Posts

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

Palm Beach Dyslexia Testing

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Dyslexia is one type of a learning disability.  There are different types of dyslexia and most children have phonological dyslexia which means they rely upon their visual memory to take a visual picture of a word and have significant difficulty sounding out made up or new unfamiliar words. Their breakdown occurs because of a phonological processing disorder.  This causes reading, spelling, and writing difficulties.

I test children for dyslexia in the Palm Beach area (including Boca Raton, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm, Wellington, and Delray Beach).  People from all over Florida and various parts of the USA work with me for dyslexia testing. Since I am a state licensed school psychologist my reports are accepted by most schools. Most public school do not test children for dyslexia. In fact, public schools seem to have cut back on the services they provide. Parents that want public testing usually wait at least four to six months. I find this unacceptable because then the child falls further behind. I test children using a customized battery of tests that tells me if there is dyslexia and the best reading program for you to use.

Some of the dyslexia tests I use include reading tests where the child reads aloud for accuracy, speed, and comprehension.  I also use silent reading tests, reading made up words, identifying letter and sound relationships, spelling real and made up words, auditory discrimination, auditory memory, visual memory, visual-spatial thinking.  An important test is one that assesses your child’s phonological processing.  This battery takes about four hours and is priced about the same as a reasonably priced leather couch.  After dyslexia testing you know if your child has dyslexia and the best reading program to use to help your child.

If your child has dyslexia and needs specialized dyslexia teaching, the Barton Reading and Spelling System ( Read a Reading Research summary )is one of the best to use and there are dyslexia tutors in the Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, and Stuart area using this, and other good reading programs. If you reside outside of Florida there are dyslexia tutors in every state using specialized reading instruction for kids with dyslexia.

Dyslexia testing helps you because then you don’t wonder about how to help your child and just do a hit and miss approach to help your child. Time is too valuable. Your child may already be turned off to reading or be feeling dumb. Don’t waste time. My process takes two to three weeks. Start now.

If you are in south Florida and the Palm Beaches, call me to discuss dyslexia testing for your child. The testing investment can help positively change the course of their life. Call today.

ADHD Children in Palm Beach

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Look around you and you see them. You may not always recognize kids with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD) but are everywhere throughout society. Most of these kids look so normal on the outside that you often walk right by them without even knowing they have ADHD. Research by the National Institute of Mental Health conservatively estimates that over 2 million kids in the United States are diagnosed with ADHD. They indicate this is between 3 to 5 percent of the population. That’s a lot of kids! This is almost the entire population of some major cities such as Miami or Dallas.

Assuming these numbers are accurate, then in a class of 20 students, the teacher can expect at least 2 kids will have ADHD. On a sports team of 12 students there will be at least one child with ADHD. In a church with a youth population of 100 kids, at least 12 students will have ADHD. How many kids live in your neighborhood? There are some kids with ADHD living around you. Boys and girls with ADHD are everywhere.

It is important for you to remember that your parenting skills are usually not your child’s main issue. Being a more skilled parent will not make ADHD go away. Can we, as parents, improve the skills we use when dealing with our kids with ADHD? Absolutely. But being a parent that is too permissive or strict did not directly result in your child’s ADHD.

I often advise parents to not worry so much about the label but to focus on proactive things they can do to help your child. To raise a successful child with ADHD you must start doing things differently from the day you find out your child has ADHD. First, recognized that ADHD is a disability and that even though your child may look fine on the outside, his/her mind is wired differently on the inside. If you take a ‘disability’ perspective it provides understanding.

You are taking a great step by reading this and teaching yourself more about ADHD because it is a key to raising a successful child. Let me know if I can help.