What’s the Best Curriculum for ADHD? Dyslexia? Learning Disabilities
Today’s frequently asked question: “What’s the best curriculum for ADHD?” Dyslexia? Aspergers?
Truthfully, there isn’t a single, one-size-fits-all best curriculum for kids with ADHD, or dyslexia, or other learning disabilities. Kids with ADHD vary widely in their learning styles and cognitive needs. Thus, determining the Best Curriculum for ADHD, dyslexia, or other difficulties on behalf of your child is not as easy as it may seem on the surface.
However, there is a method you can use that works better than guessing or simply using what works for other people’s kids. Generally speaking, kids with ADHD tend to be hands-on and visual learners who learn from pictures or diagrams. Kids with dyslexia and other learning disabilities are often visual and hands-on learners too!
Kids with learning disabilities are typically not auditory (verbal) learners. If they were, they’d be more successful in a school classroom, since most classroom teaching is done through words–reading, writing, and talking. This is a generality to know about teaching and learning, but it’s also important to know an individual child can have any learning style.
As general options for programs, I have audio-visual curricula and programs listed at: Best Homeschool Curriculum for ADHD and Dyslexia. Those programs tend to be great for kids who love doing their school work on computers or through learning DVDs.
How to choose the best curriculum for ADHD, dyslexia, and Learning Disabilities:
Creating excellent learning progress for your child requires instruction based on your child’s individually preferred learning style. You also need to look at your child’s cognitive and learning strengths to determine how they learn the easiest.
Additionally, considering your child’s cognitive and learning weaknesses as ways to avoid teaching your child is important because their weaknesses make learning harder for them. You don’t want to pick a program that is taught in a way that your child doesn’t learn well, because that’ll make everything more difficult for both teaching and learning!
Once you understood your child’s learning styles and strengths, you can select best curriculum for ADHD or dyslexia to meet your child’s individual needs. Picking curricula this way is your best bet for helping your child make awesome academic progress.
As an example, let’s say your child has a strong visual memory and visual processing that functions well. Let’s say he also has a visual learning style. Your child loves looking at pictures, photographs, drawing, watching videos, etc. If this describes your child’s preferences, then using image-rich learning programs will be the best way to teach your child. If you choose to use lots of printed materials without pictures, just words, your child will struggle more to learn.
SO, First, figure out your child’s learning style. If you have evaluation results, look over them closely to see what learning strengths and abilities your child has. Then pick programs to match your child’s best learning paths. If you take the time to figure this out and pick best curriculum for ADHD or dyslexia, it will virtually always improve a child’s learning. You can find information on learning styles in our “Learning Styles” section if you need help figuring out the ways your child learns easiest.
If you want a step-by-step guide to picking best curriculum for ADHD or dyslexia, which includes programs listed with the types of learning styles they fit, consider buying the Which Curriculum Should I Use? guide in our SHOP. By going through this curriculum selection Decision Guide page-by-page, you will be guided through considering all of the needed aspects of your child’s learning program. Even without a comprehensive evaluation, this is a way to do a great job with picking the best curriculum for ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities.
How to get the information you need to pick the best curriculum:
I often tell parents that a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation is the only reliable way to know what your child needs. The evaluation data can help you pick the best curriculum for ADHD, dyslexia, or any other learning disability your child has. You could make educated guesses on behalf of your child, but guessing often misses some of the specific needs of a child. While guesses are often “good enough” to provide better progress, your child’s learning won’t be at it’s best.
So, if you want to teach your child with the least effort and the fewest hurdles to learning, then do all you can to pick the best curriculum for ADHD, dyslexia, etc., right from the beginning! When teaching and learning are made easier through the best-matched programs, EVERYONE is happier in the household!
Helping your child make excellent learning progress requires knowing what forms of cognitive enhancement your child needs too. For example, he may need memory, processing speed, perception, etc. work to improve his learning ability. Identifying needed therapies (PT, OT, SLP, Vision Therapy, etc.) can help a lot too. This is required because if your child has issues with memory, processing speed, perception, etc. then that affects ALL other areas of learning. With brain research, it’s proven that brain plasticity allows for improvement and growth in a person’s abilities when their needs are addressed early. There are brain-training programs that can help with these difficulties.
You also need to know which core academic skills need work for mastery and fluency. Being able to meet specific academic needs like reading decoding, spelling, math computation, handwriting, etc., helps a child be more successful in all of their future schooling. Working to improve each area of learning difficulty will help your child with overall learning progress and will help your child be more successful in life.
When programs are put into place to address ALL cognitive deficits, core academic skill needs, therapy needs, etc., then your child will make the best possible learning progress. With everything needed in place, you will definitely have the BEST curriculum for ADHD, dyslexia, or whatever learning disabilities your child wrestles with!
So, answering the question, “What’s the Best Curriculum for ADHD? Dyslexia? Aspergers?” in an incoming email is all but impossible for me (or anyone) to answer. But that doesn’t mean it’s an unanswerable question… It just requires knowing your child, researching their needs, and then seeking to meet your child’s needs the best way you can!
Knowing your child’s learning style and having comprehensive evaluation data to work from is the most reliable way to determine “What’s the Best Curriculum for ADHD?.. Dyslexia?.. Aspergers?” for YOUR child. And you’re on the right track by being here researching and figuring things out. So, GREAT JOB in pursuing what your child needs!!
