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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