Cognitive Skills Conversations: Series Highlights with Dr. Amy, Sandy, Dr. Jody, and Kim Hanson

Is your child struggling in school? On this mash-up from our Brainy Moms podcast special series on cognitive skills, we share all the highlights on what cognitive skills are, how we use them, and how to strengthen them. Listen to clips from Sandy’s interviews with our experts Dr. Amy and Dr. Jody as well as a guest appearance from Kim Hanson. In this engaging episode, we demonstrate a mental task that illustrates the interplay of memory, attention, reasoning, auditory and visual processing, and processing speed skills at work. Our lively discussions cover how each skill contributes to problem-solving and why strengthening them is crucial for both children and adults. Discover insights that will help you identify red flags as well as how to nurture these skills for academic and life success. This episode is packed with practical insights for parents eager to support their children’s cognitive development and understand the impact of these skills on learning. 

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Understanding Auditory Processing: How to Help the Brain “Hear” Better with Dr. Jody Jedlicka and Sandy Zamalis

If your child or teen has every struggled in school, your first instinct might have been to enroll them in tutoring. It makes sense, as that’s the intervention most parents are familiar with. But there are two parts to smart: the knowledge you acquire (e.g., history facts or math formulas) and how we process that information (e.g., learning, memorizing, understanding how and when to apply that math formula). Brain training helps with the latter. Today, cognitive psychologist Dr. Amy Moore and board-certified cognitive specialist Sandy Zamalis sit down to explain how to determine which intervention might best help your student based on their specific struggles, as well as how cognitive skills training addresses the root cause of learning challenges. They also offer some insight to help boost cognitive skills at home, including some free resources being offered to listeners. Whether you’ve tried tutoring with little (or temporary) results or are just starting your research into interventions to help your struggling student, you won’t want to miss this important episode.

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Back to School: The Path to Confidence with guest Stephanie Dua

In this episode of the Brainy Moms parenting podcast, Dr. Amy and Teri interview Stephanie Dua, Co-Founder and President of HOMER Learning, an early reading and math program for kids 2-8. Stephanie shares the importance of creating a strong foundation of reading and math readiness skills for confidence beginning or returning to school. She also shares insights for moms about her 80/20 parenting philosophy with tips on eliminating a perfectionist mindset and adopting a more simplified approach. The conversation also includes helping children manage big emotions with confidence. It’s an episode full of tips and insights from a highly-experienced and respected education entrepreneur!

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