PT Conferences: Red Flags

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Deciphering Common “Red Flag” Phrases

                With today’s parents and teachers stretched for time, it’s sometimes difficult to determine if a child’s classroom struggles are just a normal part of the learning process or an indicator of a deeper issue.  Imagine being a teacher trying
to read the signals of 30 fourth graders – some struggling, some excelling, and some falling right in the middle but dealing with typical developmental, social or behavioral issues.  Or being a working mom with a deployed husband and three school age kids.  Deciphering kids’ school performance isn’t always a simple task!

                In most cases, what’s holding your child back has nothing to do with laziness, the teacher or your child not being smart.  In most cases, learning struggles are about weak brain skills.

 

                Cognitive skills are the underlying mental tools that make up IQ and include skills like logic & reasoning, attention, memory processing speed, and auditory and visual processing.  If one or more of these skills are weak, reading and learning can be difficult.  And if weak brain skills are the underlying cause of problems in school, no amount of tutoring will help.  That’s because tutoring is about reteaching subject matter, like history facts.  Cognitive skills training, on the other hand, addresses the root cause of learning struggles.

 

                So as you head into parent-teacher conferences (or any time you talk to your child’s teacher), listen for these red flag phrases and read the “translation” of what they could mean.

 

                EXAMPLE #1

IF THE TEACHER SAYS:  “I know he’s capable, but. . . .”

• His work doesn’t show it.
• It’s just not coming out.
• He makes little mistakes.

IT COULD MEAN:  Several cognitive skills are very strong, while others are deficient and causing a bottleneck of information in the brain.  For example, he may have strong logic & reasoning, visual processing, and processing speed, but weak attention or working memory skills.

 

For parents and teachers, this is a common but none-the-less frustrating  situation; a smart child whose work and grades aren’t a reflection of their capabilities.  Imagine a child who has the brain skills to do advanced calculus if only their sustained attention wasn’t so weak that they can’t stay on task.  A detailed cognitive skills assessment will tell parents which brain skills need to be strengthened to let a brilliant child or teen reach his full potential.

 

EXAMPLE #2

IF THE TEACHER SAYS:  “He’s below grade level in reading.”

IT COULD MEAN:  He’s got weak phonemic awareness kills.  Although reading struggles can also be caused or compounded by deficiencies in visual processing, attention, processing speed, and memory, studies show 88% of all learning-to-read problems are caused by weak phonemic awareness skills.

 

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, blend, unglue and manipulate the smallest sounds in a word.  If your child continues to struggle in reading, it’s not going away on its own, and it will eventually lead to problems in other subjects too.  That’s why it’s important to address the learning skills weaknesses early.

 

EXAMPLE #3

IF THE TEACHER SAYS:  “He takes a long time to….”

• Finish schoolwork.
• Answer questions.
• Follow directions.

IT COULD MEAN:  A child who takes a long time to follow directions isn’t necessarily being defiant, they could have slow processing speed.  Likewise, taking a long time to answer questions or finish schoolwork doesn’t mean they won’t get to the answer eventually – it may just take awhile.  If they are the last ones to finish a test, if they constantly don’t finish assignments or if it takes hours to complete standard homework loads, more than likely weak cognitive skills are to blame.

 

EXAMPLE #4

IF THE TEACHER SAYS:  “She continues to struggle with . . . “

• Math facts
• Reading comprehension
• Applying math formulas
• Learning sight words

IT COULD MEAN:  Learning new things can sometimes be a struggle for even the brightest kids.  But a child who takes longer than her peers to master grade-level material likely has one or more weak cognitive skills.   For example, a child isn’t born bad at math, and a child is not destined to be bad at math.  Understanding and excelling in math is simply about having strong cognitive skills – like working memory, visual processing, and logic & reasoning.

 

In addition to these red flag phrases, there are specific behaviors that can be strong indicators of weak learning skills.  Take note if any of these are mentioned at the parent-teacher conference:

• Impulsiveness
• An inability to stay on task
• Bouncing from idea to idea or task to task
• Making sloppy mistakes
• Turning in incomplete work
• Not turning in assignments at all
• Disinterest in school
• Forgetfulness
• Hesitation to read aloud
• Poor organizational skills
• Struggling to follow instructions
• General attention issues
• Problems with analogies
• Difficulty comprehending numbers, directions, answers
• Trouble discerning left and right
• Poor ability to use maps
• Avoiding prolonged mental effort
• Spelling problems, including forgetting words after mastering them

 

If you hear any of these red flag phrases at your parent-teacher conference, consider scheduling a cognitive skills assessment.  It’s a noninvasive test to evaluate which brain skills are strongest and which could use some brain training to maximize the child’s academic potential.  Best of all, strong cognitive skills will stay with your child long after they have graduated.  They’ll carry them into their career and throughout life because strengthening connections in the brain is permanent!

 

Bio:

 

Article supplied by Nancy Pim, Owner and Director of LearningRx/West Des Moines & Ankeny  (515-224-4819)

www.learningrx.com/west-des-moines                    www.learingrx.com/ankeny

 

 

Bio:  Prior to becoming involved with LearningRx, I was a public school teacher.  Every year, there were several students in my classroom that struggled to learn the content I was presenting.  Smaller groups, enabling the help of specialized teachers or our local AEA, and enlisting the help of their dedicated parents did little to impact their progress.  I always knew that these students were not struggling because they lacked intelligence, but the reason for their struggles remained a mystery.  After I discovered LearningRx, their struggles made sense and I am excited to be a part of the permanent solution to learning issues.

 

Unlike other academically based programs available,  LearningRx brain training specializes in treating the cause, rather than the symptoms (like difficulty with reading, math, focus and attention, etc.) of learning struggles. The program’s game-like exercises and 1:1 trainer-to-student ratios provide guaranteed dramatic improvement in as little as 12 – 32 weeks.  We can help anyone,  from  5 to 85, increase the speed, power or function of their brain.