יום שישי, כ״ד אב תשפ״וFriday, August 7, 2026
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An acclaimed educator and social skills specialist, Mrs. Rifka Schonfeld has served the Jewish community for close to thirty years. She founded and directs the widely acclaimed educational program, SOS, servicing all grade levels in secular as well as Hebrew studies. A kriah and reading specialist, she has given dynamic workshops and has set up reading labs in many schools. In addition, she offers evaluations G.E.D. preparation, social skills training and shidduch coaching, focusing on building self-esteem and self-awareness. She can be reached at 718-382-5437 or at rifkaschonfeld@gmail.com.
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Kids with NVLD are very verbal and often do not have academic problems until they get to the upper grades in school.
How much of yourself can you reveal to your friends? How much do you hide because you fear rejection?
In order to see ourselves positively, we inflate our egos and look down on others. And, in our society, we also beat ourselves up when we don’t feel special.
As with most problems in her life, Sandberg approached this one logically. She asked her esteemed friends who are world renowned psychologists and professors for a plan.
Therefore, large servings of both compassion and patience are also necessary remedies for the problem.
Habits are so powerful that unless you actively work on fighting it, your brain stops fully participating in decision-making and focuses on other tasks.
Many people who switch careers in the middle of their lives feel that they are fakes, and this feeling is labeled - the imposter syndrome.
With language, children with autism often speak late and when they do its in a monotonous tone.
ou can assess your emotional intelligence through a variety of tests in order to understand where you stand on the EQ range, however, as I mentioned before EQ is not fixed and is easily raised through your own actions.
Psychologists and journalists argue that in this new age of parenting, we are producing entitled and spoiled children.
Susan David begins her book Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life with the following story: A well-regarded captain stood on the bridge of a British battleship watching the sun set across the sea. As the story goes, the captain was about to head below for dinner when a lookout […]
If we want to feel good about our careers, our relationships, and ourselves at the end of the day, week, or year, we need to assess what our priorities are and then schedule them into our weeks.
You probably automatically crossed a one specific leg over the other. Now, switch legs. Does this feel unnatural? Probably.
If we are to survive and flourish, we have to think differently about our own abilities and make the best use of them.
Many people feel this rule is for teachers; that is, that teacher should give only a certain amount of homework.
It is just this persistence or perseverance that we need to teach our children.
Only as an adult was O’Toole diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. That is when things fell into place for her.
In other words, our educational system that has been revamped over the years to accommodate better and more education for women, might be failing our boys.
How can we overcome this perception error? How can we ensure that people who meet us for the limited amount of time (in the workplace or in school) perceives us as we are?
She says that most people believe that making friends is an art.
Many psychologists and educators theorize that girls are less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD because their symptoms differ greatly from those of boys.
When children feel that their own emotional needs are met, they are better able to recognize the emotional needs of others.
Like I said to you before: never take kids to a store All you're gonna hear is: we want more and more…
This casual observation will give you the ability to easily understand when something is wrong during the unavoidable social struggle.
Some people object to the practice of invented spelling, arguing that it produces bad habits that can be carried over into adulthood.
Kinesthetic learning is not for everyone. In fact, for some it can be a more difficult form.
Of course, these moments should also be related to your topic of expertise and should not simply be there for the shock effect!
Why is it so hard to make decisions? Why do we make so many poor decisions?
As phonemic awareness is developed, children should become interested in how words are portrayed in print.
There is a debate within educational circles today as to whether resource rooms or learning centers should remediate or accelerate.
Along with higher than average intelligence, gifted children often have stronger than average emotions.
The best thing to do is to help your child not only develop both sides of their brain, but also to connect the two sides.
Anger is a natural response to threats and it allows us to fight and defend ourselves when we feel attacked.
Each of us knows what it feels like to be anxious or apprehensive: the night before a big test, going on a date, or when preparing for Yom Kippur. So, how do you distinguish that normal anxiety from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?
If you are stuck in a traffic jam, how does your date respond to the frustration of being late?
It’s simpler because, ultimately, it doesn’t take that much more than what you already have to be happy.
Brown encourages us to see our failures, learn from them, and move forward.
Elementary school children may occasionally throw tantrums when sitting down to do their homework. This will often occur if your child is inundated by work or exhausted from lack of sleep.
Even between people who speak the same language, there can be misunderstandings and miscommunication.
Your social skills work in your favor when it comes to persuading other people.
Some say that the cortex is what makes us human.
The difference is in whether you are giving your children advantages or assisting them in developing the skills that will put them at an advantage.
In reality, if your child is asking you for help that means that he has not figured out a way to master the situation on his own.
According to many, self-discipline is the single most important factor in determining a person's overall success.
Alternative assessments are an extremely important part of understanding what students know beyond the scope of tests and quizzes.
Of course, we all know that we must practice everything in moderation – and that includes simplicity.
You aren’t given a manual when you have a child and there’s no survival guide to tell you what to do.
If you enter a conversation, whether it is one-on-one, in a group, or in front of an audience and you are unprepared, uncommitted, uninteresting, or uncomfortable, most people will pick up on this right away.
Children who experienced an extremely disturbing event might subsequently develop generalized anxiety.
One of the most important lessons I learned is about the interaction between academics and social skills
It’s important to understand that these triggers aren’t necessarily wrong.
What if you differ on how things really happened and therefore now you feel like you have done something wrong?
It’s the magic ingredient that adds a measure of oomph to the day.
If we start off happy, then we feel good about ourselves and what we are doing.
There’s a lot of work taking place during adolescence that is necessary for teens to develop core character traits for the future. Teens who test boundaries and who have the passion to explore are working on themselves.
What are these life skills? Why does your child need these life skills? How can you they gain and practice these life skills?
Can’t we keep them innocent of all of this money stuff for just a little bit longer?
Looking at art and describing what we see, helps sharpen our visual intelligence and communicate more effectively.
Those children who had managed to control themselves in order to get the second marshmallow had more successful marriages, careers, and lives in general.
The top of your to-do list should contain your “stretch” goal. This is your long-term goal like running the marathon.
When surrounded by books on a range of topics from science fiction and World War II to graphic novels and deep sea exploration, students will uncover a thrilling and electrifying world.
What can we, as a community, do to fight and prevent bullying? There are several important steps we can take, and thankfully, many yeshivos are beginning to implement these essential changes.
We want our children to be confident and explore, but we also want to have some sort of control over our their lives.
He argues that the advanced math we require in high school is beyond most students abilities.
We read books of poems and prose – Some of these and some of those. Read some too, and you’ll agree, Books are good for you and me!
Ridley argues that as a society we are constantly building on an exchange of ideas.
While boys’ toys often involve principles inherent in math and science, girls’ toys focus on imagination and creativity.
Take a moment to identify the people, times, and things that give you pleasure.
They explain that we have the tendency to drift or to veer from what our own intentions.
Most of the books I have recommended are series because they allow children to get hooked on the characters and writing style, and continue seamlessly from one to another.
“Originality itself starts with creativity: generating a concept that is both novel and useful. But it doesn’t stop there. Originals are people who take the initiative to make their visions a reality…”
Dearest Fear: Creativity and I are about to go on a road trip together. I understand you’ll be joining us, because you always do.
Siegel explains that there are four ways that the brain is developing during adolescence that provide the groundwork for healthy ways of living.
We as parents need to take a step back and allow our children to make mistakes, thereby growing into independent problem-solving adults.
Most schools would have to stop doing almost everything they now do in the name of school improvement.
Resilience explains why some children overcome overwhelming obstacles...
Kriah teachers continually search for ways to combat tedium and monotony in reading practice.
Anger becomes a problem if you do not know how to handle it.
If students need to improve many of the same skills for both reading comprehension and math, teachers can borrow strategies from literacy instruction and apply them to the math classroom.
One of the key tenets in the book is that children need five things from their parents in order to have a healthy relationship:
Phonics is great for young children learning to read, but it can be boring and frustrating for children who have sat through the instruction for years.
In it he explains that greater creativity leads to greater happiness.
The benefits of friendship are particularly potent for women as opposed to men.
In other words, by allowing your children to experience disappointment, you are teaching them how to cope with frustration in the future.
It’s hard for us to admit when we don’t know something because we are trained to believe that knowing the right answer will get us ahead...
Why should we not carry ourselves with pride and personal power?
When dealing with a difficult situation as a leader, locate yourself above or below the line.
The ability to think socially is required prior to the production of social skills.
When does worrying become anxiety? Is it possible to overcome that anxiety?
“It is an easy mistake to think that non-talkers are non-feelers.” – Wallace Stegner “I think a lot, but I don’t say much.” – Anne Frank “Quiet people have the loudest minds.” – Stephen Hawking Are you quiet or loud? Do you like to be the center of attention or are you happy to […]
I have compiled a few questions and answers to help everyone understand how we can get boys reading up to their potential.
This scared her immensely. After all, she was terrible with numbers.
We believe that effective school change happens when all stakeholders – administrators, faculty, parents, counselors, and students – come together to identify problems and work on solutions.
What do you do with that failure? How do you learn from it and attempt the seemingly impossible again?
The best part of the toolbox (and a point that Ness emphasizes in her book numerous times) is that it’s not about innate knowledge, talent or intelligence.
While Robinson is firmly against the educational systems we have in place, I believe there is definitely value to what we do today.
Parents are frustrated by their inability to get clear information about the right thing the [X] family has apparently figured out.
He believes that the best way to get ahead in life is to build character.
We know that the child is cognitively capable, so we ask ourselves, “Why can’t he just act like everyone else?”
Understanding the hot-cold empathy gap can help those in shidduchim comprehend how their actions might influence their dates.
August 7, 2026 
