School Issues

Becoming an Advocate for Your Child in School

The school experience is an important aspect in the life of a child. And yet, school often presents unique and sometimes unexpected challenges for both children and parents in adoptive and foster families.

Tapestry recently hosted an event entitled Back to School: Strategies to Help Your Child Have a Positive School Experience. During the first half of this Tapestry event, Amy & Michael Monroe discussed keys to help parents advocate well for their child in school.

Listen to Amy & Michael’s presentation. You can also download the slides for their presentation and view a list of suggested resources focused on school-related issues.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/Tapestry/Back+to+School+(Sept+2011).mp3

By Michael Monroe, ago

A Sensory World: Making Sense of Sensory Disorders

Children from hard places are often impacted in many different ways by their histories. One of the most profound, yet often overlooked, is the way in which these children’s sensory processing is affected.

The new educational video, A Sensory World: Making Sense of Sensory Disorders, produced by the TCU Institute of Child Development features Dr. Karyn Purvis and offers insights about how sensory processing disorders make it difficult for many children to function at home and school, and can be the underlying cause of behavioral problems. The video provides parents and professionals with the insights they need to learn to recognize signs of sensory disorders as well as the practical strategies to help parents and children effectively deal with the them. In addition, child development researchers Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross, and Carol Kranowitz, author of The Out-of-Sync Child, provide a number of playful activities to help children improve their self-esteem and overcome everyday struggles that hamper their success.

By Dr. Karyn Purvis, ago

Common Questions & Concerns: Behavior Issues at School

As part of our ongoing Common Questions & Concerns series, we address behavior and discipline issues that many children from hard places often encounter at school:

Question: My child is struggling in the classroom and is being sent to the principal’s office on a regular basis. He refuses to do some of the art class activities, has melt-downs in music class and withdraws during some class activities. To make things worse, standing in the school lunch line today he punched a child in the stomach and was sent to the prinicipal’s office to sit for the rest of the afternoon (nearly 3 hours!). What can I do?

By Michael Monroe, ago