Special Needs Education

Special needs is a blanket term used to describe an overwhelming number of diseases and disorders. These disorders are diverse, and can describe mild learning disabilities, severe mental retardation, psychiatric problems, mobility problems, anxiety disorders and any number of other difficulties that must be overcome. What is common to all of these children, though, is that parents and educators should pay extra attention and be sensitive to these needs in order to promote healthy childhood development into adults that are as functional as possible. Often the self-teaching, play-to-learn approach presented by educational toys are a-n ideal means of helping children to overcome the common difficulties incurred by learning and other disorders. Some characteristics are common to many disorders, and many kinds of educational toys can help children overcome these problems.

Frustration

Special needs children often feel a great deal of frustration with the world around them, as they are met with more difficulty than their peers in mastering basic tasks, and because they often struggle to understand their environment. Educational toys provide children with a sense of satisfaction and self-achievement. This positive, rewarding experience can help to soothe the frustration that is understandably experienced by these children.

Anxiety

Children suffering from learning, developmental or psychiatric disorders are often very insecure and unsure of their environment, which causes an extraordinary amount of anxiety. The play-and-learn approach encourages children to become immersed in their work and to develop a positive, more satiated demeanor that helps to offset feelings of insecurity or anxiousness.

Self-esteem

Many times special education children feel insufficient and inferior to their peers, which can cause extremely low confidence and self-esteem. Because children teach themselves and learn independently with educational toys, achievements gained self-sufficiently help these children to build a sense of confidence and self-assurance. This increased self-esteem then allows children to interact more comfortably with their environment, and gives them the confidence needed to approach learning.

Communication

Due to speech impediments, hearing problems, social anxiety or other communication problems, educators often struggle to communicate with special education children. Educational toys allow children to teach themselves through the enjoyable and engaging play-to-learn approach. With this strategy, children are able to learn independently, and their development is no longer hindered by communication problems. Additionally, the visual perception, concentration and self-esteem skills nurtured by educational and self-teaching toys allow for children to be more accepting of their environment. This receptiveness can open the lines of communication, allowing special needs children to learn and to grow.

Special needs children have a very widespread range of difficulty, and the needs of each child are unique. Educational toys' engaging nature helps to keep these children motivated, and the self-teaching approach allows for them to move at their own pace. Ultimately, they are an outstanding means to help children master visual perception, linguistic, critical thinking, reasoning, object recognition, logical thinking, concentration and other vital developmental skills. This helps to provide a framework for special needs children to grow and to move on to live functional, fulfilling lives.

The best educational toys for parents, teachers and children. Speical Luk

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Strategies of Locating Grants for Women for College

In the yesteryears, women had no chance of seeking college education simply because of gender disparities. This for many reasons caused several women who had the urge of seeking college education to feel discriminated and left out. However, with time, this changed and several organizations have come up to provide grants for women to have college education. The best thing about it is that, they are readily available and women can easily obtain them. While this is the case, women are advised to have ample knowledge on how they can obtain them in the best way possible in order to save time and energy as well. There are approaches that women ought to use in order to locate these grants easily. Here are some.

• Firstly, for those who want to obtain grants for women to pursue their college education, it is imperative to determine the type that you are interested in. This simple means that you ought to determine which field you wish to pursue among the several such as engineering, writing, art history, visual art, math, science as well as technical fields. Making an early determination is beneficial as it will help you in narrowing your choices and at the same time make your search a lot easier.

• Determine college sources that are available in your state. In most colleges, you will find some departments offering grants for women to pursue college education. While this is the case, you are required to set aside some time and visit the respective department and ask for the available opportunities. On the other hand, you can book an appointment with an academic adviser to get all the necessary information.

• Since there are several of them, it is highly advisable to start with the minority ones and then as time goes by, you will be able to graduate to the major ones. You can easily find private as well as public organizations offering them and you will be able to make your decision based on what you want.

• As you do your research to locate these grants, make sure you base it on family as well as child rearing. In case you left college due to some reasons such as pregnancy and you wish to return, you can easily do it. In addition, you will get some that will get you out of a stressing financial situation especially of raising a family on your own.

• Lastly, you can choose to join a professional institution. Taking this step is very beneficial due to the fact that, you stand a chance of winning some opportunities that suits your educational goals. To achieve this, you can simply find out the kind of education activities being offered by the institution and become an active member so that your chances of receiving the funding can easily be increased. Keep in mind that success does not come easily but it is earned.

For those seeking grants for women, they are highly advised not to pay for any information related to them since most grants for women are freely available by searching online.

http://EzineArticles.com/6506141

Baby Sign Language: Dialogue in Silence

Baby sign language is not only about a few signs that you can learn and then teach your child. That is what I learned on my recent trip overseas, to my homeland, Israel. During my visit, I visited a fascinating children museum exhibit! The walls were monochromatic. The rooms were bare and sparsely furnished. Our museum guide was completely silent.

Sign Language and a museum?! What do they have to do with each other?!

Sign Language is easy to learn. Well, would you believe it was one of the most integrative and amazing museum visits I and my kids have ever experienced? The exhibit is called "Dialogue in Silence" Can you guess what the theme was? As you guessed, the tour explores the world of a deaf or hearing-impaired person. This tour's goal is to give the visitor the real experience of how it feels to be deaf or hearing impaired. It is a true hands-on exhibit. So, how can you really empathize with a deaf person? The answer is --- experience what he or she feels.... The SILENCE.

Sign Language is the only way of communication the guide used with us. The guide we had was deaf herself, and she welcomed us into her world of soundlessness by distributing soundproof headphones. At first, it was disorienting, we couldn't hear a thing, and we were not allowed to speak either (I am so proud of my 4 years old son who was quiet the entire time, although the tour is geared towards 9 years old and up).

Sign Language?! Is it only for people who know sign language?! The answer is no. Our tour guide was so engaging and the activities were so evocative and exciting, that soon we all forgot completely that we couldn't hear anything!

Baby Sign Language?! Baby Signing?! Baby Signs?! No, not only. The experience certainly wasn't just a tour to promote. Rather, it made everyone aware of many tools of communication.

(Baby) Sign Language emphasizes the basic tools of communication:

Facial expressionsBody languageGesturesHand movement

Signing with Children during the tour opened up for us a world of richer communication, every little movement matters. Even I, an avid sign language user, discovered an astonishing new world without the crutch of verbal communication.

Every hint of an emotion, every gesture, every look--- all must be noticed in order to understand each other. Being conscious of all those signs you send out becomes even more important when there are no voices or verbal expressions, just like with children and kids

The end of the tour ended with a real life experience: ordering snacks and drinks in a cafeteria mimicking the deaf world. The children had to order all in sign language. They used sign language easily to order snacks and drinks at the cafeteria near the end of the tour. Each person was also given his or her name in signing, just like we do in SignShine classes. What a gift we have given our children!

Etel Leit is an internationally recognized leader in the field of signing with babies and young children. The wide reach of her business in California; the international reach of the website Etel administers; as well as her blogs, her articles, her seminars, and her live and television appearances worldwide, offer a very strong platform for promoting EzineArticles. Etel has been Presenter of the Month by Sign2Me, an international organization; She a regular online contributor to the Hot Moms Club magazine; and has been featured on Brian Williams NBC night show, FOX11, CNN.com, AOL, Yahoo, MSN, in Family Magazine, the Jewish Journal, Baby LA Parent, and many other publications. As a leader at the forefront of baby signing, Etel Leit, the owner and founder of SignShine invites you to our program http://www.signshine.com/

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Important Information About Federal Student Financial Aid - FAFSA Application

Studying hard so as to land a position at a college or university of your choice is one thing and meeting the financial demands that come with it is another. Many people feel lonely and frustrated after they realize how hard it is for them to pay for their higher education. The situation is sometimes very serious and it can lead to bright students not continuing with their education. Some graduate degrees are very costly for a common student to afford and this can be a serious problem because it would mean that, only the students from rich families can make it to universities and colleges. That is why the American government and other stakeholders designed the federal financial aid program to support needy students in funding their university studies. The FAFSA application is free and open to all students provided they meet the requirements. Here are some of the things you need to familiarize yourself with when applying.

Understanding What Is FAFSA?
FAFSA application form is a type of form provided by the government to students who are willing to apply for school grants and loans to help them fund for their university education. For you to be considered for these grants, you must first fill these forms and submit them to the relevant bodies for verification. Precisely, for anyone seeking for the government's help in financing his education, this FAFSA form is what will serve as an application form.

The government will check out your details from the form to verify if you are eligible for any federal loans and grants. Some of the details keenly checked include:

• Financial status: When filling the form, you are required to indicate all your details and most importantly, your financial dependency. This is what the government will consider in determining whether you need any financial assistance.
• Your age also determines your eligibility because in most cases, the government views students as dependents of their guardians.
• For the married and graduate students, parameters applied in determining their eligibility is somehow different. If you want to know the kind of parameters they use, you can inquire from your financial aid counselor or department.

You may also check from a variety of websites that specialize in financial aid matters.

What You Need When Filling The FAFSA Application?
There are several details you need to put in the FAFSA form before submitting it for verification. These details are very important because they play a key role in determining your eligibility for a federal loan or grant. You need to have your social security number, W-2s of the previous year and a license number if you already have one. If you are married, you must provide your tax returns as well as those of your spouse. You also need to indicate information on your other untaxed incomes such as social security funds. Your current bank statement is also important as well as details of any kind of investments you may have. Once you have all these details ready, you can go ahead to fill in the form.

You should not kill your career dreams just because you do not have money to pay for your higher education. FAFSA application should help you in convincing the government to offer enough federal grants to see you through your university studies. To get FAFSA application form, check the link below.

http://EzineArticles.com/6506114

Does The US Have a Student Loan Debt Problem On Its Hands?

Well, it seems like the federal government of the United States has got itself into an economic pickle. Further many of these grandiose ideas of retraining Americans for future jobs seems rather troubling. Consider if you will that technology is moving fairly quickly, and we don't know what types of jobs there will be in the future, and we can't seem to find jobs for those students that are graduating right now. Worse, the students graduating have student loans to pay, and if they don't get to work in the next five years, their degrees won't be worth the paper they are written on anymore, as the job market will change.

As a taxpayer this concerns me greatly, because as a taxpayer I am guaranteeing those student loans. I have been further dismayed at the fact that the tuition costs are rising rapidly, but the benefits to students who have degrees has not increased. In fact, the benefits of those degrees on student's resume has decreased. What I'm saying to you is the cost of college tuition has risen, but the benefits of those college degrees has diminished so the students may never pay back those loans. Therefore the overall value is worth quite a bit less, and therefore I want to know why my tax dollar is guaranteeing the student loans to pay for it all.

It seems as if whenever we look for the federal government to help create jobs for Americans, which I believe to be the wrong way to play it, the federal government always says that we need to retrain our workforce, and offer more courses at community colleges and universities to prepare people for the new jobs as our economy changes. Yes, we've been doing that, we've been doing that for a long time with grants, low interest rate student loans, and more money being funneled to colleges and universities, but it hasn't worked.

There was an interesting article in the LA times not too long ago which was titled; "Retraining Alone Doesn't Do the Job," and it appeared on Sunday, July 10, 2011 in a special section titled "rebuilding America" by Don Lee. That was a very telling article, and perhaps it makes my point for me here. Our local community college where I live has been graduating more and more students with AS degrees in industries and subjects for which they cannot find jobs.

It appears to me to be arrogant for the federal government to tell us that they know how to create jobs at a time when they are grabbing a hold of production, capital flows, and money flows if not downright nationalizing industries, and destroying jobs. They tell us that the answer is education, but they always tell us that, and it never is, meanwhile we are digging a bigger hole, and we've created a bubble in academia which has raised the cost of going to college to the point where there is no return on investment for that education.

Apparently the utopian socialist society we were promised is beginning to crack. Isn't it time that we cut our losses and took America back?

Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,500 articles by August 24th or 25th will be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..

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Surpass Academic Goals With Financial Aid for School

A few years back, accessing tertiary education was nothing but a preserve of the better off in society. Many academic ambitions had to be abandoned prematurely just because of the skyrocketing costs of college education. However, the situation is different as of now due to the many grants and scholarships being offered to students. In as much as these facilities may not be adequate for each and every deserving student, the truth is that a good percentage of otherwise wasted students have and still continue to benefit. The good thing is that these facilities are available for public and private universities, colleges and schools.

Who Is Eligible For This Aid?
Many students have failed to take advantage of such opportunities simply because they rule themselves out. Before doing this however, it is important that you know who is eligible for financial aid for school. One's eligibility largely depends on the type of aid in question, and these may be classified into two as follows:

1. Merit-based: This includes grants and scholarships awarded by learning institutions and organizations to students who show exemplary academic achievements such as high SAT or ACT scores. Some may be awarded to students with special talents in fields such as music, sports or art, or display any outstanding personal characteristics.
2. Need-based: Need-based aid is a preserve for students whose parents or guardian can hardly afford to keep them in school. Different agencies are used to determine the financial status of applicants, such the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in the US.

In many countries, some forms of scholarships or grants are limited to citizens or states, while a good number are usually available even for international students.

Financial aid for school usually takes three main forms. These are:
• Student loans
• Scholarships
• Grants

Loans are usually to be repaid once the student lands an employment opportunity in future. As for scholarships, all the tuition expenses of the students are taken care of, and very little is left to be paid. Such are issued by colleges, governments as well as certain external organizations. Unlike loans, grants are free cash rewards for paying fees and purchasing other learning materials, which is not to be repaid.

How to Access Aid?
The trick with getting these benefits is to start planning early. Late applications are likely not to be considered and actually show some lack of need on the part of the applicant. The first thing to do if you need financial aid for school is to fill the required forms such as the FAFSA form. You can then visit college websites to find out if any grants or scholarships are being offered. Apply for a couple of these to increase your chances. Even when some conditions look tough to meet, never rule yourself out if you desire to surpass your academic goals.

Financial aid for school comes in form of student loans, scholarships and grants. In case you need financial aid for school, the secret is to start applications early.

http://EzineArticles.com/6506160

Succeed in Your Career With a Goldwater Scholarship

In the current world, education has become very expensive, getting money to fund high school and college education is proving to be a challenge to many people. Goldwater scholarship is one of the most prestigious scholarships available today. This scholarship is granted by Barry M Goldwater. This institution was constituted in 1986 by congress in honor of Barry M Goldwater a US senator. He was a member of the senate for thirty years. This scholarship is awarded to students with interest of pursuing education in math, engineering and science subjects. This is aimed at helping them build bright careers in these fields.

The most unique thing about this scholarship is that it is awarded to senior students in high school. As such, it is not awarded to juniors and sophomores in college. This ensures that it is given to students who are already in chosen fields. Such students can receive a maximum quantum of $ 7,500 in an academic year. This is awarded to about three hundred students only every year. When applying for this scholarship, there are things you need to have in mind.

• Goldwater scholarship has a lot of competition. As such, getting it is not easy. Only four lucky students are nominated every year. The nominations are usually done by the universities which give the most deserving students. However, it is important to know that Princeton is on the record as having the highest number of students who have received the award.

• Trustees foundation board who are the ultimate decision makers as far as these scholarships are concerned always have the final say. They decide who will be the lucky nominees to receive the award. They do this after scrutinizing the students thoroughly. In doing this, they perform a keen consideration of the student career study and field of interest. They also consider the overall merit and career objectives.

• Students who could be interest in getting Goldwater scholarship work hard in math and sciences to increase their chances of benefiting from the scholarship. To achieve this, they will need to choose colleges with a good record of performance in sciences and mathematics. They should also consider schools which have programs aimed at helping students keep improving their performance in those subjects.

• Considering how covetous this scholarship is, it is important that students who are nominated take it upon themselves and explain their career objectives. They should do this in the best way possible and show their potential. To increase their chances of benefiting from the scholarship, it is important that they show the foundation board the contribution they intend to bring to the field they have chosen.

• Although this may not guarantee them success, it may increase their chances of being awarded the scholarship. They may also benefit from other grants and loans from people or institutions which are looking for qualified math and science students.

Although Goldwater scholarship is hard to get, it is very rewarding once a student gets it. Therefore, it is important that students interested in math and sciences work hard in school. This will increase their chances of benefiting from Goldwater scholarship.

http://EzineArticles.com/6506147

The Advantages of Prince2

The fact is that no matter what size your company or corporation is and what business niche it occupies, it can and will benefit from the Prince2 management training course. It's just common sense, and that is when your project managers possess more advanced skills to oversee projects, your organization benefits on multiple levels.

Established in 1989 by what is now the UK Office of Government Commerce, what makes this management methodology study program so different from all the others out there, is it's approved and accredited by the British government.

In fact this is the very training regimen that they use to government managers advanced training.

The Prince Management training program was created and based off of principles of an earlier program known as PROMPT. A project management oriented training regimen that was created by Simpact Systems Ltd. back in 1975.

The training program was adopted by the CCTA in 1979 until when it was subsequently replaced by Prince.

The Prince program was then upgraded to the Prince2 program which is what is now taught today. That upgrade happened back in 1996, and in total some 150 European business and government entities have contributed to what is now the prince2 training program.

It can best be described as taking a structured approach to project management, enveloped in a well defined framework where a project is broken down into separate more easily defined and managed increments.

Project portions if you will, that are then completed in a step-by-step process really is the core foundation of this management program.

So step one in the training process is for a project manager to achieve certification with what is known as the Prince2 foundation qualification.

This certification means the trainee has a comprehensive understanding of the basic principles and methodology of the Prince2 program. Then up from that, is what is known as Prince2 Practitioner Exam.

With this exam, student's ability for managing and overseeing the project utilizing Prince2 basic principles is assessed. It's not an easy exam, and in fact statistically some 36% of all training candidates take the three hour test fail.

At the same time, although it may be new to them, so much of what the management student studies and comes to eventually learn is really quite basic. For instance the program teaches how to manage a project in group system off of a basic wall mounted storyboard.

The first phase is when the managing supervisor analyzes and breaks up an assigned project into its separate parts or increments. Step two, is to assign these separate parts to individuals or groups in the project team based on their level of skill and experience.

The storyboard or project board is then used to track project parts as they are tracked, completed and finally marked off.

In the final phase, all the parts are gathered together and assembled to form the completed project. Once the project has been completed it is then sent up in the organization as yet a new project is seamlessly brought up, put up on the board to begin the process yet again.

Pearce Mayfield are an organisation that specialise in project management training and Prince2 Courses.

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Bursary and Financial Aid Options for Students

Financing your studies can be such a mission and finding a bursary or scholarship can drive you up the wall. Before you start looking for bursaries, do you know what a bursary is? A bursary is a monetary contribution by an institution to further the applicant's education. There are two types of bursaries in South Africa: a student bursary and a company bursary.

Student bursaries are provided to students who either have high academic marks or are considered to be in need of financial assistance. In the case of company bursaries, most companies expect the student to accept a position within the company once the student has qualified. In a sense, the student would be working off the bursary. This relieves a lot of pressure from the student, as there is a guarantee of a job after graduation. Now doesn't that sound great, walking out of varsity straight into a career in your field of study?

Receiving a scholarship on the other hand is like hitting the jackpot. A scholarship is different to a bursary in that there is no repayment or work involved with the acceptance of the financial aid. Both, bursaries and scholarships are based on academic or extramural prestige and accomplishment and are provided by all major institutions.

How to apply for a bursary? Applying for a bursary is similar to applying for a student loan or bank loan at a financial institution. You need to have proof of registration, residence, income, bank statements, identity and a surety.

The only difference between processing a bursary and processing a loan is that the bursary will take longer because the academic or sporting achievements of the applicant need to be evaluated and/or the financial needs of the student. Loans look solely at the credit worthiness of the applicant.

Bursary applications can take up to three months to process. The outcome will in most cases, be posted to the applicant to inform them of the outcome of the application. Here's a hint on making the application count in your favour, attach a motivational letter stating your current financial circumstances and your motivation for studying further.

How to search for a bursary? If you have applied at an institution in South Africa and you are accepted then why not make use of their bursary and loans department. They should be able to provide you with information on the institutions that provide student and company bursaries. Talk to them and see if anything matches your criteria.

Another option is to search the internet for bursary and financial aid available in South Africa. Do remember to read and understand the terms and conditions clause for all the options you are interested in, to avoid this being a determining factor later down the line. Banking institutions and other corporate bodies always have brochures that will give you some sort of idea of what to expect and what they offer. If you are unsure about anything, or wish to find out more do not hesitate to give them a call.

SAstudy.co.za is the most comprehensive online database of South Africa's undergraduate courses. It offers Grade 10 - 12's and students all the life skills, financial advice, institution information, course and career opportunities they need to make wise career decisions.

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No Essay College Scholarships: Is That Available?

No essay college scholarships? Are those even possible? Well, it depends on where you look, and if you look on the Internet, you'll find that they are possible!

The need for college education is growing, and with it, the tuition fees and other expenses a student will incur. In fact, College Board-the SAT watchdog-released stats on the 2009-2010 private and public education costs. During that school year, annual tuition costs for private schools amounted to $26,273, while public education costs at the high school levels were at $7,020 a year per student.

For the millions of American students who wish to go to college, there's good news: There is approximately $168 billion in student financial aid available to prospective college applicants. Now most of these require students to submit essays in order to qualify, but there are some scholarships that don't give this requirement.

The monthly College Prowler "$2,000 No Essay" college scholarships went live in 2002. It is a website for students who write college reviews from their perspective. College Prowler currently offers a monthly $2,000 scholarship for students, a scholarship that requires simply filling out a form, but no essay is needed. On the College Prowler website, an applicant may click on "$2000 Scholarship" link and be taken to an online form.

College Prowler only permits applicants to enter once a month. At the end of each month, a winner is randomly selected, and is informed on the 15th of the next month if he or she has won the scholarship. High school, college and graduate students are eligible to apply for the no-essay college scholarship including international students who have approved visas. Students must be at least 13 years old in order to apply.

The Discover Scholarship Program's no essay college scholarships is from the same operators of the Discover Card. Each year, the Discover Financial Services offers up to $250,000 in scholarships annually to high school juniors from all over the United States for students who have completed specific application requirements. The financial aid awarded to these students can be used to finance various types of post-secondary education programs.

Some of the requirements a student must present are a 2.75 cumulative grade point average, an excellent record in community service involvement and accomplishments, and most importantly, a section of how he or she hurdled a monumental challenge or setback in life. Students interested in applying for the Discover Financial Scholarship may contact Discover Financial Services at their Corporate Headquarters, or go to the website and click on the "Scholarships" link.

Another college scholarship that does not require an essay-only some creativity-is Stuck at Prom. This is a contest sponsored by Duck duct tape, and requires that only couples (preferably prom dates) apply. The only requirement is for the applying couple to create a complete prom ensemble made completely out of duct tape. The designs must be completely original. The couple must then photograph the prom outfits and submit them along with their application, which may be uploaded on the Duck brand website. Winners are determined by the most votes for a couple. Truly, this is one of the most entertaining no essay college scholarships you'll ever see!

Find out more about Left Handed Scholarships and Social Work Scholarships and many other available sources of funding.

http://EzineArticles.com/6510588

Three Ways to Use Aroma Therapy to Inspire Learning

I have found three ways to easily use aroma therapy in the classroom to inspire learning. Besides melting candles, bringing in live flowers, using potpourri and simmer scents are a great way enhance and inspire learning in the classroom.

1: On each teacher's birthday, I had the habit of bringing in a dozen roses in his or her favorite color to the classroom. This not only brightened the teacher's day, it also encouraged the students achievement. Everyone seemed to work better and get along on those days. Sometimes the teachers would leave the flowers to enjoy in the classroom until the weekend, when they would take them home. Everyday the flowers were there good things happened in the classroom. Some times when moral was low at the school I would get a couple dozen roses and deliver each rose with a smile to random teachers throughout the school, men included. The smile on their faces was well worth the effort.

2: Especially during holiday times, but anytime during the year when we needed a boost I would bring in potpourri and put it in an out of the way place. The students would enter, acknowledge the great smell and work harder. I had to do some research to see which fragrances worked best. However, I was usually alright when using natural scents like cinnamon and pine. There was a holiday feeling in the room which encouraged the students achievement and teachers to work a little harder and happier.

3: When there is room, Simmer Scents is a great way to apply aroma therapy. The fruit is sliced and the spices added to water in a crock pot and left to simmer all day. Each year I would deliver a bag containing one orange, one apple, one lemon, a stick of cinnamon, 10 cloves and a bay leaf to each member of the staff. This included Administration and support staff. This helped me get to match faces with names and to meet some fabulous people. When the administrators and support staff would come through the room I could introduce them to the students. Besides inspiring the students to learn the simmer scent adaptation brought good feelings to all the students and staff.

Adding aroma therapy in these three ways has enhanced learning success in my classrooms. It has also brought the staff together in a happy way. As you know a happy staff makes for happy students and achievement rules.

Thank you for listening,

Sheri McBride
Certified Teacher of Special Education and Elementary Education

Feel free to submit your ideas and comments to http://listenandtutor.com/

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Gifted Children - Programs Available For Gifted Children

The truth is that many parents in the wide world like to consider their children gifted. However, it is very important to accept the fact that true talent and gift are not necessarily synonyms, where neither of the two cannot be measured in a process which would be hundred percent accurate and reliable. Even countless IQ tests for the youngest cannot define gift with a hundred percent certainty. High IQ does not always prove or show itself in real life, in comparison to what ordinary IQ people might achieve.

Throughout the world, at least in the developed parts of it, societies are trying to identify the gifted ones from the earliest stage and provide programs which will further define their specifics in comparison to other children. Along with this, not every society will define gift in children similarly, which is in direct relation to various societies' cultures and their values. Although gifted children might be acknowledged similarly in various societies, the significance of their future abilities might be even misinterpreted and neglected.

In modern and developed societies, programs for gifted children are versatile, from the early stage of kinder garden to additional programs in schools or even specialized academic curricula which meet their abilities and needs. Most schools will provide programs within existing curriculum with additional time spent after regular lessons, where kids might improve in areas they already showed higher skills or interests than others. It is definitely a necessity to try to spot a gifted child in the environment of others of similar age, so that easy comparison can be made of the child's true gift and ability to advance faster. Most such after school hours will be in the arrangement of attending pre-school or school systems. Saturdays and programs conducted during spring or summer breaks can serve as excellent time for spending more time with gifted children. This time allows them to show their preeminence, boosting their interests with the ability to go further and even finish the school earlier than usually determined.

However, spotting the true talents requires seasoned and dedicated teachers and psychologists, which will be able to recognize some children's supremacy towards others through materials and tests which are similar to all kids in one class. This is probably the easiest way of qualifying for attending additional classes with more complex teaching materials. There are lucky societies which can afford versatile special schools of very specific orientation, which allow gifted children to start developing their skills at a very early stage. On the other hand, the individual approach to each child with a special gift is a necessity, since such kids usually require absolutely different standards and treatment. Simply put, a single size never fits every kid, physically as much as psychologically.

Aside from specialized schools with programs developed for further advance of gifted children, there are areas where kids cannot easily attend even the regular schools. For such cases, societies which care for higher educational needs have developed a variety of distance learning programs, which consist of various topics and allow gifted children to see if they are truly gifted for further education in a specialized school, college or university. Geographical distance does not have to be an issue providing distant education is conceptually thought off, where each child might try teaching materials for higher grades, thus qualifying as gifted for further advanced education.

In developed societies, gifted children might earn possibility to start college or university at much younger age than their peers, which might be a great way of wasting their years with teaching material they can deal with in several months only. The programs of students' exchange are also available for those who prove themselves worthy and eager to develop their gift further. This is one of the most popular ways of learning different languages and cultures, at the same time giving opportunity to accommodate a child from another country the same opportunity. The program of exchanging for gifted children and teenagers is also extraordinary opportunity for parents to travel and see whatever their children are learning, having a great time being either a guest or a host to the family from another side of the world.

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