Becoming Informed About Your LD Child’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Written by Sandy Gauvin


All too often, children with learning disabilities are seen through their weaknesses.

Like anyone else, however, they have many strengths. It is ofrepparttar greatest importance to focus onrepparttar 110965 strengths that your child has and show them to other people. It will not only to help others who are involved in her life understand her better, but it will helprepparttar 110966 child herself know that she is loved and valued for who she is.

I always found that one of my biggest questions was, "How do I see all of my daughter’s strengths, in addition to her weaknesses, so I can get a picture of her as a total person?” The answer lies in what is called 'quality time.'"

Here are some important way is to spend quality time with your child.

1)Do things with her. What activities do you both like? Do things with her that she likes to do, and ask her to do things that you like to do.

2)Go places with her. You don’t have to travel far. Just go outside, or downtown, or torepparttar 110967 mall, or to a movie.

3)Sit quietly with her. Silence says a lot.

4)Hear her when she speaks. Don’t just listen - hear what she has to say.

5)Listen to and try to understand her frustrations.

6)Talk with her to find out about her likes and dislikes.

7)Know what is going on with her outsiderepparttar 110968 home. Allow her to talk about it without being judgemental.

8)Provide a safe, understanding atmosphere that allows her to express her feelings and preferences.

9)Provide positive feedback when she talks aboutrepparttar 110969 good things she does.

10)Provide a structure that allows her to make mistakes and learn from them.

Allowing your child to have friends play with her at home can give great insight into your child’s strengths and weaknesses. When we allowed Michele to have friends over, we could see that she was a great organizer of creative activities and was very social, but we also saw that she got very defensive at times. Having this information allowed us to know what to help her with. We also communicated this information to her teachers, so we could all work together on this issue.

Beginning the Special Education Process

Written by Sandy Gauvin


Like anything else in life, there's a method torepparttar special education process. It was put in place to help people who deal with learning disabilities getrepparttar 110964 best services possible. In order to help you understand this method, here's a simplified version ofrepparttar 110965 Special Education process.

1)Request for evaluation

Someone sees thatrepparttar 110966 child is having difficulty in school and asks that testing be done to find out what's causingrepparttar 110967 problem. This request can come from parents or educators. Ifrepparttar 110968 parents makerepparttar 110969 request,repparttar 110970 district must agree to give a full and individual evaluation. Ifrepparttar 110971 request is made from someone else, such as a teacher, a team of educators and an administrator will meet to reviewrepparttar 110972 reasons and decide whether to pursue testing. No matter who makesrepparttar 110973 request, you asrepparttar 110974 parent, must give written permission for this testing to be done. At this point, you will be informed of your rights and those of your child.

Ifrepparttar 110975 district decides not to test, then it must let you know that and inform you of your rights. You can continue to pursuerepparttar 110976 option through a due process hearing if you wish.

2)Results ofrepparttar 110977 testing

You haverepparttar 110978 right to be notified ofrepparttar 110979 results ofrepparttar 110980 testing beforerepparttar 110981 meeting. If you don't understand what is being said inrepparttar 110982 report, you haverepparttar 110983 right to have someone explainrepparttar 110984 results to you.

Whenrepparttar 110985 testing is done, you will meet withrepparttar 110986 team of professionals to be told ofrepparttar 110987 results. If your child is found to have a learning disability, and you agree that he should receive special education services, then you must give written permission for this to happen.

If he is not found to have a learning disability, you and his teachers will still have valuable information about him andrepparttar 110988 ways he learns best.

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