Learning Tactics - Australia

Lets get Physical

Cate — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:45:29 +0000

It is imperative that children are allowed to move and go through the physical milestones that facilitate sensory integration. If a child has underlying physical issues, they will struggle despite any amount of remedial intervention at an academic level.

By assessing children’s progression through the stages of gross motor development, the teacher can get a clear picture of sensory integration & how it might be impacting literacy & numeracy.

Rolling -4mths
Commando crawling
Crawling
Cruising
Walking
Running
Jumping
Hopping
Skipping -6 years

Once a child is at school age, the then need to be allowed to continue to improve their gross motor skills and build muscles through play. Monkey bars, cart wheels, bike riding and swimming are a few of the simple activities that can assist. Weight bearing activities will improve muscle tone in the arms and this will flow through to handwriting in the classroom.

The Lost Art of Handwriting

Cate — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:44:12 +0000

Many children have untidy or slow handwriting. Rather than give he child tedious amounts of “practise” which will usually serve to turn them off handwriting, create play opportunities that will

Strengthen muscles
Develop dexterity
Improve isolation of fingers

Unfortunately many children spend endless hours in front of a computer screen or playing a game console, exercising their thumbs!! Then we ask them to come to school and control writing implements and form letters with fingers that have not been used.

No matter what the age of the child, developmentally appropriate play can help develop fine motor skills that will be needed to have success with handwriting.

Threading and beading
Play dough& plasticine
Squeeze balls
Lego
Allow young children opportunities to do up buttons on clothing
Monkey bars
Finger painting
String games like Cats in the Cradle
Pick up sticks
Practise doing up shoe laces
Finger rhymes – “Two Little Dickie Birds”
Jacks
Dominoes
Jigsaw puzzles
Weight bearing games eg wheel barrows

Winner Blog

Cate — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 15:39:00 +0000

The Winners for the prestigious What’s On 4 2012 Junior Awards in association with LeapFrog have just been announced and local business, Learning Tacticsis amongst them!

This exciting awards programme, is the first of its kind in Australia and celebrates the best activities from throughout Australia as nominated and voted for by the experts – parents and parents-to-be.

Learning Tacticsis a winner in the Best Regional Activity for children 5-12 years category.

This year, the awards received 600 nominations and nearly 8000 votes so being a finalist is a great achievement.

Learning Tactics is a specialist programme which helps children with learning problems.Cate Larke, Director, said: “Our programme approaches learning problems by improving auditory processing, vision and body awareness. By working closely with the family we can get amazing results. These awards are fabulous recognition of our unique programme, created right here in the Hunter.”

Each and every children’s activity, children’s party supplier and children’s community group from throughout Australia enjoyed the opportunity to be nominated and the number of nominations reveals the support from parents for these awards and reflects their eagerness to reward the very best!

What’s On 4 Managing Director Elise Eastdown adds: “I’m so excited about our 2012 Awards especially as these awards are the first of their kind in Australia! All the winners should be very proud that the nation’s parents are so keen to nominate and reward them.!”