When students are falling behind in their regular class work and/or are in need of extra help, often assessments are needed to further understand the child. It is important to pin point how to help child struggling at school. By finding out their needs, strengths and weaknesses, so that they can achieve their true potential. Adaptations of instruction may be necessary for accommodating the learner’s abilities, styles, and deficits.
How to Help Child Struggling at School: Pin Point the Problem
1. The first step that should be taken after suspicions that the student needs help is vision and hearing tests. These tests can often help the student and rule out further investigations.
2. If these tests find nothing, then the next step is to do a learning disabilities evaluation. There are a wide variety of tests that can be used, the most common being “discrepancy model.” It is given and funded by the school district and can be provided at any time due to parental request. The “discrepancy model” includes a psychological test given by a licensed psychologist, normally an IQ test, and an educational test given by a school psychologist or trained professional, normally an academic achievements test. If there is an inconsistency in the results of the two tests, usually if the student tests well on the IQ and poor on the academic portion, they may have a learning disability.