of communication (reprinted here with the author's permission):

The effective use of punctuation underlies all good parenting. In fact, I would say that there are some types of punctuation that have no place at all in parent-teenager communication.

Perhaps the worst offender is the humble comma. This simple punctuation device is responsible for more conflict between parents and their teenage children than any other. Whilst it might seem extreme, my advice would be to declare your home a comma-free zone. The comma will only bring trouble, and if you are wise you will have none of it. The rule of thumb is that anything which comes after the comma is nagging. Anything after a comma is simply going on about things.

The full-stop, on the other hand, is your friend. The full-stop can prevent many arguments. It can be used liberally with little fear. Question marks are a little like salt, in that a little salt is usually helpful, whereas a lot of salt ruins just about every meal. Salt and question marks should both be used in moderation. In general, you will want to deploy a fill-stop as soon as you can. If you have a choice between a comma and a full-stop, always go for the latter.

Mothers tend to have far more difficulty with this basic (…). Commas come naturally to mothers that they are often unable to tell when they are using them. Mothers also take more convincing about the need to limit the use of question marks. Mothers often thing the best follow-up for one question mark is another question mark. Fathers are more full-stop oriented.”
 
Bad Punctuation:

“No, you can’t go to your friends place tonight, and before you ask me why, let me tell you, because if you were to speak a little more nicely to me and your father, and show us just a modicum of common courtesy, then I might have let you go, but you’re the one who decided to be rude, so you’re the one who can stay home, and if you want someone to blame for that, then don’t blame me, because I’m not the one who doesn’t think about anyone else in this family, although you probably don’t even notice the fact that I do lots of things for you that I never get any thanks for, like your washing, and cooking all the meals, and keeping this place clean, and ….”
 
How to fix that:
“No, you can’t go to your friend’s place tonight.”

Here's that link to the book again: "Politically Incorrect Parenting".
And here's Nigel's website.

Do Your Kids Listen?

Whether you're a parent or a teacher, there comes a point (on a very bad day) when you throw your arms upwards to the silent sky and demand: "Why won't they just listen?"

In case your question wasn't rhetorical, here are some possible explanations:

• Because they're children. It's their job to not listen.
• Because they think they know what you're going to say.
• They listen, they just don't want to obey.
• Their learning style has a non-preference in the listening department.

That last point needs a bit explaining. Some people, be it adults or children, are simply not good at absorbing information through their ears. They are the ones who prefer to learn by watching, reading about it or taking part in a real-life experience such as a laboratory experiment or a field trip.

If that's the case, you can still get your children to pay more attention when you're talking - you just have to make sure a few of their other learning style preferences are satisfied. Perhaps your child will listen better in a more informal environment or at a different time of day? Perhaps they'll respond better in a warmer room or if they're allowed to nibble on pieces of fruit?

What are your child's listening preferences? Find out here.

Parents and Working Styles

What can you change to achieve a better environment in which to be a parent? Think about your daily schedule and about your house, in the context of your Working Style preferences.



· If you hate early mornings, can your partner take the early parenting shift?


· If the bright house lights make you see red, it’s a good investment to change them, before they affect your health and the well-being of those around you.


· The mess is the biggest problem for you? Then make one room in the house a no-go zone for the children: the kitchen, your bedroom, the laundry. Take refuge there with a cup of coffee whenever there are more than 11 toys lying around on the floor.


· Do your partner’s eyes glaze over when you say: “Right. Please take out the garbage, feed the children: the lasagna is in the oven, turn it off in fifteen minutes, remember the teeth, don’t let them watch too much TV, I’ll be back at nine”? If so, find another way of communicating with him (a written list, a recorded message, a video even if you have a camera with playback). The extra effort will be well worth the end result.


· Get enough sleep. Parents who are night owls by nature tend to do chores or have couple-time till late in the evening, then feel exhausted come morning.


· If you’re a planner, plan every day at home with the children as though you were a manager in a big company: plan the outings, the meals, the crafts and what music you’ll put on. If you are a spontaneous person, let your imagination dictate what you do every day and don’t stress trying to execute a plan just because everybody else seems to do it that way.


· If the kids do something that annoys you, put yourself in time-out with a large box of chocolates.


· Most important of all: have fun with your children. It’s the best way to de-stress.



If all this sounds too simple and obvious to make a difference, think again. Every journey consists of small steps. And you are about to make a giant leap towards a healthier happier you. Start with discovering your own Working Style.

Parent-Teacher Interview Tips

To a teacher in the first year on the job, few things are as scary as speaking to The Parents. Some will tell you their child is not stimulated enough in class. Some will say the work is too hard. There should be less homework. More homework. Some want to know whether Johnny behaves at school, others whether he's made friends, surprisingly few ask about the actual learning.

It all depends on the type of parents you're dealing with. Here are some useful definitions to help you make sense of it all:

• Helicopter Parents are over-involved parents who hover over their children offering to help you with every aspect of teaching their offspring.
• Lawnmower Parents run ahead of the children, smoothing away obstacles in their path and sometimes even doing their homework.
• Tiger Parents pressure their children into overachieving, sometimes at the expense of social and physical development.
• Grasshopper Parents think there are things more important than working hard at school: sports, parties, holidays, family reunions, watching TV....
• Vacation Parents steer away from the responsibility of parenting trusting somebody else will do it for them.
• Groupie Parents treat their children like rock stars.
• iParents try too hard to be cool.

Determine the parents' priorities and address their concerns according to the type of parents they represent. Even if you're a holistic thinker, add a few details to demonstrate how well you know the child. If you're an analytic, it may help your confidence to compose a list of salient points about each child, something the parents can take away with them from the interview.

Best of all, you can impress the parents - as well as help the student - by mentioning their learning style. "Annie benefits from doing her homework in the lounge on the floor," or "Ben needs to chew on something, physically, in order to chew on a complex homework problem" is exactly the type of thing most parents need to hear.

Teaching Love By Hand

(Today's guest post is by Tracy Lockley, an Australian writer, school teacher and mum. As she teachers her toddler daughter to cook, Tracy's words remind us of the value of love, family traditions, working as a team and learning by doing... or, if you're too small to do, then at least learning by watching.)

This afternoon, Mckenzie and I made a steamed pudding together. It was the perfect day for it – cold, grey, rainy with wind howling in off the Southern Ocean – the perfect time for a mother and daughter to engage in the time-honoured transfer of knowledge that isn’t in a book or on the internet.

I know she’s only two and a bit, but I also know that I never really cooked until after I left home. The kitchen was my mother’s domain. Although my father cooked from time to time and I baked endless chocolate cakes to avoid having to write lines for forgetting to take my books to class, my mother cooked most efficiently alone.

I would sit on the kitchen counter and read poetry to her while she cooked and she would narrate what she was doing, only occasionally requiring me to hold a pan while she scooped the contents into a bowl, or stir the gravy while she added stock. The rest of the time, I watched, and read, and learned. In this way I learned not recipes, but what food looks like, smells like, what the texture feels like as it progresses from raw ingredients towards the table.

This afternoon, as I worked around Mckenzie’s fluffy little head, helping her hold the beater, showing her how to cup the egg in her hand and how to time that sharp little blow with the back of the knife, I realised how much knowledge is contained in the simple act of making a steamed pudding.

Yes, there was a good description on the internet of how to tie the foil over the bowl, and that the bowl should be greased, but nothing about making a pleat in the foil to conduct the moisture away, how to make two straps of foil that intersect at the bottom of the bowl to ease the finished pudding out onto the plate, nothing about lining the bottom of the bowl with paper-thin slices of lemon, or dipping them in sugar so that they taste like marmalade or how to overlay them in a beautiful pattern like scales on a fish.

All this knowledge is contained in me. It exists, dormant, while I am driving on the freeway, teaching, sleeping, skydiving, but it is always there. It was planted there over a hundred chilly evenings, watching the smile on my mother’s face as she lifted the bowl off the pudding and said “Dad loves this” and many Christmases when either my mother or my grandmother would call on me to supply the pressure of one finger (oh hallowed moment!) as they secured the string on the pudding bowl before committing it to the water, followed by the patient tending of the pudding, topping up the water until it was done.

Over the years I have added my own variations and discoveries and of course, none of it is written down. I wouldn’t know where to begin. I will have to wait a few years before Mckenzie is old enough to supply that finger pressure on the string. It takes two women to do it. The string came off today when time came to lift the pudding from the pot. On your own, you just can’t do it.

In an age when many women’s cooking skills go as far as heating microwave dinners, I wonder whether Mckenzie will grow to love food in this way, not just as nourishment for the body, not just as a list of
ingredients and instructions, but as communal enterprise, and the communication of love from the cook to those she (or he) cooks for, and from generation to generation. Her apprenticeship has started. She touches and tastes freely at every stage of the process (“Mmm… taste like egg”) and delights in her handiwork when the finished product appears, but still asks “Where come from?”

In part, she’s right. A cake is more than its ingredients. There’s a kind of magic that happens and there are spells that bind generations together. I would like to think that one day, in another kitchen, far, far from now, another woman, maybe Mckenzie, or maybe her daughter will work patiently around a little head, teaching things that aren’t written down, but written on the heart.

"There's Only One Answer. It's At The Back. Don't Look."

At Creative Learning, we are fully behind the concept of paradigm shifts in education. Our Learning Style Analysis tools are poised to place a higher value on creativity and to challenge people's thinking about teaching our children in standard batches that resemble a factory process instead of a journey of discovery.

This is why we're delighted to bring you the video by Sir Ken Robinson about the paradigm shift in education. It's not enough in today's world, he reasons, to work hard, get a good education and a good job. A university degree no longer guarantees financial success. We should concentrate more on the individual (see his reference to learning styles on the 7th minute of the video) and on nurturing creativity in our children.

Now that you've seen the video clip, are you keen to discover your child's learning style? Click here.

Daniel Sieberg's Digital Diet

Our blog's guest today is Daniel Sieberg, an EmmyÒ-nominated reporter who hosts Tech This Out! for ABC News NOW. Daniel asks:
Have you ever felt that something hasn’t really happened until you post it on Facebook or Twitter? Does a flashing red light on your BlackBerry make your heart flutter? Do you know you shouldn’t be texting and driving—but still do it? If you said yes to any of these questions then you’re not alone; you’re among the millions of people who can relate to being overwhelmed by technology.  

Family Tip

Chill out — the next time your son or daughter comes to the dinner table with a smart phone or iPod or laptop, try putting it in the fridge during the entire meal. It won’t do any harm to the device. Then serve it as the final course, after the dessert.

E- obesity

It’s not a revelation to say that this country has an obesity problem. But there is mounting concern that gluttony for technology is creating what I call the “e- obesity” problem. By that I mean that our increasing appetite for gadgets and the Web has made us lazy and less active. Most days, the only parts of our bodies that are getting a great workout are our fingers and thumbs, and they are often being overworked.

First let’s look at the numbers as they apply to the young generation. The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project recently found that half of American teenagers send more than fifty text messages a day and that one-third send more than one hundred a day. Every day. Add that up over a month and we’re talking easily in the thousands.

Two-thirds of the texters surveyed said they were more likely to use their cell phones to text friends than to call them. Fifty- four percent said they texted their friends once a day, but only 33 percent said they talked to their friends face to face on a daily basis (a probable harbinger of the death of “small talk”). The Kaiser Family Foundation reported that young people between the ages of eight and eighteen spend on average seven and a half hours a day using some sort of electronic device, from smart phones to digital music players to computers. In essence, they’re online for the time spent at a full- time job, which is a number that likely startled many of you, even those who keep your smart phone in plain sight during waking hours.

The role of technology in childhood and adult obesity has now been proven without a doubt. More than forty studies have been conducted on the matter, and many indicate that the availability of technology contributes to a sedentary lifestyle and weight gain in children. A Canadian study conducted in 2003 and published in the International Journal of Obesity linked seven- to eleven- year- olds’ television and computer use to a significantly increased risk of being overweight or obese. The study found that children who spent three or more hours a day using technology had a 17 percent to 44 percent higher risk of being overweight and a 10 percent to 61 percent higher risk of obesity.

  

• For more information about Daniel Sieberg and The Digital Diet: The 4-Step Plan to Break Your Tech Addiction and Regain Balance in Your Life visit http://www.danielsieberg.com/.
• For your own copy, visit http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Diet-4-step-addiction-balance/dp/0307887383 (print) and http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Diet-addiction-balance-ebook/dp/B004J4WM3G (Kindle)
• To discover whether your Learning Style makes you susceptible to E-obesity, have a look at your Learning Style Analysis report.

Learning Styles - Food, Glorious Food

What does your Learning Style have to do with food? A lot, according to international education expert, Barbara Prashnig.

Your Learning Style influences what you eat and when. It dictates how you shop and how you cook. As much as you may be reluctant to admit it, your Learning Style rules your life!

Take the learning style need for intake, for example. If you have a preference in this learning style element, you will want to snack whenever you're concentrating on something new or difficult. If you're kinesthetic, you will prefer soft-textured food. If you're tactile, you'll enjoy eating with your fingers.

But that's only the beginning. Analytic thinkers will stick to the shopping list when shopping and to the recipe while cooking. Holistic thinkers won't have a shopping list and will adapt the recipe to suit their mood and the contents of their pantry.

People whose learning style welcomes change will probably be more willing to try new and weird food, particularly if their other learning style preferences are satisfied. So if your child is a fussy eater, try to introduce new food in an environment catered to his or her particular learning style and see the difference!

Charlotte Reznick speaks about The Power of Your Child's Imagination

Is your child's Learning Style suited to the Tools of Imagination?

Find out here.

Q1. In your book, The Power of Your Child’s Imaginationyou share with us the importance of accessing a child’s imagination to help them handle everyday problems. Dr. Reznick, why is it important to access your child’s imagination to handle their problems?

Dr. CR: Parents come to me with all sorts of concerns. Like not sleeping at night, having all sorts of fears and worries, not doing well at school or sports, not being able to manage their anger and frustration, not getting along with their brothers and sisters, being devastated when their parents fight or divorce, having stress headaches and stomach-aches, and sometimes just feeling awful about themselves. Yet kids have many of the answers they need to solve their everyday problems right inside. With a little guidance to help them tap into their own imagination and develop their intuition, I’ve seen thousands of kids figure out what works for them. Like nine-year-old Alex who imagined a magical white dragon around his bed to keep him safe at night. Or six-year-old Sara who received a Gift of a crystal star from her Wizard to remember to love herself no matter what.

Basically, Moms and Dads are good at handling their kids’ problems, but sometimes we don’t always know which tool to apply when. This book assists you in choosing what’s best when. It’s as if it puts nine of my secret ingredients into your pantry and helps you choose what’s right for your child right now. There are Nine Imagination Tools that you can teach your child to use with most of the problems they face each day. The book teaches you what these tools are, and which ones work best for which problem. It gives scripts for the Nine Tools and guided journeys you can use immediately. You can mix and match the Tools to suit what works best for your child in each particular situation. There is also support for you as a Parent, on how to nurture yourself while raising your kids, and will lead to less stress for you, and more relaxed parenting.

Q2: You say that sleep issues are a major concern for kids today. How can parents use imagination to help their children fall asleep quickly and easily?

Dr. CR.: Parents ask me all the time about sleep problems. No matter how old a child is, trouble falling asleep is the most common complaint, followed by trouble staying asleep. 30 to 70 percent of kids have a sleep problem at some point. Let me tell you about Sophie. You might recognize some of her issues in your child. Eight-year-old Sophie was exhausted. She tossed and turned for hours. She was short-tempered all day from her lack of sleep. Her parents were exhausted and exasperated. When I met her, Sophie told me exactly what her problem was. She said, “I can’t turn off my brain. Stuff keeps spilling out.” She drew a picture of her life – dark, rainy, with no love. But, when I asked her if she could imagine what her life would be like when she could turn off her brain and sleep easily, she transformed that picture. She imagined a land of Love with the sun shining and flowers growing. She said her crabbiness would be gone and she’d feel really happy and proud of herself.

This simple spark of her imagination was the first step toward change. It’s important that she acknowledged where she was, and could imagine where she wanted to go. Then we took the steps to get there. The Imagination Tools that worked best for Sophie were… one, the “Balloon Breath,” breathing deeply into her tummy to calm herself. Second, imagining a “Special Place” to fall asleep. She loved to imagine falling asleep peacefully while floating on a fluffy white cloud or in her favorite vacation place. She was lucky enough to go Hawaii the year before and she loved swinging on the hammock in front of the room. And third, meeting a wise “Wizard” who gave her “Gifts.” Sophie imagined a Harry Potter type teenage wizard who dressed in a cool violet skirt and a hot pink blouse with a gold crown, who gave her magic berries that helped her body relax deeply and fall asleep. And her Wizard’s wise advice to her was, “If you believe you’re already sleeping, you’ll be asleep in a minute,” Of course that’s clearly coming from Sophie herself. Which is the point – you child has the wisdom and answers inside. All you have to do is choose which Nine Tools work best.

Dr. Charlotte Reznick has dedicated her life to helping children, adolescents, parents, and professionals. She is a nationally recognized child and educational Psychologist and Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at UCLA. Upon earning her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California, she was honored with "Dissertation of the Year" for her work on the effects of parental divorce on adolescents.

The Power of Your Child’s Imagination is a heart-felt guide that shows parents and professionals how to empower children with easy, effective, and creative skills for surviving – and thriving – in our stressful world. It’s an indispensable guide that provides nine simple tools to help kids access their natural strengths and resources. There’s a mini-primer for each Tool—a sample script, troubleshooting tips, and real-life examples of how it is used. The Tools are adaptable to all ages (even adults can use them), and their benefits accumulate over time.

For more information, or to purchase a copy of The Power of Your Child's Imagination, please visit http://www.imageryforkids.com/

Are You a Stressed-Out Parent?

If you're a stressed-out parent, you're not alone. Even those seemingly-perfect dads and those yummy mummies have their moments.

Parenting is probably the most rewarding, yet the most strenuous job ever.

Why?

It all comes down to your working style:

• if you operate best in silence, shrieking children will drive you crazy within half an hour;
• if you are not an early riser, looking after your children at 6A.M. places enough biological stress on your body even when there are no squabbles or ripped pillows to deal with;
• if you're an analytic thinker, it'll be mega-stressful for you to deal with three simultaneous parenting issues (like feeding the baby while taking the toddler to the toilet and telling the older child to put down the scissors);
• click here to see more Style Elements that may clash with your parenting responsibilities.

Are you ready to find out what your Working Style as a Parent is? Simply complete your WSA Combo and send us the resulting PDF file. We will email you back with a detailed analysis of your Parenting Style.

Communication is the second contributor to your levels of stress. If you issue verbal commands, yet your children are not auditory, you are on the road to Burnout Land, fast.

What is the best way to get through to your children? Let them complete their Learning Style Analysis to find out.

Say Goodbye to Stress with Working Styles

Step 1: Recognise Stress

(that’s nothing to do with Working Styles!)

· Your little girl spills juice on the carpet.

· Your son is having a screaming fit.

· Your toddler is carrying her latest painted masterpiece towards you. She drops it face down onto the carpet….

· Your teenager has died her hair purple.

Step 2: Discover Why You Are REALLY Stressed. No, REALLY!

Take something as simple as the light in your house. Did you know that some people feel better in darker rooms that have softer lighting, while others need bright light to function? If you like bright light, you may feel lethargic in dimly lit rooms; while if you prefer soft light, you may be stressed in a room in which the light bulbs are very bright. Fluorescent lights in particular (present in many kitchens, garages and laundries) can make you feel extremely agitated because of their constant flickering that your eye doesn’t notice but your brain still registers.

You can also feel stressed because of an untidy environment, too much change or too much routine, because of the weather, because of the time of day.

To find out, do our Working Style Analysis.

Step 3: Banish Stress

1. Think about your daily schedule and about your house. What can you change to achieve a better environment in which to be a parent? Hint: read the report you get with your personal and unique Working Style Analysis.

2. Not sure what else is adding to your stress? Then email Prashnig Style Solutions on info@clc.co.nz with a subject line “Parental Stress Competition” for your chance to win a personal analysis.

Parenting and Learning Styles

Parenting and Learning Styles

What is a Learning Style / Working Style? It’s the unique set of preferences and non-preferences that determines the way in which you concentrate and work at your very best.

1. The Busy Parent

The busy parent has:

· a job away from home,

· children in after-school care

· and dinner to make.

Objective-driven and focussed, the busy parent wears many hats and is a great organiser.

If that’s you, chances are that your Working Style is analytic (click here to see what that means). But how well do you react to change in your life? Does your children’s impulsive behaviour cause you stress? Would you be able to cope without a strict schedule? Discover your own Working Style and find out how best to manage your stress levels. Here’s how to do it.

2. The Cotton-Wool Parent

· Provides warmth and soft landings and padding from the big bad world...

· ... too much at times.

Today’s world looks more dangerous than the one we grew up in. The cars are faster, the competition fiercer and stranger-danger has never had it easier now that we’re all online. Is your child likely to enjoy socialising online more than in real life? What does their Learning Style indicate? Find out.

3. The Stressed Parent

No need to say more. We’ve all been there.

Stress is an integral part of parenting. However, if your blood pressure rises the minute you walk into the house, it’s probably because your Working Style doesn’t allow you to function at your best:

• in a noisy environment, and/or
• in a brightly lit room, and/or
• in the late afternoon, and/or
• without a formal structure, and/or
• given any one of the 40+ elements.

Discover what your Working Style strengths are so that you can enjoy your family.

The Magic of Learning Styles

Maggie is a wonderful 10-year old girl. She is bright, good at sports (athletics and basketball), plays the trumpet in the school band and has a talent for creating little animals from play dough. Sadly, Maggie is unable to study in traditional academic ways.

No, there is nothing wrong with her: she’s not physically handicapped in any way. She is not dyslexic and she doesn’t have ADHD.

So what is it that’s preventing Maggie from achieving academic progress at school? In a word (make that two words) it’s her Learning Style. Her learning style is not compatible with the way her school (and most schools world-wide) teaches academic subjects.

In traditional schools, teachers make use of the blackboard (or the whiteboard). They talk and the children are supposed to sit up straight and listen. Which is a perfectly valid method of teaching and it works for all those who absorb information through their eyes and ears, and who concentrate best when sitting up straight.

But what about those who, like Maggie, absorb information through their hands and body actions, and who concentrate best in an informal setting? Well, such students become bored and frustrated. Although academically intelligent, they don’t perform well in academic subjects. Left without help, they get used to failure. Their confidence plummets and they start believing that they are “not good” at school work, or “not clever”.

Fortunately for Maggie, he teachers are aware of her learning style and they customise their lessons to accommodate her... as well as the 16 other pupils in Maggie’s class whose learning styles diverge from the traditional.

Do you know a child like Maggie?

(To analyse your child’s learning style, have a look at this free online demo.)

Learning Styles and Creative Learning Tools

The learning tools your child needs will depend on their individual Learning Style. If they are highly auditory, their favourite learning tool will probably be a tape recorder or iPod. A visual learner, on the other hand, will like to have lots of colourful pens, pictures and educational videos.

The learning tool described below is an invaluable aid for tactile learners in particular. It makes difficult content easy to remember. It is fun and easy to make, and we encourage you to try it out in order to enhance your child’s blended learning experience… unless your child a non-preference for visual/tactile learning.


Making a Wrap-Around
1. Using thick cardboard (about A4 size), cut out a rectangular shape and then cut an equal number of notches down the long sides. Pierce a hole on the top right side of the cardboard and cut a slit in the centre of the bottom side.
2. On the left side of the cardboard sheet, write down the questions. On the right, write the answers in random order. (See Fig.1)
3. Take a length of string. Thread it through the top hole and secure it with a knot.
4. Starting at the top left hand question, wrap the string to the correct answer on the right. Then wrap the string behind the cardboard to the second question on the left and continue until all the questions have been answered.
5. Secure the string in the slit at the bottom of the board. While the string is in place, mark its path on the reverse of the cardboard (see Fig.2).
6. Your tool is now ready to use.

To analyse your child’s learning style, have a look at this free online demo.

Learning Styles and Raising Smart Children

Your child’s learning style is the way in which they understand and remember new concepts.


In November 2007, an article in the Scientific American claimed they’d cracked the secret of raising smart children (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids&print=true).

All you need, it seems, is to NOT praise your children’s intelligence.

Praise their diligence and hard work instead.

The reasoning is simple: there is very little a child can do to improve their inborn intelligence, however, there is something they can do about the amount of effort and enthusiasm they put into their learning.

Furthermore, if a child believes their lack of success at school is due to their lack of brainpower, they will get de-motivated. On the other hand, if a child believes their lack of success at school is due to their lack of conscientiousness, they will probably try harder next time.

So how does that tie in with Learning Styles?

If you look at the various elements in the Learning Style Pyramid, you will see that Motivation and Persistence are two of the Attitudes that determine a child’s individual learning style.

If you child has a need for being externally motivated, they will thrive on praise and external rewards.

If your child’s persistence is fluctuating or low, you will need to address the reasons: do they believe schoolwork is too hard, do they think they are not intelligent enough, or is it that they don’t see the point of seeing a task through?


To analyse your child’s learning style, have a look at this free online demo.

12 reasons to make this Christmas a Learning Styles Christmas

A learning style is the way in which an individual learns (in other words, understands and remembers) new concepts. Here is why that’s important:

1. Because they are fun.
2. Learning Styles help you understand your own or your children's learning needs and remove barriers to fulfilling the learning potential. Use this holiday break to ensure learning success in your household.
3. Understanding your Learning Style empowers you and leads to better self-esteem.
4. Knowing the Learning Styles of your family and friends helps you understand all their annoying little habits like chewing their nails or daydreaming.
5. Learning Styles are more than the way you learn. They also dictate the way you communicate. When you know your own learning style, as well as the learning style of those around you, it’ll be easier to prevent misunderstandings.
6. Learning Styles are responsible for the way your partner or spouse handles stress - find out how to deal with them “in style”.
7. Did you know that Learning Styles help you predict whether your guests will be on time for the Christmas dinner?
8. How you plan this season’s presents, menu and outfit - whether you plan it with lists or leave it to the last minute wave of spontaneity - is also thanks to your own unique Learning Style.
9. Your Cooking Style. If you run out of brandy for the eggnog or forget to follow the recipe for the turkey stuffing, simply blame your Learning Style.
10. Your Learning Style = Your Romance Style too. Remember it under the mistletoe.
11. Feeling like spending this season online? Take care - your Learning Style may make you more susceptible to Internet fraud.
12. Because this season is about caring and sharing, and giving a Learning Style Analysis from Prashnig Style Solutions will achieve both.

To find out your Learning Style, have a look at this free online demo.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful holiday!