“RIGID” CHILDREN AND HOW TO HELP THEM THINK FLEXIBLE Some children just like routine. Parents often tell me their child does not like to change the way they are doing things, even when their way is not working. These children are often labelled stubborn or rigid. This can be a problem. We need to be able to “go with the flow” in real life. Things change, plans get altered, teachers change their mind about tasks, other kids change the rules in games. The children who are inflexible find all this too much! They end up having meltdowns or feel anxious. You can train your child to be more flexible, and here are some suggestions. You can talk to your child about the value of being more flexible and then practise the skill in fun ways. If you practise, just having fun, when there is no emotional pressure, then when a real situation occurs your child is more likely to be able to cope with the change. 1. Play the “waiting” game. At any time of the day, in the middle of tasks, or even in the middle of talking, the parent says, “Wait”, or “Stop” or “Hold that thought”. 2. At any time, ask your child to change the way they are doing something. Suggest a different way, or allow them to suggest a different way. 3. Change the way the family is doing something – eg change to a different activity, sit in different seats, take a different route. 4. Ask them to think of a different way of asking or answering a question. 5. Look for alternate ways of interpreting what you are seeing, a situation, a character eg in real life or in a TV show, book, movie, on the news etc. This is particularly useful with older children. 6. Suggest what people are thinking – eg what assumptions can you make about people (characters in books, movies, on TV, in the news, newspaper, magazines, people you see at the shopping centre or on the bus). What alternative assumptions could there be? What could the person be thinking or feeling?

This is some of the reason why we work on executive functions ..."the key is in the frontal lobe (of the brain)..."

20000 negative comments by the time your child is 12 years old? This is what children with ADHD and executive dysfunction get. I recommend this podcast to give you ideas to parent and teach children positively, using their strengths. These include some of the foundation principles we use in our Speech Pathology practice. Watch the free replay of the ADHD Awareness webinar ‘How to Build Confidence in Your Child with ADHD’ with Kirk Martin, which originally aired Thursday, October 27th, 2016 and download the expert slides.

Don’t Want Your Child To Struggle At School This Term? We can help. We are Speech Pathologists with special skills and experience in literacy, language and problem solving. If your child is having difficulty with any of these, call us: - Staying focussed - Learning to read - Listening - Spelling - Writing - Reading Comprehension - Following instructions - High level literacy - ATAR English - Remembering what they read We have only three or four places left for the term at our new Speech Pathology and Occupational Therapy clinic in West Leederville. For assessment please call Kerianne Bloch (0425198764) or Adele Jane (0409114440)

EXCITING NEW PRACTICE OPENING IN WEST LEEDERVILLE Is your child having trouble pronouncing sounds in words? Is their speech difficult to understand? Are you worried that they don’t use as much language as their peers? Are they struggling to follow instructions? Is your child getting frustrated? We can help! Places are available from the 24th of January with no waitlist (temporarily) including limited Saturday spots! Early speech and language difficulties can lead to problems later on at school. Getting treatment early has been shown to have the best long-term outcomes. To book an appointment, or to find out more information, contact: Kerianne Bloch - 0425 198 764 BSc (Speech Pathology) (Hons) SPA Member Completing PhD (Curtin Doctoral Research Program) Adele Jane - 0409 114 440 BSc (Hons) CPSP Member PSPAWA

EXCITING NEW PRACTICE OPENING IN WEST LEEDERVILLE Is your child struggling at school? Is your child easily distracted? Are they having trouble with literacy and reading comprehension? Are they bright but just not reaching their full potential? Are they having trouble following instructions and finishing off tasks? We can help! Places are available from the 24th of January with no waitlist (temporarily) including limited Saturday spots! To book an appointment, or to find out more information, contact: Kerianne Bloch - 0425 198 764 BSc (Speech Pathology) (Hons) SPA Member Completing PhD (Curtin Doctoral Research Program) Adele Jane - 0409 114 440 BSc (Hons) CPSP Member PSPAWA

-Michael J. Fox-

EXCITING NEW PRACTICE OPENING IN WEST LEEDERVILLE Does your child have a stutter? Stuttering is simply repetition of sounds, words or phrases that disrupt fluent speech. Stuttering can have significant negative long-term effects on a child’s self esteem and confidence as a communicator. Research shows us that children who stutter have negative attitudes towards their speech, and are less confident in social situations. Early intervention is essential to improve your child’s fluency and help their social development. We can help! Places are available from the 24th of January with no waitlist (temporarily) including limited Saturday spots! To book an appointment, or to find out more information, contact: Kerianne Bloch - 0425 198 764 BSc (Speech Pathology) (Hons) SPA Member Completing PhD (Curtin Doctoral Research Program) Adele Jane - 0409 114 440 BSc (Hons) CPSP Member PSPAWA

“Make it snappy” – SPEEDING UP INFORMATION PROCESSING Many of the bright children that I see have slow processing speed. They have a delay before answering questions and take a long time to make choices. Some children take forever to get their homework done. Often it is because they can’t get started or don’t know what to do next. Morning routines can be tortuous for everyone. Often children with poor executive function skills get into the habit of thinking they need to take their time about everything they do because they find INITIATING difficult. You can show them in their everyday life that they do NOT need to” take their time”. I ask families to have a “SNAPPY WEEK” where children try to do lots of things faster. The focus for the week is on STARTING to do tasks faster. Offer them incentives for answering questions quickly. When they delay before doing something or they do a task too slowly, give them the opportunity to re-do it, but faster. Sometimes you could set a timer and see if they can beat their time. If they delay before answering a questions, say, “Great answer but too slow.” And re-ask the same question so that they can get practise at answering immediately. Play games that require speed, such as Blink or even the old Snap. Younger children may even need to practise saying the names of things faster. For many years, research has shown that children who name pictures too slowly (Rapid Automatic Naming) are likely to have difficulty with literacy. So practise fast naming. You can use packs of picture cards or simply the junk mail shopping brochures that land in your letterbox. Or Google images for a particular category (eg Australian animals, fruit and vegetables, vehicles). Slow processing speed actually affects so many parts of their life – everything from following instructions to high level social interaction.