Could My Child Have a Learning Disability?Written by Sandy Gauvin
Before my daughter, Michele, began attending school, a lady that was babysitting her noticed things she did (or didn’t do) that weren’t developmentally quite right.We were fortunate in that babysitter had had training in early childhood education, and she would work with Michele and her son to help them develop appropriate pre-school skills. She became concerned that Michele struggled with learning her alphabet and her numbers. Her small motor skills - things like using scissors and coloring - weren’t up to par. She would overreact to many situations, and she didn’t understand jokes because she didn’t understand words with different meanings. We weren’t surprised when she was recommended in first grade to be evaluated for a learning disability. I have taught hundreds of children with learning disabilities, and all of them had different combinations of signs. Some of younger children just couldn’t remember what sound(s) each letter or combination of letters made. Some couldn’t figure out what certain numbers added up to, or they couldn’t remember their subtraction, multiplication, or division facts, even though they tried and tried to memorize them. Many of kids, both younger and older, like Michele, could read words on a page very well, but they had difficulty understanding what they read. Then there were others who had to have help reading words, but once they read them, they had no trouble understanding. There were some who were great readers and writers, but they had an awful time with math. And there were some who could do math better than I could, but they had a terrible time with reading.
| | Understanding Why Your Child Has Been Recommended for TestingWritten by Sandy Gauvin
You have just received a call from your child’s teacher explaining that she has noticed your child having difficulty in school. Your child is not understanding math or reading way other children do. So she would like your permission to proceed with testing to find out if he has a learning disability.When this happens, it is always a good idea to meet with teacher in person. Being proactive is extremely important to your child’s educational future. Arrange to sit down and talk with teacher to discover specifically why she has recommended this. You may want to include special education teacher as well, as she may be able to further clarify just what they are seeing that is causing them to question your child’s abilities. One thing you have to understand is that just because a learning disability is questioned, that does not mean that your child isn’t smart. It just means that, for some reason, he’s either not able to access those smarts and is not “getting” what is being taught. Or, he may be having difficulty expressing what he has actually learned. One indication that there is a problem might be that child gets very good grades in math, but his reading is below average. He is not reading at same level that most of other students of his age are reading at. There is a big difference between his learning in math and his learning in reading. If he is old enough, there may be standardized test scores that also show that huge difference, and teacher should be able to show you that information.
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