| Does your child have the most important skills and | | | | with the rest of his class. He sacrifices enjoyable |
| tools available to succeed in school this year? As | | | | activities and time with friends and family to work |
| parents, we want our children to have all the | | | | hard, just to achieve average grades. At first glance, |
| advantages we can offer, that may include; | | | | we would not think of Jason as having a learning |
| computers, books, teaching CDs, tutors, all manner of | | | | disability. In fact, we often commend a child like |
| teaching aids, and anything else we feel is necessary | | | | Jason for working so hard. |
| to advance our child's education. These are necessary | | | | In contrast, our next child Daniel, wants to succeed |
| educational resources we need to have at our | | | | as much as Jason. However, Daniel is failing to keep |
| disposal from time to time. If our child is making | | | | up with his class and lacks the motivation to continue |
| progress in school, we may not notice any problems | | | | further down the road of frustration and failure each |
| exist and maybe they don't. However, there are | | | | day. Which child has the disability Jason or Daniel? |
| many children that are making good grades, but work | | | | Most of us would quickly label Daniel as the child as |
| extra hard, even though every resource for learning | | | | having a serious learning disability. |
| is available to them. Why is learning easier for one | | | | However, it is likely that Jason and Daniel both have |
| child but difficult for another, when all the other | | | | learning disabilities. Jason has just learned a more |
| contributing factors are equal and every educational | | | | effective way to cope with the disability, by working |
| resource is available to them? | | | | extra hard. Jason is succeeding in one area of his life |
| To answer this question we must understand that | | | | academics while missing out on enjoying other |
| processing information fast and efficiently is at the | | | | activities. He is staying one step ahead of disaster by |
| heart of all learning. Some common cognitive | | | | working extra hard. |
| functions are:how fast and accurately we can read | | | | Learning does not have to be so hard and consuming. |
| and comprehendhow well we can concentrateif we | | | | A child who is working fast and efficiently can learn |
| can follow a series of steps or instructions, such as a | | | | any subject without struggling. The successful child |
| word math problemhow well we can focus and keep | | | | has, in the majority of cases, more fully developed |
| attention in the midst of distractionshow accurately | | | | cognitive tools and skills to use in the learning |
| we recall information we have just learned - | | | | process. Developing cognitive processing skills and |
| short-term memoryhow well we remember | | | | giving a child the tools and techniques to learn, is the |
| information, to recall on a future test - long-term | | | | backbone of the learning process. Fortunately, |
| memorylogic and reasonong skillsand much more... | | | | cognitive processing skills can be developed through |
| Let's compare two students Jason and Daniel, age 12. | | | | training. There are excellent cognitive training |
| With all factors being equal:same | | | | products available for parents and teachers to train |
| ageintelligenceinstructionsupportgood health | | | | children at home and at school. There are specific |
| Our first child Jason, is a highly motivated student, | | | | exercises and techniques that can train children to |
| but works extra hard to keep his grades up to par | | | | work and process information faster and easier. |