Parents of school-age children know the whiplash: a kid who once asked a thousand questions can start shutting down when assignments get tougher and grades feel heavier. The core tension is real. Schools reward right answers and speed, while childhood curiosity development thrives on wandering, trying, and not knowing yet. When that spark dims, self-motivated … Continue reading “Guest Blog: How Parents Can Nurture Curiosity and Inspire Self-Motivated Kids”

If a student can read the printed material out loud well and fairly fluently but draws a blank when you ask them what they read, they may not have a comprehension problem. It may be a more fundamental problem—they may not understand the vocabulary that carries the text’s meaning. Think about a time when you … Continue reading “Turning Reluctant Readers into Confident Readers”

Does having a cellphone as a kid impact your reading comprehension? A study conducted by UCLA researchers, and published in the journal Behavioral Sciences, followed third- and sixth-grade students from public schools in California’s Antelope Valley and Coptic Church schools in Los Angeles County to determine if cellphones interfered with the concentration needed for reading and … Continue reading “Cellphone Use May Lead to Lower Reading Comprehension Scores”

Parents of children with learning disabilities often want arts engagement for their children, yet they worry the experience will turn into another place where their child feels compared, corrected, or overwhelmed. The core tension is real: encouraging creativity can accidentally become performance pressure, especially when sensory needs, processing differences, or frustration show up mid-activity. Supportive … Continue reading “Guest Blog: How to Support Your Special Needs Child’s Journey into the Arts”

Reading text may seem like a straightforward process: your eyes scan the words on the page, and your brain turns them into an idea with meaning. But it turns out the process isn’t always that simple. Readers frequently skip words, even though they don’t realize it. New research out of the University of South Florida’s … Continue reading “Eye movements and brain activity shape reading comprehension”

Evidence-based early literacy curricula are thriving in elementary classrooms. According to a recent SRI Education study that examined foundational skills in four urban districts, between 88% and 94% of over 200 teachers surveyed reported that they used their foundational skills curriculum daily or almost daily. In addition, observations of classroom instruction confirmed that the 112 … Continue reading “Bridging Processes: Connecting Word Reading to Meaning in Early Literacy”

For parents of children with special needs, supporting learning can feel like a daily tug-of-war between hope and exhaustion. Learning challenges in special needs education often show up as uneven progress, big reactions to small demands, or skills that appear at home one day and disappear at school the next. Layer in child development hurdles … Continue reading “Guest Blog: A Guide for Parents to Boost Learning with Creative Special Needs Strategies”

When the Common Core State Standards were adopted in 2010, handwriting was omitted from the curriculum. Now, though, it’s making a comeback in many states, as its benefits are being more widely recognized. Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey, for example, signed legislation into law on January 20, 2026, that requires handwriting to be explicitly … Continue reading “Handwriting Instruction Makes a Comeback”

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the University of Oxford; and Carnegie Mellon University suggests that even brief exposure to using AI tools may lead to reduced independent problem-solving performance and persistence. The study involved 1,222 participants in three randomized controlled experiments who worked on math … Continue reading “AI Use May Lead to Reduced Independent Thinking and Persistence”

Busy parents and classroom educators often recognize the same hard moment: a capable child shuts down, avoids reading, or says “I’m just not good at this.” That wobble in children’s self-confidence can grow into daily power struggles, low engagement, and a shaky positive self-image, especially when learning feels public and mistakes feel personal. The challenge … Continue reading “Guest Blog: How to Help Kids Build Confidence, Resilience, and Independence”