New Year, New Student!

Start the year off right with improved study habits

Returning to school after the long holiday break can be tough, but nowis the time to set routines that will stick for the rest of the schoolyear. If your child is struggling in school, it's possible that strongerstudy skills could make a difference in his or hearing learning success.There are ways you can help your child develop more effective study habits.

Encourage your child to put the following suggestions into practice:

Set daily and weekly goals.Help your child developdaily and weekly plans, as well as ways to measuretheir success. Write these goals down, either on paper or digitally.Hereare some examples of questions your child should ask himself on a regular basis:

• "What do I want to accomplish this week?"
• "What are my goals for today?"
• "Did I meet yesterday's goals?"
• "What kept me from meeting those goals?"
• "What can I do differently today to help me better meet my goals?"

Stop multitasking.Is your childstuck at the kitchen table for hours trying to study whilechecking Facebook,texting friends, or making multiple trips to the kitchenfor snacks? If so, your child is training his or her brain to dawdle.Instead, show your child how to teach his or her brain to work hard forset periods of time. One way to do this is to use a timer. Start by havingyour child turnoff any mobile devices and close distracting browsers.(You might also have your child finish any snacking so he or she can focusfully on studying.) Then set the timer and get started. When that timedsession is over, have your child take a break. After the break, set thetimer again and dive in. If at first all your child can do is fifteenminutes at a stretch, that's fine-build up over time. The point istraining your child's brain to study, not dawdle.

Choose a couple of good study habits and practice them for a month. Experts in the formation of new and lasting habits suggest committingto two or three desired changes for a period of a month. Focusing on afew changes over the course of thirty days allows time and practice forthat new change to become an integrated part of your routine. In otherwords, if you want help your child develop better study habits, have himpick two or three habits he wants to develop, and focus on making theman integral part of his study protocol for 30 days.

Take better notes in class.When a child sits down to study and discovers that his or her class notesare incomplete or difficult to follow, that child is simply not goingto be able to accomplish what he or she needs to accomplish. Encourageyour child to take complete and legible notes in class. You might startby reviewing current class notes and making suggestion on how they couldbe improved. Some experts say a great study tip is to rewrite class notesat home. Those notes will not only be better organized and easier to follow,the repetition will make remembering the concepts easier.

Train the skills your child's brain uses to think and learn.Something else you can do as a parent is enroll your child in a cognitivetraining program. Cognitive skills are the core skills your child'sbrain uses to think and learn, and when these skills are strong,learningis easier.

LearningRx is a brain training company with more than 80 centers acrossthe United States. LearningRx uses intense mental exercise done one-on-onewith a personal brain trainer to strengthen cognitive skills. These skillsinclude attention, long and short-term memory, auditory processing, visualprocessing, processing speed, and logic & reasoning.

LearningRx helps children and adults of all ages. To find out if LearningRxbrain training can help your child learn faster and easier, contact aLearningRx brain training center near you.