Kids with learning disabilities are ABLE to learn!
If you take the three steps below, you can help your child to learn and become a better learner. You can help turn your child’s school story into a success story.
One thing that is required for a learning disability diagnosis : a child must have a low normal, normal, or above normal IQ. In other words, your child must be able to learn as part of a learning disabilities diagnosis.
I’m an Instructional Designer, Homeschooling Mom, and Educational Success Story Coach. And I’d like to share with you the NUMBER ONE thing you can do to help your child learn:
Discover Your Child’s Learning NEEDS In These Three Ways:
These three things combined, are the #1 action for solving your child’s learning problems.
1) Determine Your Child’s Learning Style(s)
You need to know how your child learns easiest, which is also called a “learning style.” Knowing your child’s learning style helps you know how to best teach your child.
There are several learning styles models which can be used to in different ways, depending on how your child learns. Learning styles are based on the five senses, the environment, personal strengths, or other things.
You can learn more about Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, the Dunn & Dunn Learning Styles, and VAKT (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic/Tactile) learning styles. Each of these learning styles models can provide great information about how your child will learn best.
2) Obtain a Comprehensive Neuropsychological Evaluation to Identify Neurological Deficits
You can figure out your child’s learning styles yourself. However, if your child has specific learning disabilities, then he also has some neurological difficulties. If you identify the exact problem areas, you can work on strengthening those areas. You really need to know what the problems are before you can build a good program for your child.
For example, your child may have a problems with his working memory. There are brain training programs you can use to strengthen working memory. If you haven’t had an evaluation, you won’t know if your child has a working memory issue.
Neurological deficits that can significantly affect your child’s learning. Some of them include a slow processing speed, visual-perceptual deficits, auditory processing disorder, executive function deficits, etc.
The main point is: you won’t know what is causing problems your child has without a thorough evaluation.
If you have a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation, then you will also learn about your child’s learning strengths. The report should tell you which ways of learning are strengths for your child.
3) Use the Comprehensive Evaluation to Identify Your Child’s Learning Strengths
Once you’ve had a comprehensive evaluation, go through your report to identify all of your child’s learning strengths. When you have found all of your child’s learning strengths, match them with your child’s learning style. Then pick and use specific programs that match your child’s learning needs and style.
Teaching towards your child’s strengths and learning style will help your child remember more of what he is taught. If your child remembers MORE, then that usually means better learning progress.
Learning Progress begins with KNOWING Your Child’s learning profile.
If you KNOW, without guessing, what your child’s learning style is and his/her learning strengths, you can use those to teach your child both academic skills and informational content.
Using your child’s strengths when teaching reading, writing, and math can make a HUGE difference in whether your child makes progress or not.
Another HUGE KEY is NOT to ignore your child’s neurological problems. You can use brain training programs, as well as memory and speed-based games. There are a number of ways to help strengthen the areas in which your child’s processing is weak. Many schools and people totally ignore these critical neurological processes. However, these are a foundation to learning.
We have to STOP thinking of evaluations as a way to “label” a child. We need to START thinking of evaluations as THE key to understanding a child’s learning needs and strengths. It is a quicker way to find out how to help your child along the path to learning success!
When you arm yourself with information from an evaluation, you can start to build a better program for your child. You can build a learning program that will truly work! Whether you do it yourself, or inspire your child’s school, you can help your child to learn!
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