Dr. Forgan’s articles about helping children with learning disabilities.

College Learning Disability Testing in Palm Beach

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As a school psychologist I offer college learning disability testing to test college students for learning disabilities (ADD/ ADHD, etc.) in the Palm Beach and South Florida area.  Students with learning disabilities can receive accommodations at Palm Beach State College, Florida Atlantic University, Lynn University, NOVA, Palm Beach Atlantic University, Florida State, University of Florida, and many other colleges.  I test college students for learning disabilities using the required tests that document the student’s learning disability.  Since I’m licensed by the state, my reports are accepted at all Florida colleges as well as those outside Florida (e.g. Old Miss, Alabama, Georgia, etc).

What does learning disability testing require?

Testing to document a learning disability in college most colleges require three components of a psychoeducational evaluation.  The three components found in most college learning disability requirements include (1) an individually administered IQ test, (2) academic testing in reading, math, and writing, and (3) information processing tests in areas such as memory, information processing speed, visual, auditory, attention, etc.  The most common tests that universities recommend include the WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement, Nelson Denny Reading Test, and Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities.  Check with your college or universities Office of Students with Disabilities to see if these tests are on their recommended list.  Most colleges or universities require the learning disability testing be recent within 3 to 5 years.

These tests can be administered on one or two days.  College learning disability testing is a lengthy process and takes 4 to 4.5 hours for testing.  Most college students prefer to complete the learning disability evaluation during one day.

Once you complete the testing I score the results and write up a report that you can bring to the college Office of Students with Disabilities to register for support.  The college staff keeps all your information confidential and other students will not know about your learning disability.  The disability office staff provides you with a letter that you then give to each of your college professors.  The letter will state the allowable accommodations that you receive and that the professor must honor since the accommodations are part of the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

Frequently provided college accommodations

The Office for Students with Disabilities (or similar named office) has a list of all the allowable accommodations in college.  The accommodations you receive depend on your needs.  Some of the most common college level accommodations include extended time on tests, testing in a small setting, copies of notes, frequent breaks during testing, fewer items on the test page, preferential course registration, or a course substitution.  When you meet with the counselor you explain to him or her what your needs are, they review your paperwork, and they write up the accommodation plan.  

If you want college disability testing in the Jupiter or Palm Beach area, call me (561) 625 4125.

 

Understanding Your Struggling Child

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As a parent it’s difficulty to watch your child’s daily school struggles.  Does your child hold it together in school and then fall apart as soon as she gets home?  Is he mentally exhausted after a day of school?  Completing homework may be a nightly battle and more time is spent arguing about starting homework than it would take to finish the homework if he’d just get started.   Your intuition tells you something is going on with your child’s learning.  You’ve asked yourself, “What could it be?”   Is it dyslexia?  Could it be ADHD or ADD? My child seems smart so is it a learning disability?    

If you truly want to understand your child I recommend getting him or her tested.  For example, would you repair your car without running diagnostic testing?  No.  First you’d check under the hood to see what is problematic.  Would you take medicine for chest pain without testing?  The answer is probably, “No.”  So why would you invest thousands of dollars in tutoring or brain training before testing your child to see what’s really occurring?  You wouldn’t give a kid glasses without testing her vision, right?

Perhaps you are thinking your child is lazy when he really has a processing problem.  Having your child tested provides insight into what’s going on with his or her learning.  A group of tests tailored to your child’s needs provides results that can yield understanding. This will allow you to target the right type of tutoring so you don’t waste valuable time on things that won’t work.

My advice to you is don’t take a wait and see approach.  Time it too valuable as there are only seven months of school remaining and FCAT is coming soon.  Historically, school districts move slow when supporting kids that struggle. 

Be proactive.  The results of my evaluation will identify strengths and weaknesses.  It is accepted by all schools.  This documentation can speed up the help your child receives in school. 

A reasonable investment in your child’s future will save you from wasting your money on hit and miss search for help.  Real answers await you.  Trust your intuition and don’t wait for your child to fail before getting help.  Your child will thank you. 

Get started today by filling out the contact form above or call the number at the top of the page.  Honest answers await you.

Four Reasons to Test Kids for Learning Problems

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Are you concerned about your child’s or grandchild’s learning? In my experiences of working with many families, my advice is to tell you to trust your instincts.  I work with parents from Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, and other counties to test their kids.  One common theme I see is that a parent’s instinct is very accurate even if your child’s teacher is saying, “Wait and see.”  As a parent you know your child best and if your gut is telling you there is something going on with your child’s learning then investigate it with testing. You may have to sweet-talk your spouse to get them to agree but it’s worth the sugar.

These are four reasons why testing your child will help you.

Time. The earlier you start giving your child the correct support the better the outcome. We know from research that early intervention is a key factor in a child’s future success. As time passes, it’s harder for your child to catch up. I’ve worked with parents that tell me they wish they had completed the testing years ago because they could have saved themselves from so much struggling.

Self-esteem. Your child is smart and knows he or she is not learning as easily as their peers. Many kids are good at keeping a positive front while holding their secret fears inside. You may have heard your child make statements such as, “I’m dumb at this. Everyone else is smarter than me. I hate school.” As part of my evaluation I assess your child’s self-esteem.

Understanding. An evaluation sheds light on what’s going on within your child’s mind by assessing his or her neuropsychological processing systems. You may be calling your child lazy and unmotivated when it’s really a processing disorder that’s making learning so much harder. He may have to put in ten times the mental effort as his peers. Unless you have testing then you are just making assumptions that can hinder the situation more than help it.

Plan. You may need a specific plan to know what’s best to help your child. When it comes to your child’s learning you don’t want to take a hit-and-miss approach and spend time and money doing things that don’t work. My testing helps identify the best teaching approaches for helping your child flourish rather than flounder. By using the right teaching methods you’ll increase your child’s academic performance and self confidence.

There are many more reasons to test your child but these four reasons to test kids is a start.  I believe the testing investment you make to help your child will pay off and help you get things going on the right track.

Call if we can help you with your child.(561) 625-4125

Improve Self-Esteem In Children

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Many kids with learning differences struggle with self esteem issues and in elementary age students they often will make comments like, “I dumb. I’m not as smart as my brother/ sister.  I’m not good at school.”  A young boy I recently worked with told me, “I’m not so good at thinking about things fast.”  Clearly this young boy recognized his limitations.  Over time, this type of thinking lowers a child’s self esteem.

Teenagers with self-esteem issues don’t like school.  They lose motivation.  They stop working hard unless the task comes easy.  Some teenagers get into the wrong crowd and start hanging out with kids that don’t perform well in school.  They try to feel better by being around people that are performing worse than them.  Unfortunately, this does not work to improve self-esteem.  It’s a temporary fix that leads to bigger problems.

If a child is 7 or older, I always assess his or her self esteem.  I believe this is a vital part of any complete evaluation.  Some psychologist don’t assess self-esteem and then they miss the big picture of the whole child.  Think about it.  If you don’t feel good about yourself you often don’t have a positive outlook on things.  You may act and feel flat.  So, if you work with me to test your child then we’ll get the big picture and assess self-esteem.

It’s easy to make accommodations for a child’s academic limits.  It’s much harder to make accommodations or improve a child’s self-esteem.  Not every child I work with has self-esteem issues and some that do have self-esteem issues have difficulty in specific areas of self esteem.  See, self-esteem is multidimensional; it’s composed of different areas.  Popularity, Anxiety, Intelligence, Behavior, and General Happiness are all areas of self esteem.  So, sometimes a child feels bad about him or herself in the area of Intelligence but is fine with overall Happiness.  In my written report I explain these areas and how your child feels.

If your child has low self-esteem this knowledge can help you when making educational decisions.  For instance, you may be considering changing schools.  Knowing about your child’s self-esteem also helps you know how to adjust your parenting style.  Some kids benefit from counseling or just need to understand their learning differences and be told by a professional that they are not stupid.  Sometimes when the teenager finds out they are smart it makes a dramatic improvement in his or her outlook and academic performance.

If you’d like to read a book about self-esteem check out Jack Canfield’s book 100 Ways to Improve Self-Esteem.  It’s an older book but the lessons are still valuable today.

Call us if you’d like to test your child’s self esteem. (561) 625-4125

Can’t Remember Math Facts?

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If your elementary, middle, or high school age child can’t remember and automatically recall his or her math facts he or she probably has a memory weakness for information that is not highly meaningful. For most kids school related tasks are not highly meaningful. My children–and probably yours too– have had to memorize lists like all the presidents, the 50 different types of sciences, and hundreds of vocab. words.

You can informally assess your child’s memory by trying these simple tasks. Get your child, a paper, and pencil. Ask your child to:
1. write down the alphabet using just lower case letters.
2. write down your address (including city and state)
3. write down the months of the year or, for kids under 7, the days of the week.

If you live in the Palm Beach or south Florida area, call me if you child struggled with these three memory tasks. Along with not remembering math facts, these are all ‘soft’ signs of memory issues. If your child has memory issues it impacts his or her ability to stay on task, concentrate, complete class work or home work, remember what he reads (reading comprehension), and write a paragraph or esssay.

Think about what your child’s teacher(s) are telling you. Do they discuss your child being off task, forgetfull, daydreaming, not staying focused, or working slowly? If you have memory problems it bogs down your information processing system. You quickly become and feel overwhelmed. Then kids shut down, goof off, or become frustrated and emotional. If your child is experiencing these types of behaviors then bring your child to me (Jupiter, Florida area school psychologist) for an assessment. I can complete a quick assessment and tell you about a program that will REALLY improve your child’s memory.

If your child’s memory capacity increases he or she will be able to concentrate better, learn easier, and feel less overwhelmed. Aren’t those things you want for your child? When you come in, bring the informal memory tests that you completed with your child. I can help give you tools that will change your child’s education and life for the better.