The Frustrated Learner

The Frustration Profile article on my blog, which is about students with high verbal skills and weak motor skills, has gotten more hits and comments than any other blog article I have written.  What I’m realizing is that all students … Continued

Excellent Reading Comprehension, But Slow Reading Rate

Alex* has strong verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning skills. Her excellent reading and comprehension skills make her a strong reader. So, why does she hate reading? Reading is a struggle for Alex due to her slow reading rate. Reading fluency … Continued

Learning and Stress Can Be Related

Stress is a major factor for many students these days. Students who have a learning disability have to work harder than their typical learning peers just to keep up in the classroom. When a child has to struggle to pay … Continued

The Frustration Profile: Strong Verbal Skills with Slow Processing Speed

Glen* is a third grader who was brought to testing to determine the best teaching style for him.  Testing revealed that Glen’s overall intelligence and academic skills were in the Average range. However, great variability exists within the tests. Glen … Continued

How does processing speed affect learning?

Processing Speed What most parents ask me is,” What does this mean for my child? Why is this important?” There is now an overload of information given out. Definitions and diagnoses are easy to find, the hard part is figuring … Continued

The connection between vision and learning problems

A parent emailed with this question: “George has had  many eye exams,but his reading skills are still poor. I really want to find someone who is good at sorting out how much of his learning issues are vision related and how … Continued

How do Visual Skills affect Reading?

Many parents ask me what they can do at home to help their child with reading skills. Schools have been stressing phonic skills (rightly so), but little is done to strengthen visual processing skills. Reading, writing and math all require … Continued

5 Tips for Fast Math

1. Make sure your child understands the concept Use Manipulatives ( beans, blocks, pennies) to help build the problems Use manipulative to solve the problems Solve the problem without manipulative 2. Do a pretest and see what your child already … Continued