Psychology has come a long way in diagnosing learning disabilities. In the past parents were only told that their child was a �slow learner� when they had difficulty learning and were sometimes only offered a few suggestions for helping their child. Today we are fortunate enough to more advanced in our identification, diagnosis and treatment of learning disabilities.
1. First discuss your concerns with your child�s teachers. Find out if they have been noticing learning difficulties in your child.
2. Consider having your child referred to the school psychologist for a specific learning disability evaluation.
3. Gather as many of your child�s school records as possible. Results from state administered standardized tests will already be in your child�s student cumulative file. However gather your copies of any report cards, and weekly progress reports.
4. During the psycho-educational evaluation, your child�s intelligence and achievement levels may be evaluated. Further testing may be necessary depending on the outcome of these tests.
5. You and your child�s teacher(s) may be required to complete behavioral checklists. These behavioral checklists will assist the psychologist in determining whether or not behavioral problems are a contributing factor in your child�s learning problems.
6. The psychologist may also conduct clinical interviews with you and the teacher to gather additional background information.
7. Schedule a face-to-face meeting with the psychologist to review in detail the results of the evaluation.
8. Don�t shy away from asking questions before, during, and after the evaluation.
9. Discuss implications of the results with both the psychologist and your child�s teacher(s).
10. Educate yourself about exceptional student education, learning disabilities, and your child�s legal rights.
About the Author:
Felecia D. Sheffield, PhD, is an author, trainer, international speaker and
life coach. Dr. Sheffield has over 15 years of experience providing services to parents, schools, colleges, universities, and social services agencies. For addtional parenting articles, ADHD, LD and college resources visit psychcore.com psychcore.com
Copyright �2004-2007, Felecia D. Sheffield. PhD. All Rights Reserved Worldwide in all Media. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article in your ezine, newsletter, newspaper, magazine, website, etc. as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, leave my name and bio box intact, and you follow all of the EzineArticles Terms of Service for Publishers.