Learning Disabilities Help and ADHD Help

Learning Disabilities and Dyslexia

How early can you evaluate visual processing disorders like dyslexia and learning disabilities? My oldest has it and now my kindergartener is showing some of the same traits. When I asked his school to evaluate him, I was told he is too young to evaluate and that “dyslexia doesn’t show up until much later.”

To begin with the word dyslexia just means reading difficulty…the reason for the difficulty can be visual processing or auditory processing problems. That being said, you can see indications of reading problems and learning disabilities as early as K. For example:

• Difficulty rhyming words
• Trouble using a scissors
• Trouble learning the days of the week, colors, & shapes
• And of course letter reversals

Learning Disability Help: What Specialists Look For

Specialists are looking for clusters of problems. However, the policy of schools is to wait and see because often kids start to get it once they are in the 1^st or 2^nd grade. Unfortunately by then your child may be further behind. Reading problems, learning disabilities, and specifically dyslexia often runs in families so if you have a sibling, parent, aunt or uncle that has dyslexia you want to take a look at it sooner rather than later. Early intervention is always best.

Learning Disability Help and ADHD Help

How do you know if your child has ADHD or if they’re struggling due to an environmental situation or when they’ll need professional help?

If you have ADHD you have it in all places – not just in one or two situations. If the ADHD type behaviors are occurring only in certain situations there is a problem with that particular setting, it is NOT ADHD. If your child has the behaviors all of the time you may want to find out more about ADHD. There are a lot of free checklists online that you can tap into. If the checklists confirm then you will want to seek a diagnosis by a professional. And, know that there are a lot of alternatives to dealing with ADHD without medication.

Suspect ADHD? What Can You Do?

Some things you can do to help your child if you suspect ADHD is to

• Break down both school & homework assignments – giving a short break in between focused time.
• Go over the directions of the assignments to be sure they understand the directions
• Doing some deep breathing before doing homework
• Moving from one assignment to another to get more oxygen to the brain as well as put your body into a more relaxed state.