Action: Providing information to parents on child learning and teaching during clinic visits

Submitted by:  Sherry Vinson

"I made the decision to take five minutes during every clinic visit to make certain to review with each of my  patient’s parents, no matter their child’s disability, that they should use the same principles for helping their child learn that they use for learning something difficult themselves. These principles include breaking down what they are to learn one step at a time and connecting it to what they already know followed by repeated practice. I have found this month that by reviewing this information my patient’s parents have become empowered as their child’s teacher even when school services have been inadequate, giving the parents a common sense approach to use daily until appropriate services from elsewhere can be added. This has been especially helpful for empowering immigrant parents with only second/third grade educations  who had never thought they were “smart enough” to help their children."

Sherry Sellers Vinson, MD, MEd

Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Specialist

The Meyer Center for Developmental Pediatrics

  At Texas Children’s Hospital

The Developmental High Risk Clinic

  At Ben Taub General Hospital

Program Director, Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Residency

Baylor College of Medicine