Work As A Team to Help Your child

If the evaluation shows that your child has a learning disability, your child is eligible for special education services.  If eligible, you will work with a team of professionals, including your child's teacher, to develop an individualized Education Program (IEP).  The IEP is a written document summarizing your child's current educational performance; annual goals and short-term objectives; nature and projected duration of your child's special services; and methods for evaluating progress.

If your child does not qualify for special education, it is still important for you to work with your child's teacher to develop an informal program that meets your child's learning needs.  You are a vital part of your child's education!

Parents and teachers should remember that these children may not pick up the same information from day to day living as others do.  These children have had all the opportunities to learn at home that other children have enjoyed but need more time, and need to be taught in a step-by-step fashion.  Parents can do a great deal to ease the way for such a child from buying loafers or Velcro-fastened shoes to being ever-sensitive to materials and tasks that the child can manage.

What If I See The Signs of a Learning Disability?

Collect information about your child's performance.  Meet with your child's teachers. tutors, and school support personnel to understand performance levels, and attitudes toward school.  Observe your child's ability to study, complete homework and finish tasks that you assign at home.

Have Your Child Evaluated

Ask school authorities to provide a comprehensive educational evaluation including assessment tests.  Tests for learning disabilities are referred to as assessment tests because they evaluate and measure areas of strengths and areas of needs, such as interview, direct observation, reviews of your child's educational and medical history, and conferences with professionals who work with your child.  Either you or the school can request this evaluation, but it is given only with written permission.  Since you are one of the best observers of your child's development, it is important that you be an active participant in the evaluation process.  If you don't understand the test results, ASK QUESTIONS!!

Know You Rights!
Parents need to know how and where to get appropriate information.  Learn about your special education program and services, your rights and responsibilities as a parent of a child with special needs by requesting a summary of legal rights and services from your child's school, district/board.

Common Signs of Learning Disabilities in Adults

Excellent verbal ability, but cannot express thoughts on paper
Mechanical aptitude, but difficulty with reading, writing or spelling
Lacks social skills and has difficulty maintaining relationships or making friends
Learns well when shown, but cannot follow written and/or verbal instructions
Feels constantly anxious, tense, depressed and has a very poor self-concept
Has difficulty organizing belongings, time, activities, or responsibilities

Common Signs of Learning Disabilities in High School Students

Continues to spell incorrectly, frequently spells the same word differently in a single piece of writing, laborious handwriting
Avoids reading and writing tasks
Difficulty with putting thoughts on paper
Trouble summarizing
Trouble with open-ended questions on tests
Weak memorization skills
Difficulty adjusting to new settings
Works slowly
Poor grasp of abstract concepts
Either pays too little attention to details or focuses on them too much
Misreads information/lacks logic, poor reasoning ability
Vulnerable to peer pressure, often the 'scapegoat' in situations
Difficulty organizing and/or concentrating on homework
Rarely relates past events or experiences in sequence or detail

What Are Some Common Signs of LD's in Grades 5-8

• Reverses letter sequences (soiled/solid, left/felt)
• Slow to learn prefixes, suffixes, root words and other spelling strategies
• Avoids reading aloud
• Trouble with word problems
• Difficulty handwriting
• Awkward, fist-like, or tight pencil grip
• Avoids writing compositions
• Slow or poor recall of facts
• Difficulty making friends
• Trouble understanding body language and facial expressions
• Difficulty expressing ideas and relating events in sequence

What Are Some Common Signs of LD's in Grades K-4 Children

Slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds
Confuses basic words (run, eat, want)
Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including letter reversals (b/d), inversion (m/w), transposition (felt/left), and substitutions (house/home)
Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs (+, -, x, /, =)
Slow to remember facts
Slow to learn new skills, relies heavily on memorization
Impulsive, difficulty planning
Unstable pencil grip, poor printing, writing
Trouble learning about the concept of or telling time
Poor coordination, unaware of physical surroundings, prone to accidents
Difficulty cutting with scissors, colouring and printing inside the lines
Cannot tie laces, button clothes, or get dressed
Reads but does not comprehend
Difficulty playing with more then one child at a time, may prefer to play alone
Difficulty remembering the names of things:  the seasons, the months, streets, etc.
Does not understand the difference between 'up and down'; 'top and bottom', 'in and out', 'front of and behind', etc

Common Signs of Learning Disabilities in Preschool Children

• Speaks later than most children and has immature speech patterns
• Slow vocabulary growth, often unable to find the right words, pronunciation problems
• Difficulty rhyming words
• Trouble learning numbers, alphabet, days of the week, colours, shapes
• Extremely restless and easily distracted
• Trouble interacting with peers
• Difficulty following directions or routines
• Difficulty with dressing
• Fine motor skills slow to develop
• Exaggerated response to excitement or frustration
• Tendency to trip, or bump into things
• Cannot skip, has trouble bouncing and catching a ball