Internet Special Education Resources
Special Education & Learning Disabilities Resources: A Nationwide Directory
Truth Revealed: The Reality Behind 5 Learning Legends
-Legend One—
My child will simply outgrow any learning issues.THE TRUTH IS. . . waiting for your child to "grow out of" learning, reading, or attention difficulties is not really an option. Learning struggles rarely go away with time. On the contrary, waiting and hoping a problem will go away without appropriate intervention will only lead to frustration, poor grades, low motivation, and time wasted in school. What should you do? If you sense a struggle, find help now before an undiscovered learning weakness permanently limits your child's potential. If you fear that your child has a learning disability, the first step is to have his or her cognitive skills tested to uncover the source of the struggle and guide you to a training strategy that can make the difference.
—Legend Two—
My child's IQ will always be the same; you can't change it.THE TRUTH IS. . . intelligence is not fixed or unchanging! Potential is the possibility that something can develop or become actual. Obviously your child has the potential to actually improve reading, spelling, comprehension, and change overall intelligence, as science now proves. The "gap" between untapped potential and a child's performance can be closed with the right brain training. If this weren't possible, any efforts aimed at improvement—study, practice, drills—would be meaningless. Tell that to the winner of the school spelling bee, accomplished musician, or star athlete!
—Legend Three—
If my child can sing the ABC song, he should have no problems reading.THE TRUTH IS. . . memorizing the infamous ABC song has virtually nothing to do with learning to read. In fact, it is counterproductive. It's the letter sounds (phonemes) that are important, not the letter names. Learning to read demands that a child be able to recognize individual sounds of speech, blend and segment those sounds correctly, and then associate those sounds with the letter codes or symbols. (See the illustrated explanation on page 7.) Reading and writing force us to use specific mental skills to recognize and divide sounds. This is very different from how we talk. For example, we might ask, "Howuzyorday?" as if it's one word instead of isolated sounds in multiple words. Once individual sounds (phonemes) are blended into full words and phrases, identifying the individual sounds can become extremely difficult. Good auditory processing skills are the key. Once you understand what is really required to learn to read, you can help your child get the right start.
—Legend Four—
Tutoring is the answer for homework struggles.THE TRUTH IS. . . tutoring is simply homework in a different setting, re-teaching what should have been learned the first time! Going over something again and again may have some benefits, but to truly improve learning speed and ability, most people need something more foundational and powerful than tutoring. If all you want is to help your child pass a class or remove the stress of excess homework, then tutoring may be the quick fix you are looking for. But if you desire consistently better learning and lifelong educational success, skills training is the solution. Don't you want to know why your child can't do the school work in the first place? There has to be an underlying issue and no amount of tutoring or extra homework can improve brain performance and get to the root cause of the learning difficulty the way cognitive training does.
—Legend Five—
My child would do better if only he/she had a better teacher.THE TRUTH IS. . . Some teachers have a fun, engaging personality and loads of creativity while others may be more conventional or conservative. Did you know, research shows that the majority of learning problems are not linked directly to instruction style? Even the best teachers can have students who struggle. Instead, the root cause of most learning and reading difficulties (over 80%) are weak underlying cognitive skills. Identifying and retraining these skills to process information effectively are essential steps in overcoming learning struggles. After-school programs, summer school, or other instruction-based approaches may unintentionally overlook or simply accommodate weaknesses.
What can you do?
Uncover the source of what's keeping your child's full potential from being released. Have his or her cognitive skills tested to reveal these "gaps" caused by cognitive weaknesses. The test results will guide you to a powerful training strategy to help your child realize his or her own potential. ___________________________________________________________
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