I don't usually use pictures in my reviews, but this is a product you really have to SEE to understand and appreciate. This is an item (and company) for the wiggly, bouncy, distractible students in your life! These are products that help the students who have tracking issues, eye dominance issues, distraction issues, dyslexia, learning disabilities, sensory issues, or neurological issues.
Heads Up! is the company who provides these wonderful frames and reading aids for students. They also provide many other helpful items: fidgets, weighted blankets, weighted lap pets, books, and cushion disks to sit on. Those are just a few of the items they provide to help our students stay focused on their work.
These Heads Up! Frames come in two sizes, the large and small frames. They are available in six different colors (pink, yellow, red, orange, blue, green) for only $1.00 each. They help a child focus in on one section of a page, without being distracted by the rest of the page. The square ones work well for math problems, and the large ones work well in most other books.
These Heads Up! Readers come in the same six colors as well as clear, and are also sold for $1.00 each. They draw the student's attention to a single line of text, and are excellent for beginning readers and those who have trouble tracking as they read. My beginning reader has really benefited from these.
These two products come in yellow or blue colors, and are also sold for $1.00 each They have a yellow or blue strip at the top to highlight the lines you are reading, and a gray opaque section to block out the lines beneath the colored portion. The Top Of The Lines (on the left) highlight a single line of text (or two if you're reading a smaller print). The Double Times (on the right) have a larger highlighting section and show more text at once.
My children are distractible, active, creative, and strong-willed. Despite their distractibility and activity level, they are avid readers ... once they finally "get it". Every single one of them reads with a bookmark under the line they are reading.
I wasn't sure if they would like these products or not. I thought they would help ... if the children would actually use them. I planned to keep some for ourselves, and give away a set on my blog. But the kids love them! They've scattered them around the house in different books and textbooks. I can't give them away because my children are using them all! They make great bookmarks, too.
The only child who isn't using them is my 9 year old daughter. She is actually the most active of the girls, but she found the readers and frames to be more distracting to her. She tried them out, but quickly set them aside for her regular bookmark. That surprised me. I thought she would be one of the ones to benefit from them the most.
(Just a little note: they come covered with a clear plastic layer that peels off. It's there to protect the readers and frames until they are in your home. Once you peel them off, they're actually easier to read through. The catalog tells you to peel this off, but I didn't notice that until my kids started asking me why the edges were curling up.)
I highly recommend these items if your child has trouble staying focused on their reading and their bookwork. And if your children have any other special needs, I'm sure that you can find many helpful items at the Heads Up! website. I personally would love to see if those weighted lap pets keep these fidgety kids of mine from falling out of their seats for no reason at all.
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Trusting in Him,
April
