EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS COACHING

Let’s keep it simple this week. 

If you start to feel overwhelmed or stressed… or if you notice your child beginning to feel this way… 

All you have to remember is: 

1. Pause 

2. Breathe 

3. Release 

Check-in with yourself and your kids and notice how you’re feeling. 

Slow down and take a deep breath. 

And release any tension your body is holding. 

Do this as often as you need. 

It may be a busy week for some, but you deserve to take care of yourself. Think of it as your gift to yourself! 

Coach Benjamin Mizrahi. Educator. Learning Specialist. Family Coach. Father. Husband.   

More articles on www.MrMizrahi.blog  

Google announced this morning it’s expanding its two-year-old digital safety and citizenship curriculum for children, “Be Internet Awesome,” to now include media literacy — specifically, the ability to identify so-called “fake news” and other false content. The company is launching six new media literacy activities for the curriculum that will help teach kids things like how to avoid a phishing attack, what bots are, how to verify that information is credible, how to evaluate sources, how to identify disinformation online, spot fake URLs, and more. 

The new media literacy classes — which frankly, some adults should read through as well — were developed in collaboration with Anne Collier, executive director of The Net Safety Collaborative, and Faith Rogow, Ph.D., co-author of The Teacher’s Guide to Media Literacy and a co-founder of the National Association for Media Literacy Education. 

“We need the right tools and resources to help kids make the most of technology, and while good digital safety and citizenship resources exist for families, more can be done for media literacy,” writes educator and teachmama.com founder Amy Mascott, in an announcement on Google’s blog today. “I’ve worked alongside dozens of educators who believe that media literacy is essential to safety and citizenship in the digital age, but agree that it’s a topic that can be tough to cover.” 

The courses offer kids not only instruction, but also a combination of activities and discussion starters aimed at helping them develop critical thinking skills when it comes to pursuing online resources. 

Its overall theme, the course material explains, is to help kids understand that the content they find online isn’t necessarily true or reliable — and it could even involve malicious efforts to steal their information or identity. 

The kids learn how phishing works, why it’s a threat, and how to avoid it. They then practice their anti-phishing skills by acting out and discussing reactions to suspicious online texts, posts, friend requests, pictures, and emails. 

In the bots’ section, they learn about how A.I. works and compare and contrast talking to a bot versus talking to a human being. 

In the following media literacy sections, kids learn what a credible source is, how to figure out what a source’s motives are, and learn that “just because a person is an expert on one thing doesn’t make them an expert on everything.” 

In a related classroom activity, the kids pick a question related to something they’ve seen online or are learning in class and try to get the answers online, while figuring out if the sources are credible. 

They also learn to fact check credible sources with other credible sources as a way to look for a variety of sources. 

“If you can’t find a variety of credible sources that agree with the source you are checking, you shouldn’t believe that source,” the curriculum explains. 

Kids are additionally taught how to spot fake information using clues like deceptive URLs as well as checking the sources for credibility. They’re told that some people don’t know how to do this, and share fake information online — which is how it spreads. 

“There are a lot of people and groups who are so passionate about what they believe that they twist the truth to get us to agree with them. When the twisted information is disguised as a news story, that’s disinformation,” the curriculum says. 

Kids are also informed that some of the fake news organizations are hard to spot because they use names that sound like they’re real. 

And the course delves into various tricks some websites use — like using photos that don’t relate to the story, using clickbait words like “shocking” or “outrageous” which they know make people curious,” using bold, underline, exclamation points or ALL CAPS, to convince you to agree with them. 

This section concludes with an online game, Reality River, that asks kids to use their best judgment in order to cross the river rapids. This takes place in Interland, the game developed as a companion to Google’s digital safety and citizenship curriculum. 

The overall goal of the media literacy course is to encourage the kids to make checking all news and information a habit — not just those they think seem suspicious. 

Google says the new curriculum is available online for both teachers and families alike to use, and are offered in English, Spanish and eight other languages. 

Google is partnering with the YMCA and National PTA across multiple cities to host online safety workshops, as well. 

Source: TechCrunch

(#Repost from @kids_nutritionist’s Instagram)

Which side speaks to you?⁣⁣
⁣⁣
There’s honestly no “one” way to feed a family. Both of these strategies work in different situations!⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Lately a lot of my clients have been struggling with two things: Meal routines and new food exposures, so I figured a lot of us here are too 🙋‍♀️⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Depending on what you may be struggling with, you may alternate these strategies🤷‍♀️. Find what works for YOUR family. ⁣⁣
Holding loving boundaries around a meal routine isn’t easy (or tantrum-proof)🙈. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Benefits for boundaries with meal routines:⁣⁣
-Kids feel safe with a predictable eating pattern (knowing when food is or isn’t coming)⁣⁣
-Kids learn to tune into their bodies! If they are extra hungry they learn to eat a bit more because another meal won’t be coming for a bit. Or, if they ate a lot earlier in the day, they may not eat as much.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Offering a quick pre-dinner fruit/veggie:⁣⁣
-Is a great way to expose them to new foods⁣⁣
-Can prevent a meltdown⁣⁣
-Keeps them pre-occupied!⁣⁣

Making sure your ADHD child listens and follows directions begins with helping them understand proper decision making. For your children, when you tell them to do something, they find themselves with a decision to make. They can either choose to obey or choose to disobey. 

To help them choose well, you need to let them know about decision making. They need to have a basic foundation of how decisions and consequences function. To help them best, you should teach them early that positive choices reap positive rewards while negative decisions produce negative results. 

Start teaching this at an early age. Whenever you ask your child to do something, and they appear indecisive, you should instruct them that they have a decision to make. They can choose to listen and obey or choose to not listen. 

As you explain this, explain to them also the consequences of each choice. For instance, with choosing to obey, they can play video games for an extra 15 minutes. In not obeying, though, they will not be able to watch TV. 

With providing your child clear results and teaching decision making, you help your child understand that choices matter. This also instructs them to identify when they face a decision-making opportunity. With these skills, your child will better be able to know when you want them to follow directions and how they need to respond. 

Coach Benjamin Mizrahi. Educator. Learning Specialist. Family Coach. Father. Husband.   

More articles on www.MrMizrahi.blog 

There’s a lot of talk on the internet about sensory issues and sensory activities. With all this noise, you may be wondering if you really need to seek out sensory activities for your child with autism. 

Many children with autism benefit significantly from sensory stimulation. It has a positive effect on learning and helps them adapt to sensory input. Sensory activities should either increase or decrease the intensity of stimulation, depending on what works best for your child. Let’s look at some activities that stimulate each of their senses! 

Sensory issues in children with autism 

Sensory sensitivity is a common characteristic of autism. A child with autism may be either over sensitive (hyper-sensitive) or under sensitive (hypo-sensitive) to the sensory input happening around them. This can involve all the child’s senses including sight, smell, sound, taste and touch.  

Hyper-sensitivity 

When a child is hyper-sensitive to sensory input, the world around them can become overwhelming and even painful at times. Lights may appear too bright. Sounds that might go unnoticed to some can blend with other noises, making it hard for the child to distinguish one sound from another. Sudden loud noises such as an alarm or a siren can be painful. Tastes and textures of certain foods may be intolerable. And a child with autism experiences all of this at once.  

Hypo-sensitivity 

While hyper-sensitivity is common, so is hypo-sensitivity. Children with autism often have low sensitivity to pain, which can be dangerous if they aren’t aware when they have been injured. Hypo-sensitivity can also lead to balance problems and cause the child to appear clumsy.  

What is sensory stimulation for autism? 

Children with autism often engage in self-stimulating behavior to help regulate their sensory input. Sensory stimulating activities for children with autism work in a similar way and can have a calming effect on your child. The intensity of these activities should be adjusted to meet the needs of the individual child. You can increase or decrease the amount of stimulation for these activities depending on whether your child is hyper-sensitive or hypo-sensitive.  

These activities are often highly enjoyable for the child and can often be used as a reinforcer. As such they can serve to motivate your child to engage with others or encourage your child to do things they might not otherwise choose to do.  

Sight/Visual 

A child who seeks visual stimulation will enjoy looking at lights and colors. They might enjoy watching spinning or moving objects. While all children are different, these children generally like watching things like bubbles or pinwheels. Lava lamps or glasses with tinted lenses would be a fun way to stimulate their sense of sight.  

Smell/Olfactory 

Smells are everywhere and what one person considers a pleasant smell can have the opposite effect on another. The same is true with children with autism. When seeking to stimulate their sense of smell, be sure to consider what your child perceives as an agreeable scent. Poke holes into the lid of an empty jar and place items with the desired scent inside (be sure to glue the lid closed so your child can’t open it!). Use potpourri or cotton balls soaked in different smells.  

Sound/Auditory 

Children with autism often have difficulty distinguishing sounds, filtering out unimportant sounds and focusing on one important sound (such as someone speaking to them). To help with these types of activities try equipping your child with headphones so they can hear just one thing and take a break from all the other distracting noises.  

Taste/Oral 

Like smell, the sense of taste is highly personal. What you might perceive as bland, may have an offensive taste to your child. Alternatively, foods you perceive as distasteful may appeal to your child. In addition, your child might enjoy the sensation of chewing or having things in their mouth. For these children, you can purchase special chewable jewelry or use food in various colors, shapes or flavors (sweet, spicy, sour, etc.) to engage your child in oral stimulation.  

Touch 

The sense of touch may be the easiest to include in sensory-focused activities. It’s almost impossible to do an activity without engaging this sense! However, focus on expanding play to include various textures. Use a plastic bin to hold a variety of items for your child. Include things that are hard and others that are soft; some that are rough and others that are smooth.  

What are the benefits of sensory activities for children with autism? 

Sensory activities benefit children with autism in many ways.  They can: 

• Have a calming effect 
• Help desensitize your child to sensory input  

• Improve social skills such as communication and cooperation 
• Teach your child pretend or symbolic play 
• Improve coordination (both fine motor skills and gross motor skills) 
• Teach self-control 

Sensory activities for toddlers 

When selecting sensory activities for very young children, be sure to stay with items that are safe if they end up in the child’s mouth. If you find a fun activity that involves shaving cream, consider using whipped cream instead. 

Sensory activities for elementary-grade children 

Children of elementary age might still be tempted to place items in their mouth (this is another sensory experience for them after all!). IF your child has outgrown some of the safer food-play activities, try creating a sensory bottle. Use your imagination (or Google) to come up with limitless possibilities.  

Sensory activities for teenagers 

Older children and teenagers have more of a sense of what they like (and don’t like) and are less likely to engage in an activity just because you suggested it. For this reason, it’s important to find activities that appeal to their individual interests. This age group might prefer activities such as maze books or hidden picture puzzles. Have your child draw and create pictures using an app on a tablet or a computer. Throw a dance party in your living room, or provide an exercise ball for your child to sit on while doing homework. The key for these activities is to really focus on what your child enjoys. 

Sensory activities are important for your child with autism – and it can be a fun way to share experiences with your child. For more benefits, include siblings or classmates and build social skills while engaging in sensory play. Remember, your child needs and deserves all the support from people who surround them on a daily basis. Research fun and safe activities for everyone to experience. Let your imagination soar! 

Coach Benjamin Mizrahi. Educator. Learning Specialist. Family Coach. Father. Husband.   

More articles on www.MrMizrahi.blog