Malibu Learning Disabilities

Malibu Learning Disabilities

MALIBU, CA – When bright children struggle in school, the usual cause is some form of learning disabilities.  The cause of Learning Disabilities can be summed up as missing or inefficient skills.

There are REAL and permanent solutions, even in Malibu, but they aren’t always easy for parents to find.

What does it look like?

Time – Most schoolwork seems to take more time than it does for other students… often MUCH longer.  That means that assignments not completed in school get sent home.  And what may take other students 15 minutes could take 2 or 3 hours to complete, and ONLY if a parent is sitting with them.  LONG hours struggling with homework is a typical sign of a learning disability.  Tears and frustration go hand in hand with this life.

Feeling Not Very Bright – Parents of students with learning disabilities usually go through a process where they first believe that the student may not be very smart.  Next, they start to realize that the student is really intelligent and might just be lazy.  Finally, the realization comes that the “picture” just doesn’t make sense.  When the student tries, he still just doesn’t “get it.”  In this case, effort does NOT mean success.

The tragedy is that kids start to think of themselves as not very smart.

By definition, learning disabilities happen in people with an average to above average IQ

Parents begin to look for help…and get frustrated – Schools and traditional tutoring don’t solve learning disabilities.  As parents work their way through the “system” they eventually find that the answers they seek don’t seem to be available…no matter how much time or money they invest.  It can really “eat” at a parent’s heart.

If you feel the burden, discouraged, or now helpless in supporting your child, you are not alone.

In Malibu, about one in three students have some sort of learning difficulty that causes them to feel overwhelmed with school.  Going to school is not an option for students.  Every day they are forced to live in a world where their success is limited or non-existent.

Here are some other characteristics of students with learning disabilities:

• Needs constant help doing homework
• Can’t pay attention very long in class
• Easily distracted
• Reads slowly or with poor comprehension
• Skips or misses the long hard words
• Spells badly
• Writing is slow and painful
• Can’t “get “math concepts
• Can’t remember math facts
• Has poor handwriting
• Doesn’t understand instructions
• Doesn’t seem to know what’s going on
• Moves too fast
• Has a poor memory
• Can’t work independently for very long
• Doesn’t hand in assignments

Getting it Fixed – There are dozens of small, “underlying” skills that simply need to be trained.  These aren’t habits kids can just pick up on or be disciplined into.  These are brain-based skills that develop naturally in 70% of the population, but don’t fully form in 30%.  With specialized techniques and programs, these skills can be taught so that all students of average or above IQ can function as easily as the rest of the class.

Tutoring won’t fix it.  Schools don’t do this kind of work.

But there are a few places that can build all the skills a student needs, and one of them is in Malibu.

For more details, visit Malibu Learning Center.