What I Wish People Knew About Education

Five year old students feel prepared when they bring the necessary school supplies to school. Teachers spend countless hours introducing students to the process of learning curriculum, developing social skills, and sharing the experiences of working in a group. We all want these young learners to grasp all that is introduced and to have the necessary skills to understand, retain, and apply this newly learned information. For some students, this is a struggle. The reasons are many and are often found outside of the school experience. Educators are very skilled at supporting students who struggle more than we want. With…

Are You Ready to Pay Attention?

Are you ready to pay attention?What a critical question that is. Preparing yourself to pay attention creates a complex matrix of physical and cognitive abilities. This question answers why I have never lost interest in giving the SOI assessments to all ages and for many different reasons. The SOI assessments define levels of ability in learning, retaining, and applying knowledge. How exciting to share with individuals where they revealed strengths in the ability to pay attention. It’s also comforting to find areas of processing information that weaken the ability to pay attention. Why is it comforting? Because SOI has an…

5 Steps for Successful Learning

Now that the school year is well underway, this is often the time when parents and teachers start to notice when students aren’t performing as well as they could be. Learning has become challenging. But why? There are 5 steps for successful learning: receiveprocessassimilatestoreuse One of the biggest assumptions we make about students is that they are both physically and mentally prepared to do these things. Physical Abilities For just the first step - receiving information - a student needs: good vision | eyes that work together and can easily shift from the desk to the whiteboarda strong auditory processing…

What is Intelligence?

This blog post is extracted from an interview with Mary Meeker by Betty D. Watkins. "All children have intelligence. We have asked the wrong question. We ask how much. We must ask what kind." - Mary MeekerIn the late 1800s, Alfred Binet was commissioned to develop a way of identifying children who could not learn in school. Binet's test was modified at Stanford University by Terman for use by American children. Thus were the intelligence test and the I.Q. score created. The Standford Binet Intelligence Test is still used to identify ability to learn in school. The Stanford Binet…

SOI System’s Approach to Learning Problems

SOI Systems is a company with a 50 year history of addressing student learning problems. Our focus has been primarily on making sure that the student’s capacities for learning are matching the expectations of the teaching situation – whether that is in a school, a university, or less formal circumstances like home schooling. When the student’s capacities for learning do not match the expectations of the learning situation, we take a clinical approach to the situation – isolate and identify the learning problem; make a preliminary diagnosis, test to find the probable cause; prescribe an intervention; and monitor to see…

Getting to the Root of Learning Difficulties

IPP gets to the root of learning difficulties by addressing the issues that often cause poor academic performance. The IPP program is successful because it addresses the cause(s) of the learning difficulty. It works to improve attention span, memory, comparison & contrast thinking, eye-hand coordination, systems reasoning, and other skills essential to the learning process. This helps students perform better in school and in life. IPP HISTORY Years of identifying and training cognitive dysfunctions have revealed the importance of underlying physiological processes, especially focusing skills and sensory integration functions. SOI training will help even in the face of focusing skill…

Taking the Next Step in Learning with SOI

At SOI Systems, we provide you with practical ways to help your students succeed. SOI is a system of assessments and training materials that develop intellectual abilities and learning functions. We equip students with the necessary intellectual skills to learn subject matter, do analytical thinking, become more creative, and, most importantly, learn how to learn. GIFTED & TALENTED The robustness of the SOI tests helps incorporate students with gifts in areas not usually included in other assessments. figural, symbolic, evaluation, and creativity abilities are all evaluated to be considered along with students who are gifted in the traditional semantic abilities.…

What is SOI?

WE KNOW THAT LEARNING CAN BE HARD, AND WE’RE HERE TO HELP CHANGE THAT. We work with every type of person in every learning situation – parents, students, teachers, individuals, special education instructors, tutors, and more. Our focus is always on the learners and what we can do to make them successful. We have: tests that profile learning ability strengths and weaknesses materials to improve and strengthen learning abilities innovative programs designed specifically to assist struggling students to get them back on track screening products for gifted and talented programs managed programs that provide students with the very best educational …

The Brain. Did You Know?

Did you know an ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain? Did you know that even though your brain weighs 2% of your total body weight, it uses 25% of all oxygen you breathe and 15% of your body’s blood supply? Did you know the average human brain contains around 78% water? Did you know that when recognizing a persons’ face you use the right side of your brain? Our brains are so intricate and interesting! Let’s look at the CEREBRUM which is the largest part of our brain; it is divided into four sections or lobes. The FRONTAL lobe…

The Potholes in Education

I agree. My topic and thoughts today sound odd. I stand accused of thinking too much about the challenges in education, even when sitting in a long line of cars out at the coast of Oregon. A large section of Highway 101 was being repaired for potholes. In the section I was at, it is only a two lane road and the wait ended up to be about 15 minutes going and coming. I was not driving, so I looked up how much potholes cost the American people - billions of dollars. AAA reports the cost of automobile damage resulting…

What I Wish People Knew About Education

Are You Ready to Pay Attention?

5 Steps for Successful Learning

What is Intelligence?

SOI System’s Approach to Learning Problems

Getting to the Root of Learning Difficulties

Taking the Next Step in Learning with SOI

What is SOI?

The Brain. Did You Know?

The Potholes in Education

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