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Concerned Learning

Every child, whether they have inherited generous intellectual skills or more modest ones, will face challenges in learning that concern their parents at one time or another. These can range from huge concerns like a child’s inability to learn to read, to a nagging concern about a child who studies for too long under the pressure of scoring well on the SAT. Often, the perception about school performance by the child and his family dictates whether concerns emerge into full-blown crises.

In some families a report card with B’s is cause for celebration while in other families it is a catastrophe. Family expectations and student ability matched with unfulfilled potential, the identification of learning styles and learning barriers are among the factors that should be weighed when parents are concerned about learning. Understanding these factors can help parents support and foster their child’s success at school. Partnering with the teacher is just as key as becoming a student of your child’s learning style and unique path to becoming their own personal best.

Sometimes a struggling learner can access special education services. Professionals would argue exactly where on the continuum a learning problem ends and a “learning disability” (LD) begins. State guidelines for the provision of special education services for LD students require a discrepancy between IQ scores and one or more academic score(s) as well as the identification of a processing disorder that takes the child out of the teaching range of the classroom. But what happens to a child who falls just short of these criteria?

For this reason, it is important to think about struggling learners in a broad and more inclusive context, some who have a formal LD diagnosis and others who have a very real learning problem without a label.

What are the signs that a student is having trouble in school? Teacher feedback is often the first indicator of a learning problem. Teachers see many students the same age each school year and can provide important information about your child’s school performance relative to other students in the same grade. Be aware that all children develop academic skills similar to the way that they develop physically: according to their own timeline. For this reason, one should not rush to judgment when a child stumbles but instead should look for reoccurring patterns of difficulty that seem to persist despite reasonable interventions. If a child seems to dislike school that may be another indication that something is wrong. Often this is related to a child noticing that they are having an inordinate struggle to accomplish what their classmates seem to do much more easily.

Factors for learning problems range from being developmentally unready to learn certain tasks, i.e. being young for their grade or on a slower developmental track to being bored by school because they are ready to learn more challenging tasks. Sometimes specific processing disorders interfere with learning, such as the role that auditory processing deficits play in the process of learning to read. Other times social or emotional factors interfere with learning and school success.

At the Children’s Health Council we have learned over the years that in many cases it is a unique combination of these factors, all of which need to be understood and prioritized when intervening effectively and efficiently. For example working on a problem with mathematics by practicing more long division problems will not be helpful to a child whose poor math performance is actually rooted in an attention problem. Obtaining a clear and precise picture of your child when this occurs is essential. Interdisciplinary team assessments bring experts together to put the pieces of the puzzle together when patterns of learning problems have persisted and puzzled the adults who care about the child. Ironically, this is not the most important thing that must happen however.

Implementing a change, based on a more precisely understood learning profile is the only way to truly help a child who is struggling. CHC’s clinicians help to guide this process through their own therapeutic intervention but also through working with parents and the school to make these changes a reality for the child’s total environment. Best practices are shared so that a school will be able to implement only those things that are know to work best given a particular challenge.

For example, for years many children with poor handwriting were required to master manuscript letters before moving on to cursive. We now know that some children will never be skilled at forming manuscript letters and that cursive and/or word processing skills should be accelerated in the curriculum immediately for this reason.

Parents are the best advocates for their child. This often means that they are much more invisible rather than working directly with their child, particularly as children move into the middle and high school years. Communicating who their child is as a learner to the school and then helping the student articulate what they need as a learner are part of the path to success in school. Drill and practice of rote learning such as multiplication tables or the state capitols is a great role for parents because teachers do not have time for this during the school day. Also creating an organized office for their child at home that includes sharpened pencils, post it notes and fresh paper supply provides a clear message about the importance of schoolwork in your family. It also provides a model of how to “set yourself up for success” when a youngster may not yet be able to do this for himself.

Teachers play a key role in the learning process and most are extremely dedicated and hard working professionals. Some may not fully understand what lies beneath the overt behaviors they see in their classrooms. In The Myth of Laziness, Dr. Mel Levine postulates that no child wants to fail nor are they inherently lazy. Accomplishment is a more natural tendency but often becomes compromised when underlying learning challenges interfere with success. Dr. Levine’ Schools Attuned program has eight training sites around the country. CHC is the Northern California training site for this leading professional development program for educators. It provides in depth training for teachers in understanding a student’s learning profiles and in implementing a learning management plan uniquely for challenged learners. Most importantly it fosters an approach to learning that reaches out to misunderstood children.

This article originally printed in New Futures Winter 2003/2004.Early identification of learning disabilities is important in helping your child to succeed academically, as well as socially. Share your concerns with your child’s teachers and others who participate in your child’s education. And remember that not all children who are slow to develop skills have a learning disability. As a parent, it is important to learn as much as you can so that you can make the right decisions for your child’s success.