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Adolescence can be the cruelest place on earth. It can really be heartless.  ( Tori Amos)

The mistake that Sharon and I both made is we never set any boundaries.  (Ozzy Osbourne)

"The thing that impresses me most about North America is the way parents obey their children"    (King Edward VII , 1841-1910)

Criticism is not a motivator.

Children today are under enormous pressures rarely experienced by their parents or grandparents. Many of today's children are being enticed to grow up too quickly and are encountering challenges for which they are totally unprepared.

Being a parent of a teenager can cure a person of narcissism.

"Moody" and "unpredictable" are adjectives parents will often use when referring to their teenagers.

"Unexpressed feeling never die. They are buried alive and come back later in ugly ways." (Stephen Covey)

The quickest way to change your child’s behaviour is to first change your own.

Children mimic well. They catch what they see better than they follow what they hear.

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Reading Rescue – the sequence – steps 4 , 5, 6

Step # 4 Use the Blending Book to introduce the long vowel sound “a” with the silent “e”. Add the other long vowel sounds with silent “e” at an appropriate pace. Step # 5 Introduce the consonant blends (eg. “br”, “cl”, “sm”, etc.) and the digraphs (eg. “ch”, “th”, etc.) Step # 6 Once the child is able to blend the sounds in a automatic way, replace the Blending Books with flash cards. While you […]

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Reading Rescue – the sequence – step 2 & 3

Step 2 Once the child can match and produce the correct sounds for the letters in grouping # 1, introduce the short sound “a” from list 2. Step 3 The blending od sounds together is frequently a problem for some children. A Blending Book is used to address this problem. The child is shown a page with the letter “m” in view and asked to say that sound and hold it for a long time […]

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Reading Rescue – the sequence -step 1

The initial skill required in reading is to be able to match a specific sound with a letter. Example: “m” says ___________ “s” says ____________ Reading Rescue uses Cue Cards to help children make the connection between letter and sound. On one side of the Cue Card is a printed letter and on the other side is a picture of an object that begins with that letter. Simple games are used to teach the sound […]

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Reading Rescue – theory part 3

Most children are able to learn the basic individual skills needed for reading in the conventional manner and begin to assimilate the more obscure skills on their own and become proficient readers as you have done. There are however a significant % of children who for a variety of reasons have been unable to grasp these skills and consequently have great difficulty in learning to read. Meanwhile most of their peers are “getting it”. Reading […]

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Now Try To Read This!

Theparagraphyoureadafewpostingsagowasprobablyeasiertoreadthanthisoneeventhoughthespellingofeach wordiscorrectthereasonthisoneismoredifficulttoreadisbecausetheothercluesweuseinreadingsuchassize ofwordinitialandfinalsoundspunctuationandcontextcannotbeeasilyseenbyyourbrainwhenallthelettersandwordsarejust jammedtogetherreadingclearlyisacomplexskillthismayevengiveyouaheadachekeepreadingandyouwillbeable toreadthetranslationwithanytrouble Translation: The paragraph you read a few postings ago was probably easier to read than this one even though the spelling of each word is correct. The reason this is more difficult to read is because the other clues we use in reading such as size of word, initial and final sounds , punctuation and context cannot be easily seen by your brain when all the letters and words are […]

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Workshops

+ Behaviour Management (now available online)

This full day or 2 evening workshop will introduce you […]

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+ A Parent’s Guide to the Teenage Brain

  A teenager’s brain is not just an adult brain […]

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+ Reading Rescue

A program for children with reading problems

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+ A Guided Tour of ADHD (now available online)

This workshop will present the facts, myths, misconceptions, controversy and […]

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Contact

2720 Rath Street, Putnam, Ontario
NOL 2BO

Phone: (519) 485-4678
Fax: (519) 485-0281

Email: info@rickharper.ca

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Parents' Comments

“Our daughter was the joy of our life until she turned 13, then all hell broke loose. Rick helped us understand what was happening to her and we made some adjustments that helped us get through it. She’s now in University and doing well.”

(D.A. – St. Thomas)