By Maggie Dail, M.A. Learning Specialist
Understanding how the teen brain learns helps as we plan for the new school year. For the first time, many families are choosing to homeschool this year. Family Academy Online has offered access to what we call “Learning Accelerators and Reading Boosters” for over seven years. Through Family Academy Online homeschooling families have 24-7 access to research-based software (MySciLearn) along with the help of our Learning Specialist.
Five Things to Know About the Teen Brain:
1. They need 8-10 hours of sleep.
2. They lack impulse control.
3. They are very adaptive.
4. They are socially sensitive.
5. Traumatic childhood experiences impact the brain.
How can we help our teens? Here are a few things we can do at home:
1. Provide sleep diaries including when they sleep, how much they sleep and how they function.
2. Adjust family schedule to accommodate everyone’s sleep needs.
3. Daily planners
4. Encourage development of lifelong social-emotional skills (delayed gratification, working memory, and goal-setting).
5. Provide positive group experiences.
6. Provide project based and group learning activities.
7. Provide positive reinforcement.
8. Remember that your positive relationship with your child is more important than academics. You don’t have to sacrifice one for the other.
Our “learning accelerators and reading booster” contribute to the development of many of these skills.
On August 6, 2020 we will have access to the newly developed (replacing the Legacy Literacy program) Elements 1 with all of these things in mind. Elements 1 provides development of cognitive skills and reading skills.