If your child or a pupil in your class is not keeping up with the curriculum then it is important for you to know why this is happening.

I have spent over thirty years analysing people with learning problems and developing individual programs for them.

And the most important fact I have learnt in these thirty years is that every child and every adult can learn easily and well as long the teaching is right for that adult or child.

Finding out why the pupil or student has learning difficulties is the first step to improving his/her learning.

Labels
When I was young and failing at school because (It was discovered much later) I was dyslexic, none of my teachers had ever heard of “Specific Learning Difficulties”. When I was finally told that I might be dyslexic I had to look the word up in a dictionary.

Gradually the word “dyslexia” became a common one, and during the time I have been teaching and assessing children many, many more labels have been introduced. Now teachers are confused because they do not know what all these labels mean.

Parents, of course, are even more confused. They expect that, when they pay a lot of money to have their child assessed, that they will be told what to do to help their child. But usually they are not. I get parent after parent coming to me with a folder full of assessments, that they do not understand, wanting to know how they can help their kid.

A good assessment should…
Tell you how the child learns and why s/he is failing. It should also point you in the right direction so that you and the teacher learn how to help the child.

I do not see the point in having the child assessed otherwise.

A bad assessment...
Gives a child a label that makes him/her feel bad or different from other kids and does nothing to sort out the kids problems. It can become a ghost that haunts them for the rest of their lives.

Specific or Global Learning Difficulties

All learning difficulties fall into two categories.
1. Global Learning Difficulties (or Disabilities)
2. Specific Learning Difficulties (or Disabilities or Differences)

Global learning Difficulties

If your child or pupil has global learning problems then s/he finds all aspects of learning and understanding difficult regardless of how s/he is taught. S/he may be a lovely child but s/he never comes across as being bright. These children used to be called “slow learners”. If such a child had been given a WISC Test or other IQ test the scores would all be very low.

Specific Leaning Difficulties

A pupil with specific learning difficulties is bright and of at least average intelligence but still has trouble with learning. If a battery of tests were given to such a pupil s/he would score average to high on some of them and low on others. These are the pupils that far too often get forgotten about or misunderstood. These are the pupils that need very careful assessment. These are the pupils that need to be taught differently from the norm and it is very important that the teacher understands how these kids learn and teaches them appropriately.

What’s in a name?
Is it important that we give the correct label to these kids? It is if that label tells us how to teach the kid, otherwise the labels pointless. For example “dyslexia” is a label that, if used correctly, tells us how that pupil thinks and learns. “Dysgraphia” is a label that merely tells us that the kid has trouble with writing. It does not tell us why so we do not learn how to help the kid. It’s also nice if the kid knows s/he’s got some reason for doing badly at school.

Understanding the label
However if you are intending to give a kid, or an adult, a label then it is imperative that s/he understands what that label means and that it makes him/her special in some way. Otherwise the kid may well think that the label is just another word for “stupid”.

Never assess a child or adult or give them a label without fully explaining what it means and why it makes that person special. Do not let a person leave your office or assessment room until you are completely sure that s/he feels good about being given the label.

Special
In thirty years of teaching and assessing people I have never come across a child or adult who is not good or special at something.
Dyslexic and autistic people especially are gifted at many things. These gifts should be cherished and nurtured and not forgotten about in the mad scramble to catch the pupil up literacy or numeracy.