Each classroom has a list of school supplies that should be purchased and will be used throughout the school year. During the month of August, most of the supplies are on sale. If your child has a learning disability, consider picking up a few additional items to address his unique study needs.
School Supplies Can Help Organizational Skills
Buy a sturdy pocket folder for each subject and one for homework/school announcements. Have your child label each with his name and the subject.
Talk to him about using an assignment notebook that can help you both know what the assignment is for the evening. If he has trouble filling the assignment book out, ask his teacher is she or a classmate can double check the book before he leaves school at the end of the day.
Study Aids for Visual Focus
Your child will be able to find his place to copy an answer if he marked it with a sticky note. Also, making the text a different colors will help he focus on what he is reading. Buy clear, colored plastic sheets to put on each page as he reads. Teach him how to use colored highlighters to accent the important information.
Study Items for Test Preparation
Index cards make great flashcards for math facts, vocabulary, and study questions. Save trees by cutting the cards in half to use fewer. Have your child recycle the cards when they are no longer needed.
School Supplies Can Make Changes Less Frustrating
Invest in lots of pencils with good erasers. Avoid the mechanical pencils that break easily and can be distracting with little pieces of rolling lead. Also, purchase pencil top erasers so that there is never a temptation to write on top of an incorrect answer.
Cut brightly colored or dark cardstock into strips to be used as bookmarks and markers for reading across the line of print.
Let Technology Help Your Child Master Math Facts
Consider purchasing a simple handheld calculator for practice with math facts or to check the answer on computation problems. Make sure that the calculator has easy to understand functions and an easily read display.
Check out math software or games online for additional practice. Plan to have your child spend a small amount of time each evening working on his math facts. In a surprisingly short time he will have them mastered. The usual order of learning the facts is addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Back-to-school sales are a bargain for the wallet and a great investment in the tools your child can use to beat his learning disability.
Lynn Moore - Moore is a freelance writer, experienced special education teacher, and mother of two. She has worked as a developmental therapist for ...
