Luckily, I am not a doctor and I do not need to prescribe medication to kids, but when parents want my opinion, I usually say, "Try as many other things as you can before you consider Ritalin".

In fact, this happened to me again recently.

Luke is a 6-year-old boy who came to see me because he was diagnosed with (are you sitting down?) ADD, ADHD, autism, Asperger Syndrome, ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) and OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). The doctor was pushing the parents hard to put him on Ritalin, but his mom did not like the idea. She changed his diet and said there was a significant improvement at first, but felt that after 6 months of a strict diet, the effects had worn off and he was becoming more agitated and getting into trouble at school again.

During our first session together, Luke was quite hyperactive - he moved from one place to another frequently, touched everything in the room and was generally very loud. But shortly after he arrived, I noticed he talked to himself and "excused" all his actions. "That piece is hiding. Where are you?" he said to the letters he was trying to find.

It did not take me long to discover that dear little Luke was an auditory child, so I turned on the musical keyboard and allowed him to play with it. Whenever I asked him a question, I sang it like a tune and used auditory words. Luke and I quickly became friends.

In our second session, I allowed Luke to play some more musical instruments (we have plenty of them, because Tsoof is an auditory child who would buy himself every musical instrument out there if he could). This time, Luke was much more relaxed. He talked to me (at a high level of conversation) and worked well for a whole hour. He worked for 10 minutes, played the flute and came back to continue his activity until it was finished.

When he came for our third session, Luke was relaxed and happy. He still played the musical instruments, but his productivity grew 3 times over the previous session. As long as he was allowed to make noises in a controlled way (in-between activities), he was much less noisy while he worked.

In the fourth session, I sat with Luke's parents and talked to them about my observations. I said to them that many years ago, when I studied special education, one treatment for hyperactive kids was … coffee! Yes, I know it sounds strange, because coffee makes most people more edgy, but I learned that some kids react to coffee in the opposite way and coffee makes them relax.

I remember that when I studied it, I was shocked. You see, I had never liked coffee. The only thing I loved about it was the smell. One day, my friend Kathy, who loved coffee, took me to a coffee shop in Texas that sold flavored coffee beans and I thought it was one of my most memorable experiences. Kathy bought some vanilla coffee and when we went home, she made me a cup to taste it. I concluded that I just do not like the bitter taste of coffee, unless it is mixed with a lot of milk and whipped cream and ice.

So when I learned about the effects of coffee on hyperactive kids, I said to myself, "It will be impossible to convince kids to drink this bitter stuff", but my teachers said that even a mild ice mocha blend can do it, so I tried and it was magical. Every time I had a kid who was labeled as hyperactive, I suggested to their parents to try coffee.

This week, I met Luke's mom again. I asked her how the coffee experiment was going and she said to me, "Ronit, Luke does not like coffee and we have not found a way to give it to him yet, but I have a message for you from a guy who works with my husband. He said to tell you that when he and his wife heard about giving coffee to hyperactive kids, they started it immediately with their son. He asked me to say thank you, because they have noticed an immediate change in their child's behavior. The day after, they had a new child and they wanted to thank you for saving them".

I was very happy to hear that one more child had been saved from medication. I do not even know him, but I am very happy for his family. That also reminded me I could share this great tip with the thousands of parents who read this blog. This technique can be useful for them too.

So if you have a kid who is hyperactive, do not say anything to him/her about it. Just offer them some of your coffee (if you drink one) or mix a little instant coffee (and sugar) in their milk and see if it makes a difference. I would personally try it in the morning and not in the evening, just in case it makes their hair stand and make them even more "awake". Try this over a week.

If things get worse, stop immediately. Remember there is caffeine in coke, energy drinks and energy bars, so keep those away from your kids for a week instead and see what happens. They may just be hyperactive from too much caffeine and sugar…

If you want the experiment to be clean, ask someone outside the family (like a teacher) to examine your kid's behavior over a week, but do not tell them what you are doing or when. Just say, "I'm giving him/her medication and I want to know if you notice any positive change".

You do not need a doctor to monitor the effects of coffee on your kids and you can tell what works by yourself. When you have the results, please come back and share with us what happened.

Happy parenting,
Ronit

P.S. I may share more of my observations on kids' behavior from child assessments for you to enjoy and see how easily we label kids and say they have problems, when in fact, we just cannot relate to them in their preferred way.

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The walls of my deck have heard many stories. Some have been sad and heartbreaking stories of loss and abuse, while others have been inspiring and wonderful stories of victory, success and personal growth.

I have heard from other coaches that when you have many clients, you start confusing them, so I made an effort to write notes on all my clients' files to remember what happened to each of them. After they go, I sit down and reflect about the session, writing wonderful stories of achievement and failure, heartache and triumph. Anyone who ever reads my notes will never know what the story is about, because I write in a different language and I have codes of writing that no one else understands. So it is only me, the walls of my deck, the flowers on my table and some nosy birds or butterflies that hold those stories.

For a while, I have been thinking about this. What a shame! Do you know how many times I hear these stories that say to myself, "I wish everyone could hear it"? Sometimes, I hear shocking things and I think, "I'm fortunate, because people go through much tougher things than me in their life". I have enough material for thousands of stories, and I mean real life stories, although some clients' stories are so unreal they sound like fiction.

This week, it hit me big time. Some of the stories I heard from my clients made me cry - one made me cry of sadness and the other made me cry of joy. So I made up my mind to share with you some of those stories. I will write more about the joy and happiness and less about the sadness and I will keep my clients' privacy, so the names, professions and even gender will not be their real ones, but the essence of the stories will remain powerful.

I hope you enjoy and benefit from this series.

How to help your kid drive

I have only met Joanna twice so far. All she wanted was to be a good mother for her three kids, but she found it challenging, thinking she was a bad role model for them. Joanna was insecure due to a long history of neglect and thought she was worthless. She was underpaid in her job, but never protested, because she needed the job. When people treated her badly, she blamed herself and immediately thought something was wrong with her.

In our first session, we talked about who she was and what she wanted from life. She was very clear about being a good mother and her desire to support her kids. When I asked what she meant, she said she was doing her best, but it was obviously not working, because her kids were not happy and neither was she.

Our second session was about communication styles. As we talked about auditory people, Joanna said, "My son Jack is definitely an auditory kid". Every time I talked about auditory kids, she said, "Unbelievable! Everything you're saying is so spot on. It's as if you know him". Usually, this session helps the client find their communication style and their family's communication styles, but it takes one or two sessions for the whole thing to sink in. I have been doing this for many years so I have many techniques to assess communication styles, which is why I am always impressed by people who can do it within an hour. Because Joanne found out her family's communication styles so quickly, I dedicated more time to talk about ways to help each styles blossom.

This week, I met Joanne again. We sat on the deck and I asked her about her week.

"I had a tough week, but something wonderful happened to me", she said, very happy and proud of herself. I could swear she was holding her body differently too.

"What happened?" I asked with excitement. I love stories, especially the wonderful kind.

"My son Jack went to get his Learner's (in Australia, new drivers must pass a written test and get a Learner's License, after which they can practice driving with their parents with a yellow 'L' sign on the car). When he failed his first test, I told him he would have to pay for the next one with his own money and that he should study harder. He studied, paid for the second one and failed again. I was very upset. It was his money and he doesn't have much money, so I told him he probably didn't study enough. I took him to his third test and he failed again. He failed 5 times! You should have seen him. He was devastated and I kept saying 'You just have to study harder'.

Well, this week, I went with him to his 6^th test. He failed again, but as we were about to leave the licensing office, I remembered you told me that auditory kids performed better verbally, so I told my son I would go to the counter and ask them if they would read him the test. My son got upset and said, 'No, mom, don't go. I'll study harder for next time". Well, I had never in my life done anything like that, but I remembered your words and did it anyway. Surprisingly, the man at the counter smiled and said, 'Of course'. He took my son aside and read the test out to him.

Jack scored 100%! Can you believe it? He cried and I cried. He thanked me over and over again and I was so proud of myself. On the way home, he asked if I would pay for that last test and I said 'Yes'. I figured I needed to pay for telling him to study harder when he knew everything so well already".

She was teary even when she told me this story and I cried with her.

Jack is 17 years old. Can you imagine how much heartache, frustration and negative self image his mom could have prevented from him if she knew he was auditory when he was 5 years old?

Happy parenting,
Ronit

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[If you are interested, this is John Parker's MySpace page. Listen to "Modern Life"]

The performance lasted about an hour and while we were listening and watching them sit on stage with a beautiful grand piano, double bass and a drum kit, Gal said to me, "Just look at them and you'll be able to tell their communication style".

It was very funny, because all three of them played for about an hour 6 or 7 Jazz pieces they had composed themselves and they played the whole time with their heads tilted to one side.

To be good musicians, people need one of the two communication styles or both of them - Auditory, which means you perceive the world mainly through sounds, and Kinesthetic, which means you perceive the world mainly through movement and feeling.

Visual and digital (the other two communication styles) people can still enjoy and play music and can be quite good at it, but they can never make it a lifetime commitment, because playing requires too much effort and does not create enough pleasure for them.

One very distinct thing auditory people do is tilt their heads as if they are directing their ears to the source of the sound. Doing this also reduces the influence of visual input and improves access to auditory memory. In my workshops, I can tell who the auditory people are because they do not have to look at me while I speak. They usually tilt their heads a bit to make it easy for them to listen.

It was so funny when Gal told me to look at all of them, because for an hour, they played every piece with their heads tilted to the side.

Composers are people who hear the music in their mind while writing a piece from scratch. They have a tune in their head and they are more likely to be auditory than kinesthetic, because they have to have very sophisticated auditory abilities, yet they do not require a lot of movement to compose.

If you have kids who likes music very much, who sing and make lots of noises and who tilt their head for no apparent reason, they may be auditory. Give them space and they may end up being wonderful musicians.

Happy parenting,
Ronit

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• Teaching difficulties
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We sat at the table and I gave him a matching game and what do you know, I met another MacGyver, but this one was the first and unique in his kind - MacGyver Pro.

This is what the session looked like, or better to say, sounded like (I wish I could video myself to represent the whole scene properly, but I will do my best with the words):

Ronit: Martin, can you please find the pairs on the table?

Martin (looking around the table, smiling): Yes … is this a match? … no … this is not the same … what about this one? … no … this is purple … this is purple too … yes… yes … this is a match… (showing me a match and putting it on the board).

Ronit: Well-done Martin. Let's find another one.

Martin: Where is it? … (holding one card in his hand) … where is it? … this card had triangles … this one has a triangle … no … this one is blue and the other one is red … I need a blue triangle … oh … here is a blue triangle …

I write a note on my report: Auditory kid, "MacGyver", talks to himself.

I give Martin a 24-piece puzzle and ask him to assemble it. He says he likes puzzles and does them at home a lot. Mom, sitting next to him says, "Martin is very good with his puzzles".

Martin: I need a frame … where is the frame? … oh … here is a frame … does this go here? ... no … here … yes (finds the place and looks very happy with himself) this is not a frame … this? … not a frame … where does this one go? … this is the hair, it goes here … I have done a good job … I need two hands here …

I smile and write on my report: Auditory, MacGyver pro, talks to himself all the time (well, I did write many more things regarding the games but they were not as amazing as this).

The first assessment meeting (out of 3 - see my 3+1 kids coaching) took one hour and everything I examined looked the same (I mean, sounded the same). Martin verbalized his thoughts continually. In some of the activities he performed well for his age group and in some, he performed lower that expected. He was so cute and happy.

I had never, never in my life, having assessed hundreds of kids over 23 years of special education, met a kid whose mind was so wide open I could actually hear him thinking so clearly. I immediately thought of a wonderful research we can do with Martin to find out how kids think… a research to record thoughts…

Martin's mother called in the evening in distress, saying she had never noticed he was talking to himself all the time and expressed her concerns about this. I explained to her how auditory kids think.

Auditory kids think in words, they are in a constant discussion in their head and it is a wonderful tool for them to learn, to grow and develop. Please notice that I said "a wonderful tool". I mean it!

Most auditory kids have a social problem due to their difficulty to focus their listening on one source of sound. When receiving various auditory inputs, they are overwhelmed and mistakenly perceived as having attention deficit disorder. When I gave Martin numbers to repeat after me, he did this perfectly and well beyond the expectations for his age.

What teachers, friends and others think about auditory kids is a big problem for auditory kids and their families, because they fall into a trap of being considered "unable to concentrate" or "trouble makers". Martin, on top of that, will probably face the reaction of people around him as a "freak" because his auditory perception is extremely high.

In the evening, when I updated my notes onto my computer, I wrote: MacGyver is nothing compared to this kid.

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... C: wait... SD: wait...

You may want to read

• Happy Kids Learn Better
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I call these people "MacGyvers". Do you remember the TV series with this guy who was narrating the whole time? We heard his thoughts all the time wherever he went.

This happens to me a lot. I see people on the street moving their lips while they walk. As funny as it looks, these people have an advantage.

If you are concerned when your kids talk to themselves, rest assured they have an advantage over "normal" kids who do not talk to themselves.

A research done on young kids found that preschoolers perform better when they talk to themselves. The finding was that "78 percent of the children performed either the same or better on the performance task when speaking to themselves than when they were silent".

The research found that telling kids to be quiet while they were learning was actually disturbing the kids' natural "private speech" or "self talk" and limited their performance.

My son Tsoof is such a "MacGyver". He talks all the time (and I do mean "all the time"). If he has an audience, cool, and if he does not have an audience, it makes no difference. His brain is so full of thoughts (and jokes and songs and musical notes and comedy skits and movies) that if he did not talk about them, he would probably blow up. He has taken "self talk" to the extreme. He is a wonderfully talented, funny, joyful kid but our friends say they do not think they could have survived living with him in the same house for more than two seconds.

Every time I hear this, I think about the special education kids I work with. Do they have a problem or is it just the reaction of the people around them, who cannot survive living with them in the same house (or class or playground)?

If you take my son and put him in a different house, this will most likely be a formula to manufacture a "troubled child". It would take less than a week for him to start thinking that something is wrong with him, when in fact, nothing is wrong with him, he is just an auditory kid, with a superior sound recording machine. He could not have been so talented without this ability (and without us being tolerant to his constant sound production).

Kids find natural ways to deal with to things in their life. If they are kinesthetic, they move a lot to help themselves think. If they are digital, they ask a lot of questions. If they are visual, they decorate their notebooks to make them look nicer, and if they are auditory, they talk to themselves to slow down and serialize their input. Auditory and digital kids are at a relative disadvantage, simply because there are not many of them in our society. Research about learning styles has found that there are only 20% people that are auditory, while kinesthetic are 40% and visual 40%. That research did not recognize the digital style, but estimates are that only 5% of the population are auditory-digital.

Being different is not a problem

Being only 20% of our society makes auditory kids a minority. If you have an auditory child and you feel they are different, you are right, but being different does not mean they have a problem. The problem starts not with the fact your kid is different but when they start thinking there is a problem with being different. As I have said before, when working with a troubled child, most of my work is dedicated to repairing the kid's damaged self-image.

Talking to yourself is a very helpful technique for auditory people in general, but useful to deal with stress for everybody. It is almost the same as sitting on the therapist's sofa and putting some order in the mess in your head.

So next time you are with yourself in the shower or after a hectic day at work, use the space and time to put some order into your life by talking to yourself, and when your kids ask about the noises coming from the shower, be proud to say you have been talking to yourself.

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In this post, let me try to give you some explanation to this inflation in the diagnosis of ADHD. You are welcome to choose the one that you like most.

1. The first explanation of this overuse of ADHD I described a few weeks ago in The ADHD Myth. In short, the definition of ADHD is so broad that almost every person in the world can be described as having attention deficit disorder at a curtain stage in life.
2. ADHD is genetic. All people carry the gene and it is recessive (it does not manifest itself) until someone finds it too hard to handle you.
3. ADHD is contagious. It is transmitted from the people around you through their attitude, so watch who you hang with.
4. Is easier to handle people to if you give them a label and put them in a box and ADHD seems like a good label. It is even an acronym. Actually, it is even a 4-letter word.
5. It is easier to get funding from governments and organizations if you present a growing need.
6. ADHD is a business. There is a lot of money in ADHD for the pharmaceutical companies, so they have a great interest in promoting it.
7. Parents prefer a diagnosis because it helps them with guilt feelings. Many parents with kids that are different and do not follow the "normal" definition of behavior (oh, that horrible word, "normal") feel that they are blamed by society for "making" their kids like that. If someone diagnoses them as having ADHD, it takes the blame away.
8. Being diagnosed with ADHD has many benefits for the child. It can be used as a great excuse to misbehave, be irresponsible and unsuccessful. I know many people who are desperately looking for such a great excuse.
9. If you have had a chance to read about kids' communication styles, you know by now that there are 4 different kinds of kids - Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic and Digital. Many kinesthetic children need movement in order to think properly, and if their movement is limited, they will find unconventional ways to "move". Consider how kids are limited in their movement in daycare centers and schools and even at home. Just go to the playground at each school or kindergarten and hear what they say to the kids - "Don't run! Don’t jump, don't throw the ball". I sometimes wonder if people remember what a playground is for… Kids rock in their chairs, click their pens, fidget, talk to the person next to them and invent many other creative ways to keep their brains functioning. Along the way, they use up much of their energy and lose their concentration.As you can see from the length of this option, I believe that this is the main reason for the inflation in ADHD diagnoses.During my 22 years in education, each child I have ever worked with who was diagnosed with hyperactive behavior, ADD or ADHD was actually kinesthetic. I allowed them to move and in fact introduced them to activities that required them to move and, surprise, surprise, the problem disappeared. No medication, no brain surgery, no punishment and definitely not a feeling that something is wrong with them, so the "brain malfunction" disappeared.

   

   When I get kids for assessment with the suspicion of ADHD, I ask about their abilities in other areas. Brain malfunctions are consistent and affect the child in all areas. If a kid can concentrate one hour while doing something they love, but only 30 seconds doing something they hate, they do not have a concentration problem.

I would love to know what you think.
Please post your comments below.

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Auditory kids pay the most attention to sounds. To them, voices, tones, pitches and rhythms provide a wealth of information and carry emotions that other kids simply ignore. They have superior abilities to "record" and "play back" TV shows, skits, songs and conversations. On the other hand, they are sequential thinkers and must be able to focus on one thing at a time.

Auditory kids can often be distinguished by the way they look down and talk to themselves. Their self-talk is often louder than what goes on in the outside world. On the other hand, they are distracted by sounds and disturbed by unpleasant or loud noises.

Here are some ideas that will help auditory kids learn better, be happier and love learning:

• Listening to music - find out what kind of music they like and use it to set their mood before, during (softly, in the background) or after (as a reward) learning. If the music contains words relating to the topic of learning, auditory kids will learn the topic quicker
• Playing music - teach them to count using the piano keys and help them remember colours and other lists by associating them with music
• Rhythm activities - adding a beat to anything and speaking with a beat make the content come to life. Your child may want to tap along. Let them
• Keeping a calm, cheerful voice - auditory kids often classify their teachers by the loudness and pitch of their voice and prefer the soft-spoken ones, who use varied intonation
• Role play - auditory kids can be taught anything, as long as it is associated with sound effects, a funny voice, an accent or even a lisp
• Story telling - use stories with more dialogue than descriptions and "act out" the different characters in the story. Gradually, let your child participate and read some of the characters
• Singing - compose any material into a song and it comes alive for auditory children. All you have to do is write it to the tune of a familiar song and they will love it
• Puppet show - similar to story telling and role play
• Verbal affirmations - auditory kids prefer verbal communication and their self-talk tends to spiral down. To pick up their spirits, say something encouraging to them every once in a while and see them smile
• Record and listen to themselves - show them how to use a tape recorded, an MP3 recorder or the computer for recording their own voice and then playing it back. Encourage them to do little singing or voice acting projects and then proudly play them for you
• Let them make noise and repeat things out loud - this helps them work things out, but when you like the sounds an auditory child makes, you like the child and this will help them do everything better

Happy parenting
Ronit

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• How to Stimulate Digital Kids
• How to Stimulate Kinaesthetic Kids
• How to Stimulate Visual Kids

With this great recognition of our ability to enhance intelligence, the two extreme parts of the bell curve - the children with the learning difficulties and the gifted children - became the center of attention. Those two seemingly unrelated ranges of ability require the same type of attention and multiple intelligences brought hope for improvement for both. A natural progression of that was the area of early diagnosis and early intervention. Should we diagnose learning difficulties during early childhood or will this put a label on them that is too hard to remove? Should we diagnose gifted children or will this doom them to isolation and social challenges? And once a special need is identified, should we intervene or just let nature take its course and allow the kids to “grow out of it”?

Each of the questions presents the choice between a reactive and a proactive approach. For government organizations, these questions are translated to the cost difference between the two, which then determines the approach. For teachers, however, critical time plays an important role in the choice.

Special Education is the field dealing with children and adults on the fringes of the bell curve. Unfortunately, most of the work with children with learning difficulties and with gifted children is dedicated to their emotional state - their frustration, their lack of confidence and the low self-esteem - rather than their cognitive abilities. Dealing with the expectations of society and its conformist intolerant approach is those children’s greatest challenge. It is the accumulation of “failure” or success experiences that will determine their likelihood to cross over to the “normal” side. The more frustrated they are with themselves, the longer it will take to convince them they have other intelligences they can use to compensate for their difficulty. Therefore, the younger they are, the less energy and resources we need to teach them to use an alternative intelligence. Because the expectations from teachers and children are high at school age and are set according to the middle of the curve, the years before school offer the best potential.

Helping young children by assessing their strengths and weaknesses at an early stage of their life allows us, their education agents, to minimize the number of failure experiences and equip them with techniques to process information in alternative ways. This skill, if also introduced to their parents, can improve the understanding of their needs and home-school collaboration throughout their life.

Although Gardner introduced eight intelligences - Musical, Kinesthetic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial (Visual), Linguistic, Interpersonal (understanding others), Intrapersonal (understanding self) and Naturalist - Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) presents a simpler version of the intelligences as four Communication Styles. In this model, which is very useful for special education teachers, each child has a unique way of processing information. Out of four options, the channel he (subconsciously) chooses to absorb information is considered his “gift” and the one he uses least is his weakness.

Initially, the population was divided into three channels: Kinesthetic (40%), Visual (40%) and Auditory (20%). Lately, a fourth style has been introduced, with an unknown spread in society, the Digital type.

Recognizing a child’s best way to process information can be used as an improvement tool for all children, but is crucial for “fringe” children. Children with learning difficulties, if assessed early enough, can be taught techniques to overcome their difficulties using their style and can reach school age at a “normal” level. Gifted children can be stimulated based on their preferred channel at an early stage and much attention can be given to ways of overcoming weaknesses using their gift.

Kinesthetic children are influenced by their physical world, their sensations and emotions. These kids need to move in order to process information. They prefer the outdoors and feel restricted when kept indoors for too long. Kinesthetics seem fidgety and the quality of their learning depends on how comfortable they feel and how much freedom they have to move around.

Auditory children have a tape recorder as a processing machine. They absorb information through sounds and like to talk and listen to conversations and music. These kids are sensitive to tones of voice and the quality of the information depends on the sounds around them. When using a loud or sharp tone of voice while communicating with an auditory child, his machine shuts down and this interferes with his ability to ‘record’ the information.

Visual children have a combination video-and-still camera in their heads. They like to see things. Pictures, colors and visual representations of things are their main information carriers. These kids learn best and expresses themselves best using pictures, graphs and colors. To them, one picture really IS worth a thousand words.

Digital children have computers in their heads. They need a lot of information — details, facts and numbers - in order to “think.” They also need time to analyze information and must process it through understanding. Quick changes, especially major ones, can be unsettling for digital kids. The quality of their learning depends on the logic, the process and the structure of the activity.

Each child uses all four styles in his learning, but absorbs most of the information using one primary and one secondary channel. In an era when the information load is so extreme, many young children are forced to spend most of their energy on sifting a billion pieces of information a second and then processing and storing them as meaningful knowledge.

The school system focuses on the larger section of the bell curve - the “normal” or “average” children. This focus limits teachers’ ability to support the extremes. Due to critical time, there is an added benefit to diagnosing in the years prior to Prep. We can take advantage of the freedom early childhood teachers still have, with fewer children in each class, fewer benchmarking tests and an assistant, to give more attention to the “fringe” children and support them in using their strengths and overcoming their weaknesses.

The ways in which we can support children with learning difficulties and gifted children depends on time, much like there is a difference in treating any medical condition. When diagnosed late, the treatment is very much reactive. When diagnosed early, development is very much proactive. A proactive approach allows planning, good use of the preschool space, more time and better child-teacher ratio, added bonus of parent involvement and maybe the most important part is taking advantage of our ability to provide success experiences at a critical time and provide children with a solid foundation for years to come.

This article was first published in the Early Childhood Teacher's Association magazine, following my presentation at the association's annual conference.

You may want to read

• How to Stimulate Auditory Kids
• How to Stimulate Digital Kids
• How to Stimulate Kinaesthetic Kids