MY STUDY LIFE

Recommended Ages: 10+  Middle school is quite different from elementary school. Students in middle school typically have a different class and teacher each hour and are expected to have good time management and organization. My Study Life is an awesome app that works as a school planner. It allows you to keep track of all your assignments, class times, homework, etc! If you’ve overlooked an assignment, it will give you a reminder that it’s due soon, or that it’s past its due date. My Study Life has over a million downloads, and is a favorite among students!

Available on iOS, Android, Kindle

ALARMY

Recommended Ages:10+  Middle school is when most kids begin to learn to wake up on their own, and take responsibility for planning their day. Alarmy is one of the top alarm clock apps, and for a good reason! You can set it to require a certain picture to be taken before it turns off, or a math equation to be solved, or a password typed in. It also provides the weather for the day to help kids responsibly plan their day appropriately. Make getting up just a little more fun by allowing them to use an app!

Available on iOS, Android, Kindle

A+ WRITING PROMPTS

Recommended Ages: 10+  Your middle school student can gain an endless supply of writing inspiration with this handy app, which includes writing prompt generators perfect for student use. The generators use a variety of elements, including scenes, current events, words, sketches, colors, genres, and writing types, to help your young writer get over their writer’s block. All they need to do is shake their device or swipe the screen to get a new prompt. If they see one they like, your child can easily add it to a favorites list for use at a later time. This education app is jam-packed with creativity, including:

• Five prompt generators (scenes, sketches, texts, words, and news)

• More than 1,250 scene elements, 2,000 words, 460 sketches, 60 colors, and 80 genres

• 600 text prompts using an assortment of phrases, quotes, writing exercises, and story starters

• Multitasking support that allows them to easily shift between apps while working

Available on iOS, Android, Kindle

Time Management Apps: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/top-time-management-apps 

How to Find Strategies That Work for Your Brain Jessica McCabe, ADHD Educator, Creator of YouTube Sensation How to ADHD
Amazing TedTalk @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiwZQNYlGQI
​

Life Hacks for Driving a Faster Than Normal Brain Peter Shankman, Entrepreneur and Author of Faster Than Normal: Turbocharge Your Focus, Productivity, and Success with the Secrets of the ADHD Brain, Shankman.com (has a podcast)
​

The (2e) Recipe for Personal Greatness Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, (Prof of Positive Psychology @ UPENN, blogs @ Scientific American (Beautiful MInds), Podcast, Researcher, Speaker and Author of Ungifted: Redefining Intelligence, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind, and Twice Exceptional: Supporting and Educating Bright and Creative Students with Learning Difficulties 
​

Laura Markham, PhD, Psychologist, Founder of AhaParenting.com, and Author of Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting;  Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids Workbook: Using Mindfulness and Connection to Raise Resilient, Joyful Children and Rediscover your Love of Parenting;  and Peaceful Parent andHappy Siblings: How to Stop the Fighting and Raise Friends for Life ​

(You can sign up to receive email updates on new blog posts and relevant topics- they are full of good info!)
​

Team with Your Child to Solve Challenging Behaviors Ross Greene, PhD, Psychologist, Founder of LivesintheBalance.org, Main Sponsor of The Kids We Losedocumentary film, and Author of Raising Human Beings: Creating a Collaborative Partnership with Your Child;   Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them;  and  The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children 
​

When It’s Hard to Learn, Here’s How to Learn Barb Oakley, PhD, Professor at Oakland University, and Author of Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying – A Guide for Kids and Teens;   A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra), andMindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential
​

Sparking Learning in a Gifted/Differently Wired Child Susan Baum, PhD, Director of The 2e Center for Research and Professional Development at Bridges Academy, and Co-Author of To Be Gifted and Learning Disabled: Strength-Based Strategies for Helping Twice-Exceptional Students With LD, ADHD, ASD, and More, 3rd ed
​

 Keeping the Light in Their Eyes
Robin Schader, PhD, Board Member of The 2e Center for Research and Prosfessional Development at Bridges Academy and Co-Author of To Be Gifted and Learning Disabled: Strength-Based Strategies for Helping Twice-Exceptional Students with LD, ADHD, ASD, and More, 3rd ed

Navigating Life and Learning with a Differently Wired Child Debbie Reber, Creator of the Tilt Parenting Podcast, with more than 300,000 downloads, and Author of Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World
​

A Plan for Emergency Academic Recovery Rebecca Shafir, Coach, and Speech Pathologist, and Author of The Zen of Listening: Mindful Communication in the Age of Distraction, MindfulCommunication.com 
​

Helping Kids Become Social Thinkers Michelle Garcia Winner, Speech Language Pathologist and Author of Superflex … A Superhero Social Thinking Curriculum;  You Are a Social Detective;  Thinking About You, Thinking About Me;  and Social Thinking Thinksheets for Tweens and Teens, SocialThinking.com 
​

Life Hacks for Thriving with Aspergers/ASD Danny Raede, Founder of AspergerExperts.com 
​

Helpful Hints for Kids on the Spectrum Temple Grandin, PhD, Autism Spokesperson, Professor, and Author of The Autistic Brain: Helping Different Kinds of Minds Succeed;  Calling All Minds: How To Think and Create Like an Inventor;  The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger’s;   The Loving Push: How Parents and Professionals Can Help Spectrum Kids Become Successful Adults, and featured in the HBO movie Temple Grandin starring Claire Danes, TempleGrandin.com 
​

How to Turn Your Worrier into a Warrior Dan Peters, PhD, Psychologist, Director of Summit Center, Host of the Parent Footprint Podcast, and Author of From Worrier to Warrior: A Guide to Conquering Your Fears 
​

Fostering Resilience for Kids with Anxiety Sharon Saline, PsyD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Author of What Your ADHD Child Wishes You Knew: Working Together to Empower Kids for Success in School and Life, SharonSaline.com 

1.      Spend several nights validating how hard it must be for children and adolescents to stay on task when doing homework given all the various tech distractions like Snapschats, texts, games etc. right on their homework device. Acknowledge that it is hard for you to stay on task when you are doing your work, taxes, etc. online because the pull of more fun activities is just one tab away. 

2.     Ask your kids what has worked for them and what has not?  Help them understand that you are not concerned about the short term of tonight’s homework, but how this is an important skill that will serve them well throughout their life.

3. If they own a cell phone or other personal device besides the screen they are working on, talk about how important it is to put it out of site for extended periods of time. For my teens, they try to make a habit of putting their phones in another room during study time and then they check it about every 30 minutes for a break. I know many adolescents will be very opposed to not having their phone by their side. Try an experiment with them—have them keep their phone nearby and study for 15 minutes, and then have them put the phone in another room for 15 minutes and study. Then, talk about the experience.

3.     Use a timer. This can be very effective—an old-fashioned kitchen timer is ideal. Have them set a goal to study uninterrupted for a certain amount of time on a subject, 15 minutes for example. A set study interval lets the brain know an end is coming.  This can help increase motivation to delve into a subject. The timer can be set for even 10 minutes or less.

4. Encourage them to start their homework with their most dreaded assignment by saying to just spend five minutes on it. It may be that after the five minutes they want to continue. My son took an online course called “Learning How to Learn” where he discovered that the brain experiences the thought of doing work it does not want to do as physical pain. That's why it feels relieving in the moment to distract yourself with something else—otherwise known as procrastination. However, just a couple minutes into starting the feared task, that sensation of pain dissipates.

5. Breaks—spend time talking about them. In Daniel Pinker’s book, Drive, he writes about how breaks were traditionally frowned upon in high performing work settings, but are now seen as critical to productivity. Breaks are particularly effective when they contain these elements: movement, fresh air, social interactions  (so checking in with friends via social media counts for this—but ideally it would not be the only break students go to).