Test Your Cogntive Skills

Visit the Gibson Test of Cognitive Abilities free online test to determine where your cognitive strengths/weaknesses lie. This 30 minute test will assess each of your cognitive skills. The test is free for a limited time.

Test your child as well, this test can be used for ages 5- adult. Make sure to leave about 30-40 minutes to complete the test. After taking the test, if you want to learn more about our full test battery using the Woodcock Johnson Test of Cognitive abilities call Learning Rx at 844-7979 or contact us at lferry@learningrxindy.net

Gibson Test: GCSTest.com

AD/HD: Adaptations for Learning

When your child has attention issues there are some helpful adaptations your child's teacher can make in the classroom to help them work around the problem. Certainly, training the cognitive weakness solves the problem and the need for accommodations, however, in the meantime, these can be very helpful tools. Many of these can be helpful for homework time as well.

• Break lessons into short chunks.
• Incorporate movement or 'wiggle breaks' into the lessons.
• Cover up extra information. Use a blank sheet of paper to cover up part of the worksheet to avoid those distractions on the page. Use a book mark when reading.
• Use manipulatives when appropriate to teach a concept.
• Encourage computer skills early so avoid the frustration that can often occur with handwriting.
• Use graphic organizers when writing a lengthy paper/story.
• Highlight, underline using color.

These a simple tips that can be incorporated into your child's classroom with minor modifications by the teacher. Approach your child's teacher today to share these suggestions.

Upcoming Informational Workshop on Attention: The Academic Impact

Learning Rx is hosting an informational workshop on Monday, September 29 at 7:00pm at our Carmel location. The workshop will cover the common symptoms of attention deficient. The four causes of attention issues in children and alternatives to medicaiton. The purpose of the workshop is to provide information to parents and educators about attention issues in children. Suggestions will be provided for helping your child cope in the classroom and at home when they have attention issues. This is a workshop for any parent or educator that wants to learn more about this issue and help their child cope through the struggles that attention deficient can cause in school and at home.

Call 317-844-7979 to RSVP today, space is limited.

Back to School: Is it over yet?

As a parent of three school aged children myself (10th grade, 8th grade and 2nd grade), getting back into a routine and a structure that comes with the school year can be a positive. However, this is about the time, a month into the year, when the excitement begins to wane and the daily routine of checking backpacks and signing assignment notebooks can grate on my nerves. It seems that by the time we finish dinner, homework and activities it is bedtime (at least for me). I don’t know how many times in the last two weeks that my 2nd grader has complained about the lack of free time she has after school. Of course she actually says, “What, it is bed time, I haven’t even gotten to watch Spongebob today!” But it is the reality of the world our children live in. The expectations are higher than when we were in school and the stakes are higher. As my academically accomplished sophomore worries about getting into college because her GPA isn’t 3.5, and my 2nd grader has at least an hour of homework a night when I don’t remember even doing homework until high school, I wonder what all this is doing to their self-esteem and academic confidence. I certainly appreciate the fact that once they get into college and life beyond, they will be hard workers but what about the stress it all puts on our kids. Average and above average kids still have to work hard in school these days, but no student should have to work so hard that they feel like a failure or don’t feel positive about themselves as a learner. When the emotional perceptions begin to become negative that is the time to take note as a parent. Whenever your child is avoiding work or makes comments like, “I hate to read”, “I’m not good at tests”, “I’m not good at math”, those can be signs of struggles. We all avoid things that we don’t feel like we are good at, kids do the same thing. If your child begins to avoid or develop negative perceptions about learning, it is time to take a look at why. I hear a lot of parents tell me that their child will mature or outgrow the negative feelings but 9 times out of 10 they don’t. I just encourage you to keep your eyes and ears open to those signs as you move through this school year, because the world our children live in is very different and much more demanding than the world we grew up in, but the signals can be the same.