Why Do Some Kids Need Extra Learning Activities?

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• Factors influencing kids' development
• Which learning activities will help my child?
• What if my child is struggling?

Factors Influencing Kids' Development

All of these additional learning activities and intervention usually have one aim in mind - to boost your child's development. But why do kids sometimes need a bit of help to develop the skills they need for school?

Here are some factors that may influence a child's development:

• Many children nowadays are growing up in a world which has not allowed them to climb trees, get messy and explore their environment in the ways which children used to do. Physical gross motor development may therefore be delayed, and this could also have an impact on the development of fine motor skills and spatial perception skills.
  
  
• Sometimes gifted children pursue their areas of strength at the expense of their other skills, and these other skills need to be brought up to par in order to ensure a more balanced individual.
  
  
• A boom in cross-cultural adoptions has seen many parents seek activities to stimulate children who may not have received adequate stimulation in their early years.
  
  
• Some children have also experienced birth trauma, which may have affected their acquisition of skills.
  
  
• Other children may not have had the opportunity to acquire skills through a lack of resources. And parents and teachers then need to step in to stimulate development using affordable, accessible resources.
  

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Which Learning Activities Will Help My Child?

If you are looking for activities that will support your child's normal development, then use my navigation bar / menu to find different categories of learning activities that may help your child.

Choose activities that build skills that our child still needs to learn, or activities that work on skills your child's teacher has asked you to focus on.

If your child is in preschool, then a good place to start could be this overview of preschool activities that can help your child develop the skills needed for reading and writing.

All of the fun activities on my website have a specific focus. By understanding how each activity builds the necessary skills, you will know that you are really helping your child develop the skills needed for optimal learning.

Most of the resources that you will need are already lying around your house, or easily obtainable at a supermarket. I am just a normal mom, homeschooling on a tight budget in a country where resources are not always available to many others living here, and my aim is to support children and parents as much as possible, with practical learning activities.

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What If My Child Is Struggling?

The activities on my website are designed to facilitate your child's normal development.

If your child is struggling with any area of development, please seek advice from an occupational therapist or other professional. You can ask your child's teacher or your health professional for some referrals.

An occupational therapist will be able to assess your child and identify exactly what challenges your child is experiencing, what the root causes could be, and will be able to advise you in finding activities and interventions to help your child be the best they can be.

• For example, if your child's handwriting is poor, the occupational therapist will try and identify which factors are affecting your child's handwriting and then plan therapy activities and home programs accordingly.
  
  To give you an idea of how different factors can affect a child's skills, take a look at my article on factors affecting handwriting.

What affects handwriting?

• An occupational therapist will also plan activities that are just right for your child and will advise you on what activities you can do at home.
  
  Read more about the difference between doing learning activities from my site and having occupational therapy intervention.

My website is designed to empower parents and teachers to find simple activities that can help kids develop all the skills needed for learning and to be the best they can be - so please do feel free to browse the huge range of free activities and information on my site!

I hope you found the information on this page helpful, and that you feel inspired to help support your child's development with some well-chosen learning activities!

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