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Learning to Learn Differently
Helping Your LD Child to Excel
By Ruth Brister
Screening tests are brief and provide a general look at the student's skills or behavior. They determine if more testing in a certain area is necessary. Diagnostic tests are longer and provide more detailed information such as intelligence, reading or behavior problems. More specifically, they determine how well your child performs, where they have the most difficulty and what support is needed.
Achievement tests measure basic academic skills and contain such information acquired through schooling.
Behavior inventory tests comprise a checklist completed by the child about his or her own feelings or by a parent who has observed the child's behavior.
If your child is diagnosed with an LD, don't blame him – or yourself. "It is essential that both parent and child realize that figuring out how kids learn is not a perfect science," Severe says. "Each child learns and processes information in a different manner."
Many times a child with learning disabilities is actually of higher intelligence than a child without an LD is. Severe, dyslexic himself, knows firsthand. "Your intelligence is one thing," he says. "Your disability is another."
"LD is a life-long diagnosis that does not necessarily mean that one will have an 'inability,'" says Imy Wax, parent of two children with learning disabilities and a psychotherapist and educational consultant. "The diagnosis is simply a way of understanding how to ... give direction and stimulation in the area that is strong."
When Edwina Lewis' children were diagnosed with LD more than 20 years ago, parents and children had few resources to guide them. Lewis followed her heart then, and modern research supports her decision. Lots of one-on-one time is crucial for children with learning disabilities, she says.
