Why Does My Bright Child Struggle?

Are you unhappy with your child’s IEP, but not sure what you can do to improve your child’s goals and progress?Or maybe you’re new to the IEP world and need some guidance on how to advocate for an IEP that serves your child and their educational needs. We want to make parents feel comfortable and confident in an IEP meeting and give them the knowledge needed to advocate appropriately. Below are 5 red flags to look out for in the IEP process and documentation that if addressed, can substantially benefit your child’s special education experience.

So far, we've discussed how visual and auditory processing difficulties can impact a child's life and education. How our brains interpret and perceive what we see and hear heavily impact how we can function in our daily lives let alone a classroom or academic setting. As we've noted already, difficulties with perceiving are characterized in numerous ways and not all children with a learning disability will experience the same struggles. Kinesthetic processing, while some may argue to be less critical to the academic experience, is actually crucial in a child's development, most specifically as it interacts with our visual and auditory systems. Without all three of these perceptual functions working together, a child cannot learn easily and effectively.

In the simplest terms, Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a difficulty in processing sound. Because we learn a great deal by listening to others, problems processing what we hear can have far-reaching and devastating effects. Here are some common auditory processing problems: Auditory Sequencing Some students cannot remember the order in which they hear information. Following verbal directions is often hard for them. They may also have trouble remembering a phone number that someone just told them, or the steps for completing an assignment or math computation. Auditory Discrimination or Sound Awareness To understand what others are saying, one must perceive the subtle differences among word sounds. Many words sound similar. Some examples are: “tab-tap,” “Paul-ball,” “are-our,” “half-have,” “ladder-latter,” and “pin-pen.” For some students, perceiving these subtle differences is hard. This can make learning phonics difficult. Many students with auditory discrimination problems alos mispronounce fairly common words. They don’t process all teh syllables they hear and, as a result, mispronounce them. For instance, “installation” may come out as “instigation.” Verbal Concepts Difficulty understanding abstract ideas can severely limit students’ understanding of what they hear. Some students tend to think concretely. They understand ideas they can see, hear or feel or ideas that have obvious application to daily life. They have trouble, though, making sense of abstract ideas. These students may do well on test questions about factual information, but have trouble with those requiring inferential reasoning or critical thinking. Auditory Memory Some students understand what they hear – they simply can’t remember it. Like visual emory, auditory memory can be short-term or long-term. Some students have poor short-term memory. A short-term memory stores information for a few moments only. For instance, when you hear a phone number, you need to remember it long enough to either write it or dial it. When someone calls out a word spelling, you need to retain it long enough to spell it yourself. Students with weak short-term memories find these routine tasks hard. These students often have trouble with long-term memory because the information doesn’t get registered to begin with. Other students may have good short-term memories, but have trouble storing information long-term. These students may do well on pop quizzes that measure how well one listens in class that day and do poorly on the same information that’s tested two weeks later. Processing Speed Some students understand what they hear if the information is presented at a pace they can keep up with. If they listen to too much information too quickly, however, they lose it. They cannot absorb, connect, and remember condensed information. They need time to process and review information, yet often don’t get to or take this time. Related Language Problems Auditory processing problems can lead to other language related problems. People who misperceive or forget what they hear often have trouble communicating with parents, teachers, friends, and neighbors. They may misinterpret a comment someone made and feel insulted or respond inappropriately. They may have trouble expressing themselves. These students might know the answer to an essay question, but cannot write it in complete, well-phrased and logically organized sentences. These students often say, “I know what I want to say; I just can’t say it,” or “You know what I mean.” They may have difficulty constructing sentences with proper syntax or word order. Their grammar may be incorrect in spite of teachers’ and parents’ patient instruction. Their vocabulary might be weak and they may have experienced delayed speech when they were just learning to walk. Because they miss so much of what they hear, some students with auditory processing problems have limited general knowledge. Their basic understanding of such topics as government, geography, human behavior and science is low. This makes learning new information in class difficult. They have nothing to connect this new information to. Tools: - Take your time. Be purposeful in taking longer pauses between words; make them do the same. - Add additional emphasis. Longer and louder. - Nod when you are done speaking. - Don’t ask, “Do you understand?” They think they do understand. Ask, “What are you going to do next?” - Be careful not to say, “You’re not listening.” - Use listening ears/puppy paws hand gestures for younger ones to draw attention and focus. - Be careful not to over praise. It interferes with processing and rhythm. Instead, compliment. “Did you notice how well you…” What do you do if you think your student does not listen and it interferes with learning and behavior? 1. Get a quality assessment to determine the strength of listening skills, auditory processing skills, auditory memory skills, and other components of listening that very smart kids can have weaknesses in and cause learning to be difficult. 2. See an audiologist to confirm that there is not a hearing loss at some particular frequency level; the hearing tests they do in the doctor’s offices and by the school nurse are not sufficient.

Visual Sequencing Some students have trouble perceiving and/or remembering the correct order in which they see something. For instance, a student learning to spell may write “kicthen” instead of “kitchen.” She remembers most of the letters in the word, but not the order of their arrangement. Another student may understand the teacher as she demonstrates the sequence for a long division problem, yet not remember this sequence long enough to do one independently. Other students may accurately perceive and remember the order of information they see, but at a slower pace than their classmates. They may work well at their own speed, yet make numerous careless errors when they feel rushed. Visual Discrimination and Pattern Recognition Some students have problems perceiving the distinguishing features between two words, shapes or other configurations that look similar. They may have trouble perceiving the differences between such words as “what-want,” “three-the re,” and “on-no.” Learning certain letters can present problems for these students. These letters, for example, look very similar - “b-d-p,” “m-n,” “w-v-y.” Some students have trouble recognizing the common visual patterns found on maps and graphs, such as key maps, the north-south-east-west directions and the configurations of specific countries. As a result, they study the map or graph by moving their eyes over them in a haphazard manner instead of in a planned sequence. They gain little information. Other students have problems recognizing math computations for what they are. In spite of previous exposure to the skill, they fail to recognize an arrangement of math numbers and signs as being a long division problem, so they don’t know how to divide the numbers. Or they fail to recognize another pattern as adding fractions with unlike denominators, even though they just completed ten of those problems for yesterday’s assignment. Visual Tracking To read fluently, students must learn to move their eyes from left to right and from top to bottom. For many math exercises, they must move their eyes from right to left and from top to bottom. Some students have difficulty tracking their work. Their eyes may skip around the page or miss an entire line of text. They might read the first two syllables of a word and miss half of the third syllable. They might skip the next step in a math computation because their eyes lose the visual sequence. Visual Detail Paying attention to such visual details as commas, apostrophes, positive and negative numbers, accent marks and word endings is difficult for some students with visual processing problems. Their eyes don’t seem to lock onto these small symbols that are often tucked between other letters, numbers, and signs. These students may be able to recite their capital and punctuation rules well, but forget to use them when writing. They might know how to solve an algebra problem, yet inadvertently use a positive sign instead of a negative one. Students who have difficulty processing visual details often lose points on tests and homework grades for what appear to be careless errors. These students may translate a sentence in a foreign language correctly, but lose five points because they didn't write the accent marks. On their research paper, they might get a B for their content grade and a D for writing mechanics, because they omitted commas, capitals, and word endings like “ing,” “es,” and “ed.” Visual Concepts Some students have trouble visualizing two and three-dimensional objects. They may understand a geometric theorem about congruent angles, but have difficulty mentally picturing this concept when asked to complete a proof. Students who have trouble picturing objects and angles most often rely solely on their memory of theorems, postulates, and rules to get through geometry. While it's entirely possible to pass geometry this way, it requires more work. Other students may be able to tell you how to get from Point A to Point B, but have difficulty drawing you a map with roads, landmarks, and distances in relative proportion. They can process verbal directions but not visual ones. Visual Memory Some students have trouble remembering certain types of information they see. They may be able to picture a person’s eye color and what they wore a month ago, but cannot picture the looks of words for a spelling test or word spellings when they write paragraphs and essays. This difficulty visualizing words interrupts their thought processes repeatedly because they must stop what they’re doing and spell. Some students cannot picture math facts. With enough practice, most students can mentally picture 7 x 9 = 63. They don’t have to think the fact – they simply recall what their minds see. Whenever they think or hear the fact 7 x 9, they also picture the answer 63. Other students can look at the fact, write it several times, but lose their mental image of it when they look up. They have poor short-term memory for visual symbols like numbers. These students often have trouble copying notes, math problems and sentences from the board. They look up at a math exercise, look down to copy it and forget what they just saw. This forces them to look from the board to the paper many times to copy one item. In spite of their efforts, they may still miscopy the information. Difficulties in visual processing effect they way children learn and perform basic academic skills. These difficulties make learning hard and only proper cognitive intervention can solve these struggles. If you've seen these struggles in your student, fill out an intake form on our website today, and stay tuned next week for ways auditory processing effects learning and how these difficulties manifest in daily life!

Characteristics of Students with Learning Disabilities While most everyone experiences minor learning problems from time to time, students with learning disabilities experience them much of the time, especially during their school years. Depending on how one defines a learning disability, which can vary from state to state, estimates of the prevalence of learning disorders range from 2-10%. About 5% of students in the United States public schools are certified as having a learning disorder. There are some problems students with learning disabilities experience. Because there’s a wide range of variation among this population, no one student may experience all of these difficulties all the time. He or she may experience any combination of them at different times. Difficulty learning basic reading, writing, spelling, math, and/or language skills despite average to superior intelligence Problems pronouncing words Difficulty gripping the pencil and writing neatly Difficulty generalizing information and transferring it from one situation to the next Inflexibility and rigidity Problems learning to tell time Problems managing time Trouble finishing homework and following directions Short attention span Confusion with left and right Clumsiness Impulsivity Distractibility Disorganization Social immaturity Over-reacting, heightened sensitivity Low frustration tolerance The federal government defines a specific learning disability as: …a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brian injury, minimal brian dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include children who have learning problems which are primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor handicaps, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage (DOE, 1995). Part of this means that, in spite of their average to above average intelligence, students with learning disabilities aren’t learning at a rate that's suggested by their intellectual potential. There’s a significant discrepancy between their potential and their actual achievement. These learning problems aren’t due to such factors as a visual or hearing impairment, mental retardation, or emotional problems. For instance, let’s say a student has an intelligence quotient, or I.Q., of 100. Since this is in the average range of intelligence, we expect her to handle grade level work fairly well. What if she doesn’t, though? What if she’s in fifth grade and reading on a third grade level and spelling on a second grade level? If she doesn’t have visual or hearing impairment, or a severe emotion, psychological or environmental problem, why isn’t she performing grade level work? What’s the reason for this discrepancy between her ability and her actual achievement? While no one is completely sure of the exact causes of learning disabilities, we do know that students with learning disabilities have trouble in one or more of these areas – interpreting what they perceive, developing receptive and expressive language, remembering what they learn, and paying attention. Learning disabilities are often called perceptual disabilities. More specifically, a perceptual difficulty is a difficulty in processing what one sees, hears, and/or feels. A student with learning disabilities may have good eyesight, acute hearing, and good use of his muscles; however, his brain doesn’t efficiently process or interpret the information received from his senses. A learning disability can include memory problems. Some people accurately perceive and interpret what they see, hear, or feel, but they don’t remember it. Determining if a student has a memory or perceptual problem can be challenging. Students who don’t accurately perceive and interpret information will obviously have problems remembering it. The information doesn’t make sense to begin with. Some students, however, accurately perceive the information. They might understand most everything their teachers tell them, but they can’t remember it. Memory problems are often specific. Some students can’t easily remember the letters and numbers they read and write, but can easily remember a room design, a person’s eye color, or a location on a map. Learning disabilities range in severity. Some students have mild disabilities where their ability to learn is only slightly impaired. Others have moderate to severe disabilities. These students, without proper treatment and support, can experience significant learning handicaps. We perceive, interpret, and remember information through our five senses – sight, hearing, touch/movement, taste, and smell. The three senses that have the greatest impact on school success are sight, hearing, and touch/movement. Our sight is our visual sense, hearing is our auditory sense, and touch and movement are our kinesthetic sense. To better understand how learning disabilities can interfere with learning, over the next few weeks, we will take a closer look at the problems some students have in perceiving, interpreting, and/or remembering information from their visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities, and how these problems practically impact learning.

J ust like physical exercise, your mind needs some exercise too. Playing sudoku actually exercises your brain extensively. This is why we incorporate these number puzzles into our brain intervention training at Keeping Pace! Sudoku is a logic puzzle played on a 9×9 grid where the goal is to fill in the missing numbers so that each row, each column, and each 3×3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9 exactly once. The puzzle starts with some numbers already filled in, and players use reasoning and logic, rather than guessing, to determine where the remaining numbers belong.

Does your child avoid reading by stalling, taking bathroom breaks, fidgeting, or emotional breakdowns? Do they flip words like “saw/was” or maybe skip small words like “the” and “and” when reading aloud? If so, it's not because they’re lazy or don’t care. These are signs your child is struggling. When a student is struggling with literacy, they often feel like they are constantly failing as others around them succeed. Self-esteem decreases and avoidance or over-focusing becomes the only option available to them. Oftentimes these students develop ADHD-like symptoms due to the difficulty of learning and so teachers easily blame the student’s struggles on attention. The problem is, this fundamentally misses the root of the issue: the inefficiency of learning and more specifically decoding. There are 4 common areas of weakness that impact a student’s ability to learn to decode. Weak phonological skills - phonemic analysis skills that interfere with decoding Rapid naming skills - a processing speed issue Short term visual and/or auditory memory difficulties Visual perceptual weakness These areas of weakness are cognitive in nature and impact a child’s academic skill to decode. Therefore, we must take a cognitive approach when working with schoolwork and homework to target these areas and improve decoding skills. There are 3 activities struggling readers can use to improve these areas of weakness and can be applied to any reading material whether it be schoolwork, a library book, or the back of a cereal box. These are: Echo Tap, Spell Read, and Neurological Impress Read. As a disclaimer , these three procedures alone will not cure a learning disability and should be used to support intervention or classroom/homework material. If your child struggles with reading, please seek intervention now. Progress becomes harder after 3rd grade. Don’t hesitate. These activities are something you can start doing now to set them up for success.