Have you ever wondered how your child can be so funny, creative, and smart, but still struggle with school? If so, you’re not alone.
Many parents run the gamut of emotions when helping their child through three hours of homework. Is the school giving them too much? Is their child just disorganized? Are they tired from being overscheduled?
Before you go marching into the principal’s office or quit every after-school activity, find out what is likely the cause of your smart student’s school struggles and what you can do about it.
Defining learning disabilities
A learning disability (although I prefer to refer to it as a “difficulty”) affects the way children of average to above average intelligence receive, process, or express information. It impacts their ability to learn the basic skills like reading, writing or math.
According to the Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities (CCLD), a coalition of national organizations within the learning disabilities community, a learning disability is “a neurobiological disorder in which a person’s brain works or is structured differently.”
Academically, a learning disability is measured by standardized tests, with the child scoring substantially below expectations for their age, intelligence and education.
Learning disabilities are not the same as mental retardation, autism, hearing or visual impairment, physical disabilities, emotional disorders, or the normal process of learning a second language.
They also aren’t caused by lack of educational opportunities, such as frequent changes of schools, poor school attendance, or lack of instruction in basic skills.
The most common learning disabilities are difficulty with basic reading and language skills. Signs your child may have a learning disability Sometimes, learning disabilities are blamed on lack of motivation, immaturity or behavior problems. But if your child has significant ongoing problems with the basic skills like reading, writing and arithmetic, then he or she may have a learning disability.
Here are some of the things a parent or teacher may observe that indicate a learning struggle:
difficulty recalling facts and details
taking excessively long to complete homework or tests
easily distracted
difficulty doing two things at once
frequently asking to have things repeated
difficulty with reading comprehension
Of course, this is a general list to cover multiple ages and grade levels. Children just learning to read, for example, will have different indicators than teens who have been reading (or struggling to read) for years. The root of most learning struggles
The majority of learning problems have weak cognitive skills at their root. These brain skills include visual processing, attention, processing speed, logic and reasoning, memory and auditory processing.
In the case of ADHD, for example, attention is the weakest link preventing learning from being fast and easy, although other skills make be weak as well.
For struggling readers, weak phonemic awareness is usually the root of the problem.
IQ vs. LDs
Did you know that Albert Einstein had ADHD? Or that Thomas Edison had dyslexia? Because IQ is simply a measure of cognitive abilities, it’s easy to see how a very smart child could still have a learning disability. Just imagine a child whose cognitive skills are all very strong, except one.A bright child who struggles with selective attention, that is, the ability to remain focused on a task while being subjected to distractions. Or a brilliant teen whose memory skills are so weak that he can’t remember what his homework assignments are.
It’s not only possible — but even common — for intelligent children to have a learning disability.
Why doesn’t tutoring work?
When a child struggles in school, many parents turn to tutoring, only to find it doesn’t work.Why? Tutoring only teaches temporary academic material; it’s rehashing information. Tutoring can be effective for a child who missed a lot of school due to an illness, injury or family move. But because tutoring teaches WHAT you should learn, not HOW you should learn, it doesn’t address underlying learning struggles.
So what works?
Learning disabilities are rooted in weak cognitive skills, so the best way to address the learning struggles is with cognitive skills training.
Also known as “brain training,” cognitive skills training gives children the tools necessary for further learning to become easy.
The first step is a noninvasive assessment test that identifies which cognitive skills are weakest. Once those skills are identified, a one-on-one brain training program is customized to address the student’s specific needs. Learning amy subject becomes easier, faster, and more efficient.
The results of personal brain training are permanent, as well as measurable, using the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities & Tests of Achievement, the most comprehensive and widely recognized brain skills, achievement, and reading skills measurement instruments in use today.
Personal brain training helps address cognitive deficits for anyone: children, teens, adults, seniors, and even people who have experienced a loss of brain skills due to illness or injury.
Now that you know why your smart child is struggling in school, show them how smart YOU are by setting up an initial cognitive skills assessment.This is one instance where WHAT you learn is as important as how!
Michael Ginsberg is the executive director and owner of Learning Rx Brain Training Centers in Marlboro and Red Bank. For more information or for a complete evaluation of your child’s cognitive evealuation of our childrens congnitive learning abilities, call The LearningRx at 732-444-8579.