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Three Ways to Help A Struggling Learner

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Is your child a struggling learner?  Learning struggles cause frustration for parents and kids.  Most kids who struggle with learning do so in reading as approximately 80% of learning disabilities are reading related.  Kids who continuously struggle to learn become turned off to school so being a proactive parent can help prevent future problems.  Here are three ways to help your struggling learner.

Struggling Learner Help Number 1

First, capitalize on your child’s interests to help make learning fun.  If your young child struggles with reading, use his interest in Minecraft to learn sight words.  Make flashcards using a Minecraft type font.  You could create a fun way to memorize sight words by making a flashcards Minecraft concentration game. Or, you and your child can staple paper together and use some sight words to write a story about your son and Minecraft. He can practice reading the story which can motivate him to read.

Struggling Learner Help Number 2

Help your child make the most gain in the shortest time by using specialized reading tutoring.  As a well-intentioned parent you might hire a teacher to work with your daughter but many teachers don’t use a specialized reading program.  Hire a reading specialist that uses the Barton, Wilson, or Lindamood-Bell reading programs.  These are designed to help kids with persistent reading difficulty.  To make improvements use at least twice weekly tutoring.

Struggling Learner Help Number 3

Last, test your child to pinpoint the exact struggle.  My testing helps you understand the root cause of the struggle and know how to best proceed with focus. This can help you know if the struggle is a behavior or neurological issue.  It’s my belief that you don’t want to punish your child for something he or she can’t help.  Many times learning disabilities are hidden disabilities because they occur internally and are only apparent when kids struggle with academic and learning expectations.  Testing gives you understanding about your child.

We test kids age 5 to 25 for dyslexia, ADHD, processing problems, and gifted. Call (561) 625-4125

Let’s Identify Your Child’s Struggles

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Are you at your wits end? Yes, your child’s struggles are real.  Now that kids are learning from home you’ve had an up close and personal look at how much your child struggles with focusing or learning.  You’re like many parents who now realize a processing problem might be occurring within your child.  The school staff did not want to bring this to your attention because they had limited resources available to test your child.  Thus, they keep pushing struggling kids along.  You can have your child privately tested to determine why he or she struggles.

To help your child you need to identify what is causing the struggle so that you know exactly where to target support.  Testing your child can identify your child’s underlying problem so that you can start to help in a meaningful way.  Why let something hinder your child from reaching his or her potential?  Schoool neuropsychological testing includes tests of memory, speed, language processing, visual-spatial processing, attention, executive functioning, flexible thinking, reading, math, writing, self-esteem, and much more.  This approach identifies your child’s strengths and weaknesses so we can target the right support.

In addition, when school resumes you can share the results report with the school so they can write up a 504 Plan or IEP.  These are the special plans that provide accommodations for your child. This means the school can do things to help your child so you have systems of support from multiple areas.

If you are supervising your child’s work, try these three strategies.  1. Reinforce what your child is doing well.  Your child has to feel like they are doing things right. 2.  Use Grandma’s rule which is you have to eat your veggies before you get dessert.  Your child must do their school work in order to earn reward time of a tablet or video game.  3.  If you have a say in your child’s school work schedule, try to do the hardest tasks first thing in the morning.  Most kids work better in the morning than in the afternoon.  Your chid’s struggles are real so invest in testing to help him or her overcome any hinderances while at the same time unlocking potential.

Call today. (561) 625-4125

Is Testing My Child Worth the Money?

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You might wonder if testing your child is worth the money.  The short answer is, “Yes” because testing provides information about the best way to help your struggling child. It also explains how your child learns and processes information.  Testing your child also helps you understand your child’s self esteem.  Furthermore, the testing process discovers any hidden areas that can be the underlying cause of your child’s struggles.

Think about this. Have you ever purchased a house?  As part of the process you hired a home inspector to spend time doing a thorough inspection to identify problem items that are hidden from your visual inspection.  The home inspector looks for hidden concerns that might cause you future problems.  This money helps you avoid items like a leaky pipe that, if left unrepaired, will cost you a bundle.

In that same spirit, testing your child could identify hidden concerns like anxiety or low self esteem.  If these areas are treated when your child is young, the outcome is much better than if anxiety and low self esteem worsen all the way into adulthood. Likewise, the toll from an unidentified reading learning disability that goes undetected all the way until high school causes your child to harbor a lot of emotional baggage.  These kids often live feeling dumb and like they don’t fit in at school.  They often associate with others who might be prone to risky teen behavior.

Imagine you just haven’t been feeling right for a while and finally go to your doctor who runs tests and tells you that you have stage one cancer. If you start treatment early your prognosis is much better than if you have stage four.  Of course a learning disability is not going to physically cause death but it can cause indirectly lead to life problems that can cause bodily harm.

In my opinion, the moral of the story is the testing is worth the money because it’s an investment in your child that can prevent some serious future problems.

Here’s a quick rundown of what happens during the testing process.

  1. First we meet with parents so you can share your concerns and we can review paperwork that helps us create a unique evaluation to answer your most important questions.
  2. We individually test your child and take a short break at least every 45 to 60 minutes.
  3. We analyze the results and write up a written summary.
  4. Parents meet with us to discuss the results.
  5. Together we create a brief action plan of next steps.

The recommendations offer suggestions for helping at home and in school so most parents share a copy of the report with your child’s school administration.  The school staff review the recommendations and then meet with you to write up an accommodation plan of items they will do at school to help your child.

At the conclusion of the testing process you understand more about your child and what to do to help at home and school.

Contact us if we can help you have more understanding about your child. (561) 625-4125

Selective Mutism in Children

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What is Selective Mutism in Children?
Written by Emily L. Forgan, Ed.S., Nationally Certified School Psychologist

Selective Mutism in Children (SM) is a true anxiety disorder characterized by a child’s inability to speak and communicate effectively in select social settings, such as school (Selective Mutism Center). It is also listed as an anxiety disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 (DSM-5). Selective Mutism is not a child being oppositional or defiant, rather it is a real anxiety based disorder. Children with SM usually have social phobia or social anxiety (Selective Mutism Center), which is a true fear of speaking.

What Does Selective Mutism Look Like?

Selective Mutism comes out in many different ways. A child with SM may not communicate at all or he or she may only communicate nonverbally through gestures and head nodding. Other children may feel comfortable whispering to select individuals or communicating with peers but not adults. A child may be completely verbal at home but not communicate at all when in school or vice versa.

Four Things To Do if You Think Your Child May Have Selective Mutism

It is important to remove all pressure from the child to speak. Communicate to the child that you understand it is difficult for him or her to get the words out and reassure your child that you will help them.   Give your child multiple choices such as, “Do you want juice or milk?”

Focus on praising your child’s accomplishments and efforts, and do not force him or her to talk in settings where they feel uncomfortable (Selective Mutism Center).

Read a children’s book. Mason is Learning to Roar was written by Monique Mondesir, M.D. She has a child with SM and wrote the book to help give children understanding and skills.

If you suspect your child has SM, speak with your pediatrician or find a speech language therapist or psychologist who specializes in social anxiety disorders like selective mutism. One such provider is Dr. Joffe in Coral Springs. http://www.verajoffe.com

Contact us if we can help you help your child. (561) 625-4125

 

Some parts adapted from selectivemutismcenter.org

stress in children

Three Ways to Help Children Manage Stress

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Today’s children feel the pressure of standards based testing, high performance expectations, social media pressure, and complicated family dynamics. It’s no wonder why doctors and psychologists report an uptick in stress and anxiety.

Stress occurs because of a stressor which is simply a thing that causes a stress response.  For example, going to a party where your child might not know anyone is a often a stressful event.  Your child’s body reacts to this and it causes a stressful reaction like an increased heart rate and difficulty focusing.  Anxiety often follows which is the unpleasant feeling of worry that alerts your child to a threat. In this case, “What if other kids laugh at me and think I’m a loner?”

Parents stress to so consider your own stress level.  When you are stressed it can carry over to increase your child’s stress. Do you stress about his grades more than he does?  Doing homework is a stressor for many parents and kids.  Furthermore, there’s a genetic link to anxiety and it often runs in families.  This implies you might be part of the cause of your child’s stress so taking care of your own stress might also help your child’s stress.

Three Ways to Help Children Manage Stress

If you want to help your child decrease his or her stress, try reading children’s books, practicing mindfulness, and limit how much news your child views.  It’s called bibliotherapy when you read your child a children’s literature book about dealing with stress.  Children relate to characters in kids’ books.  What To Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid’s Guide to Overcoming Anxiety is a great book for you to read to your child because it uses some of the same techniques professional counselors.

Mindfulness is teaching children to be relaxed and focused by calming their mind and becoming aware of their body.  It helps kids with focus, listening, slowing down, and remaining calm under stress.  You can practice with your child by searching YouTube for kids mindfulness videos.

Limit TV and showing your child the daily news.  Kids are observant and pay attention to more than what you might realize.  Even if they are not watching the news, they are usually listening!  Melissa’s child stressed over the smallest of stories like a dog that was lost and found far away so she obsessed on her family dog getting lost.  Her daughter’s anxiety reached a point that Melissa stopped watching TV news and now gets news online.

I coauthored a book on helping children manage stress that has many other practical ideas you can use right away.  It’s available on Amazon.

About 30% of kids with stress need professional help.  If you’ve tried the above strategies, consider contacting our office to help your child with stress and anxiety.  Another source to find a professional counselor is the South Florida Association of Christian Counselors. You can reach us at (561) 625-4125.