Archives for 2017

Learning is not a simple process. We all hope that our children fly through academic milestones, and we can relate when one or two particular subjects prove troublesome. But what do you do when test scores don’t seem to mirror your child’s abilities, your child struggles with learning issues that seem baffling, and the school psychologist can only offer limited assistance? That’s when a professional psycho-educational evaluation can help.

What Is A Psycho-Educational Evaluation?
The title sounds intimidating, but this kind of evaluation is just a series of tests and empirical observations by a specially-trained psychologist meant to analyze your child’s mental processes and behavior patterns.

By identifying your child’s learning style, processing patterns, and memory abilities, the professional evaluator gets a good look at your child’s fundamental strengths and weaknesses. Armed with this information, he or she can begin to identify any learning disabilities or behavioral issues that may be hindering your child’s full potential.

Fundamentals Of A Psycho-Educational Evaluation
The evaluation itself usually begins by measuring a child’s cognitive skills using a test like the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). This test, done on a computer or with a pencil and paper, measures four aspects of your child’s cognitive abilities:

• Verbal Skills
• Perceptual Reasoning
• Memory Skills
• Mental Processing Speed

This analysis may be followed by an academic achievement test to measure skills in reading, math, and other subjects. Discrepancies between this test and the former can help identify certain learning disabilities.

Depending on the particular challenges your child faces, a third test or set of tests may be administered to evaluate other cognitive and behavioral issues, such as:

• Attention issues
• Executive function abilities such as organizing and seeing a project through to completion
• An overall psychological assessment

The evaluation process can take several hours in one sitting, or shorter periods over a span of a few days.

After all the testing is done, evaluators offer the test scores and as well as a written explanation of what they mean in terms of your child’s situation. The evaluator offers solid advice and recommendations on how to enhance your child’s educational experience based on their individual profile. If the data they collected warrants it, they may also diagnose learning disabilities and recommend accommodations in the classroom so your child can charge forward in sync with his or her peers.

Everyone gets the blues at some time or another. Sadness is a natural emotion and an expected response to setbacks such as a romantic break-up, a demotion at work, or the loss of a friend or relative. Grieving is a process that we all must acknowledge and experience. But since, at first glance, sadness and depression share some of the same symptoms, how do you know when your blue mood is a sign of something more serious?

Duration
Sorrow is usually a response to a specific, disheartening event, a natural emotion that follows personal loss or change. It can continue for a long time, but, in general, the intensity of the experience ebbs, evolves, becomes intermittent, or eases over time.

Depression, although it can be triggered by a single event, is far more stubborn. The duration and intensity of the sad feelings (among other emotions) are markers that determine the difference. Depression doesn’t easily ebb and can quickly change for the worse.

Despair
Although sorrow is one of the emotions that the clinically depressed can experience, it is only one of many. Sufferers of this malady often express feelings that go far deeper than what would necessarily be expected of someone grieving a particular event or series of events. Some of those feelings include:

• Hopelessness
• Pessimism
• Guilt
• Worthlessness
• Helplessness
• Despair
• Emptiness

Debilitation
Although sorrow can surely cause a loss of appetite, insomnia, and many other physical symptoms, red flags should fly if those symptoms persist and multiply to the point of inhibiting normal function. One of the hallmarks of clinical depression is a raft of physical conditions, such as:

• Ill-defined maladies, such as headaches, backaches, cramps, etc.
• Sleep pattern changes, including fatigue, restlessness, insomnia, oversleeping
• Appetite changes, to the point of sudden weight gain or loss, or digestive issues

Disposition
Whether we’ve experienced it or not, we’ve all seen people grapple with sadness. We expect tears, withdrawal, and a period of mourning. But those who suffer from clinical depression often exhibit mood and behavioral changes that aren’t usually expected from someone with “just” the blues. These may include:

• Cognitive trouble, such as difficulty in making decisions, remembering things, and concentrating for any length of time
• Personality changes, such as becoming withdrawn or irritable and losing interest in what once brought joy
• Self-harm (such as cutting) or suicidal thoughts

Grief is an emotion, but depression is a mental health issue that can be treated by medical professionals. If you believe that you may be experiencing some of the signs and symptoms of depression, never hesitate to call a mental health professional to get the help you deserve and need.

A common misconception among parents is that ADHD predominantly affects overactive boys. This has led to a rash of undiagnosed cases of girls afflicted with the disorder. Many women don’t present symptoms of ADHD until later on in life. Often times, these symptoms appear differently than in males. Why does this occur? What is The Hidden Reason ADHD Often Goes Undiagnosed in Girls?

What ADHD Looks Like in Girls
The symptoms of ADHD in boys can be disruptive. In the classroom, at home, running errands–ADHD can rear its ugly head. With girls, the symptoms are much different. Girls with ADHD will appear distracted and detached from their surroundings. This leads to major anxiety issues developing for girls at younger ages. In addition, girls will show a lack of organization skills (executive functioning) that affect their grades, friendships, and relationships with parents. This lack of control in their minds tends to drive them towards other issues in their lives including eating disorders. This is a much different view of ADHD than in boys. Girls aren’t jumping off the walls and running around like crazy.

Misdiagnosing ADHD in Girls
Studies on ADHD focus mainly on the behaviors demonstrated in boys. The hyperactive, young male who is fidgeting and constantly moving. When a girl begins to show their own symptoms of the disorder, it’s immediately thought of as a different issue than ADHD. Parents and some teachers may say that it can’t possibly be ADHD because that mainly affects boys. These girls aren’t performing to their maximum potential and ability. They are placed in remedial classes at school, even though they may be way above that level. Girls also may avoid social groups and spend their time alone or withdrawn.

Depression is a symptom of the ADHD in girls at young ages. They may be described as spaced out or constantly daydreaming. The disorder, for girls, seems to manifest in at the mind rather than in outward physical expression. Children don’t always understand what’s going on in their own brains at this time and girls with ADHD may internalize these issues. Why are the other children different? Why am I different? Why can’t I focus? What is wrong with me?

Parents will take their children to see specialists assuming the issue is psychological. Luckily, these specialists are getting better at understanding the complexities of the disorder. Many, however, aren’t lucky enough to get to the point where they actually get to see a specialist to aid them. They suffer in silence while everyone around them tries to figure out what’s wrong with them.

Confusion
ADHD tends to run in families, leading to potential confusion of the disorder. If either or both of the parents of a child have undiagnosed ADHD themselves, it’s easy to say that the child is just acting like they did when they’re younger. They’re fine now as adults, so the child will be too. They say that the child just needs to grow out of whatever phase they’re going through at the moment. This is, unfortunately, all too common of a sentiment among parents of girls with ADHD. Not admitting to a problem or saying it’s just a passing phase can do long term damage to a child. This confusion only plays tricks with the ADHD mind. The symptoms of the disorder occur but the child has no way to understand what’s happening and no support system to assist them in getting through the problems.

Times Are Changing
ADHD is everywhere at the moment. It’s a hot topic–anyone with a child who is running around and/or loud is automatically assumed to have ADHD. If only it were that easy, then we could solve many of the problems for these children. ADHD is a spectrum–what affects some, may not affect others.

The sooner we understand these differences both medically and culturally, the quicker we can help these children. Parents need to learn, understand, and aid when symptoms of ADHD present themselves in their girls. It can often be different for them than it can be for boys. Assisting with them now will lead to a decrease in future long term issues that these children face when they grow older.

While we often like to think of ourselves as experts on ourselves, when it comes to mental health, trying to self-diagnosis can commonly lead to inaccurate treatment. The convenience of the internet search may often mislead us; given that every symptom search will lead us to some type of prognosis. It’s easy to diagnose yourself, but the likelihood that it will be accurate is not probable.

Misdiagnosis
Diagnosis is complicated and multi-layered. There are a number of subtleties a mental health care professional will consider when it comes to diagnosis. When we self-diagnosis, we might look at a particular symptom as a factor of our condition, but the reality is that a symptom can have many underlying reasons that we may not have considered. A clinician can discern how each specific symptom plays a role and can make the appropriate diagnosis.

Missed Diagnosis
Often times medical diseases can impersonate psychological syndromes. A self-diagnosis might lead us to believe we have a psychiatric disease, when the reality may be that the symptoms were related to an undetected medical condition. Symptoms related to hyperthyroidism, migraines, drug withdrawal, or an irregular heartbeat can appear psychological. Even more worrisome are more serious medical conditions like a brain tumor that can be the cause of symptoms. It’s best to seek a professional for a trusted diagnosis.

Under/Over Diagnosis
Self-diagnosis most commonly leads to underdiagnosis or overdiagnosis–both of which are dangerous. Examining ourselves is tough to do objectively, we often overlook things that we simply cannot see. The anxiety or depression we may be experiencing could be masking other disorders that are dangerous to ignore.

On the other hand, self-diagnosis may lead us to believe we are demonstrating symptoms of a disorder. We might think we have ADD, depression, or a sleep disorder that we aim to treat, when the symptoms may actually be related to something entirely different. Either way, self-diagnosis can add unnecessary stress that only adds to the situation.

Doctor-Patient Relationship
A healthcare professional is well studied in the field of mental disorders and they are there to support you and give you the help you need. The doctor-patient relationship is one you and your doctor should feel comfortable with. While many doctors may be interested in hearing your thoughts and will respect your opinion, it’s important to keep in mind that they have the experience to carry out a proper diagnosis.

It is important that you feel you can trust your doctor. If you feel that this is not the case, please seek a professional that you feel you can have a rapport with.

Neuropsychological, psychological and educational evaluations are commonly administered by professionals as a means to achieve accurate diagnosis–this can not be self-duplicated. Your health is most likely of great value to you, and self-diagnosis can lead to negative repercussions. The treatment you desire can be achieved under the guidance of a professional in a way that works for you when you have caring and thoughtful healthcare professionals on your side.

Speech imperfections are not uncommon in children and there are things you can do to support your child’s growth. There can be a number of factors that determine a child’s development in speech and language. Some of those factors are beyond your control–be it hereditary, growth patterns and physical maturity, or their environment–any of these can play a role in their development.

What to Notice
If you are feeling concerned about your child’s speech development, the first step is to start taking notice. Stuttering, lisps, and lengthy pauses in speech can all be indicators of speech imperfections. Hearing problems can also be associated with speech issues as well. Having an understanding of speech and language development benchmarks can be useful to tracking your child’s progress.

Ways to Help

Read
Reading books aloud with your child can be one of the most beneficial ways to boost their speech and language development. It exposes them to higher levels of vocabulary and helps their brain build recognition of speech patterns.

Encourage Sharing
Talking, reflecting, and sharing can not only help your child with their verbal expression, it can increase memory and listening skills. Help your child see the value in words both as ideas and forms of expression. Spending time talking with your child will allow you to build deeper connections and understand their thinking. If you need prompts to help get the conversation going try looking at family photos or chatting about a recent activity you did. Take a family trip and discuss the experience before, during, and after. The more you talk the more practice with speech your child gets.

Reduce Stress
When challenges are present, it’s normal for our brains to become overworked and stressed. If your child is uncomfortable, avoid forcing them to speak or correcting their speech, as this can lead to increased stress or feeling of shame. Instead find ways to relax with your child. Take time to slow down and spend some quality time together. Follow your child’s lead and let them become the center of attention. This will not only help to calm the emotional stress, it can also build self-confidence and acceptance.

Helping your child with speech imperfections is ongoing work. Seeking the help of a professional is the best way to support your child’s speech development–allowing you to identify their precise needs. Children experiencing issues in speech development benefit from the support and understanding of their struggle. Spending quality family time can alleviate the pressure and offer your child plenty of verbal practice in a safe and loving environment.

Warm Weather and Your Skin
Warm temperatures can do a number on your physical appearance. They can make your hair look and feel frizzy. They can even sometimes affect your complexion! That’s the reason the best warm weather skin tips can come in handy. Achieving and maintaining a beautiful complexion regardless of the season doesn’t have to be difficult.

Change Your Facial Cleanser
Cleansing creams can do wonders for people during the colder months of the year. Skin dryness in the wintertime is a big concern. Warmer weather, however, is all about gel cleansers. If you want to protect your complexion from unsightly and unpleasant pore clogging, use of a gel cleanser can work like magic! Gel cleansers also deeply cleanse the skin and can help you feel energized and fresh when temperatures outdoors are scorching hot.

Make Sunscreen a Part of Your Skincare Routine
Sunblock application is essential regardless of the time of year and weather, but it’s particularly critical in the summer. People tend to spend more time outside under the sun when the weather is pleasantly warm. They go outside to swim, hike, picnic and simply revel in gorgeous surroundings. This can be disastrous for people who fail to protect their complexions with sunblock, though. The sun’s intense UV (ultraviolet) rays can lead to skin cancer. They can also significantly speed up the aging process. If you want to keep wrinkles, fine lines, age spots and sagging at bay, you need to put sunblock on your skin any time you go outdoors. If you love relishing warm weather, you need to invest in a lot of sunscreen. Be sure to put sunblock on any part of your body that sees the sun, too. If you wear hats, long-sleeved tops, long pants and sunglasses, those things are big bonuses!

Invest in the Right Type of Facial Moisturizer
Humidity and thick and heavy moisturizers aren’t exactly the greatest match. If you want to avoid the pitfall of looking and feeling like a greasy mess in times of warm weather, you need to use the right face moisturizer. Stay far away from rich creams. Go for lightweight lotions that absorb easily and quickly into the skin. Go for formulas that are devoid of oils as well. Don’t make the error of neglecting hydration entirely, either. Muggy and sticky weather is definitely no reason to forsake giving your skin vital moisture.

If your child has been diagnosed with ADHD, it has likely been a long and arduous path. Finally, the frustrations of behavioral and academic troubles have been identified at the source. You, your child, the teachers, and the school system can now move forward with accommodations that will help your child reach his fullest potential.

Here’s a sampling of the wide variety of school accommodations you may receive, depending on your child’s individual profile.

To Increase Focus
Fidgety, restless kids need a little extra help focusing on the tasks at hand. These may include:

• Seating him at the front of the classroom
• Setting a timer for short intervals during a long assignment and having the child show the work after each interval
• Calling on the child to participate in discussions and having him help collect papers, etc., to give him an opportunity to talk and move about
• Allowing child to use a fidget spinner or other device to channel energy and increase focus
• Developing verbal and physical cues, like a tap on the desk, to remind the child to get back on task

To Keep Homework Assignments On Track
Some kids with ADHD have difficulty organizing and keeping track of projects and homework. To help them develop these skills, accommodations include:

• Offering the child a second set of textbooks to be kept at home, minimizing the chance of forgetting a book
• Monitoring of assignment books to ensure that every homework and project deadline is included
• Allowing the child to use their phone or another alternative method to keep track of assignments

To Reduce Disruptive Behaviors
In the case of disruptive behaviors, the following accommodations may be offered:

• Teachers may be asked to choose their battles by ignoring minor outbursts
• Communication lines may be opened between parents and teachers to coordinate behavior modification efforts
• In case of an eruption of a disruptive behavior, the child will be brought to a pre-arranged place where he or she will have an opportunity to calm down

To Improve Academic Performance
Many children with ADHD have specific struggles with complex, multi-stage projects as well as specific subjects such as writing or math. Depending on your child’s individual profile, these accommodations may be available:

• Extra time will be allowed to complete classroom work
• Longer, more complex assignments will be broken up into smaller units with specific deadlines
• Written, verbal and/or visual instructions will be given to accommodate your child’s particular learning style
• Children who struggle with writing assignments may be able to print rather than use cursive, use a computer as well as spell-check and grammar-checking software, and may be given the option to present the assignment verbally rather than in written form.
• Children who struggle with math may be given extended time for tests and assignments, have the homework problems pre-written for them, and be allowed to use a calculator

ADHD is a challenge, but these tried-and-true accommodations can do wonders to provide every child with the best education possible.

There isn’t a parent in the world who hasn’t witnessed a toddler in the grip of a full-blown, red-faced, flailing, screaming tantrum. As shocking as these outbursts can be, occasional tantrums are part of a child’s normal development. Young children have not yet achieved the verbal capacity to fully communicate their feelings or the self-control necessary to tamp down their surging emotions.

But not all tantrums are created equal. Certain patterns can be red flags that suggest professional help may be warranted.

High Frequency
Your child may pass through a phase when he or she is having a lot of tantrums. But if the frequency doesn’t slow over the months, despite all your efforts to teach him how to identify and control his outbursts, there may be a more serious underlying issue. Some studies have shown that children who experience at least five tantrums per day several days a week may be at risk for disruptive disorders, including ADHD.

Aggression
Biting, kicking, hitting, and throwing things are part of many an angry toddler outburst. After all, it feels good to punch that pillow, right? But if you find yourself ducking for cover or streaked with bruises almost every time your child has a tantrum, there may be underlying issues causing the outbursts, such as depression, oppositional defiant disorder, or ADHD.

Self-Harm
There may be no behavior quite as gut-wrenchingly disturbing as seeing a child hurt himself. Yet in the heat of a tantrum, some toddlers and preschoolers may exhibit self-injurious behavior like biting themselves, banging their heads, or scratching their skin raw. In these heartbreaking cases, the length and frequency of the tantrums don’t matter as much as the specific, consistent behavior, which strongly suggests the necessity of psychiatric intervention.

Endurance
A ten-minute tantrum might seem like forever to a parent trying to buy groceries in the check-out line, but if your child calms down in less than a half hour, consider yourself fortunate. Tantrums that routinely stretch for 30 minutes or more can be a sign of a more serious underlying problem. The same can be said if only extreme and external methods (such as a bribe or physical removal from the scene) succeed in calming the child.

If you have any concerns about your child’s ongoing behavior, never hesitate to seek out a mental health professional. Early intervention can do wonders.

We live in turbulent times. With so many of our men and women overseas in conflict-ridden countries, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has become a subject of headlines. But PTSD doesn’t just manifest amid veterans of foreign wars. About eight percent of Americans will experience PTSD in their lifetime, and women are twice as susceptible as men.

Whether you’re experiencing distressing and unexpected symptoms yourself, or whether a loved one is behaving out of character, knowing the three major symptoms will help you identify the disorder and get help fast.

Re-experiencing The Trauma
One of the major symptoms of PTSD involves continuing to relive the trauma in an emotional and intrusive way at least a month (but usually much longer) after the traumatic event. This symptom can manifest in several ways:

• Recurrent, vivid dreams or nightmares
• Sudden flashbacks triggered by visual, auditory, or other sensory cues
• Physiological reactions that coincide with the memories, flashbacks, or dreams such as elevated heart rate, sweating, etc.
• Repetitive play (in children) that may involve reenacting or restaging with toys the upsetting events

Physical And Emotional Isolation
PTSD sufferers often go out of their way to avoid places, events or people that may trigger memories and flashbacks of the event. This behavior can lead to physical and emotional isolation. They may also repress certain parts of the event, refuse to talk about it, or cycle in crushing waves of guilt, shame and/or blame. The weight of these emotions may strain their ability to participate in happy events or even muster any positive feelings.

Heightened Reactivity
PTSD sufferers are often on edge. They may exhibit an extreme startle response or become overly vigilant and protective, to the point where they don’t sleep well. Insomnia is not uncommon, as is swift anger and irritability. Many PTSD sufferers resort to substance abuse and self-destructive behaviors in an effort to numb their pain.

If you suspect that you or a loved one may be suffering from PTSD, contact a mental health professional as soon as possible to get the help you need.

As the parent of a child with a learning disability, negotiating the academic stresses of high school can be a challenge, even with many resources and support available. Continuing onto college, with its compressed schedule, large amounts of reading, and high stakes testing, may seem like an uncertain prospect. Yet, in 2014, over half of learning-disabled high school students intended to push through to higher education.

So what challenges do college-level students with learning disabilities face?

Know The Law
Many of the public school resources available to learning disabled students were born of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. This piece of legislation required public schools to offer an individualized and appropriate education for all children with disabilities. Generally, these rights end when the child graduates from high school.

For college students with learning disabilities, the important legislation is the Americans With Disabilities Act. Through this act, students with disabilities continue to have the right to be accommodated, but only if they are otherwise qualified. That is, college students must pass the tests and courses for which they are accommodated. Otherwise, the college has the right to remove them from the program like any other student who fails to maintain passing grades.

Know Your Student Disability Services
Although colleges that receive federal funds are legally obliged to comply with the Americans Disability Act, many institutions of higher education struggle to provide the range of services necessary for a wide variety of physical and academic accommodations. Furthermore, pushback from professors is common.

As expected, some colleges are better than others in encouraging learning differences and disabilities. Check out top-ten lists to find the best fit for your child.

Know What You Need
The most important tool that any student with a learning disability can develop is self-advocacy. Bereft of the structure and active care received in the elementary/high school education system, a student must learn to articulate the disability he has and ask for the help he needs. To take advantage of the resources offered, make sure the student:

• Submits proper documentation of the learning disability to the Student Disabilities Service office
• Can articulate the specific kinds of accommodations that help him in tackling his disability
• Asks where and how to access specific resources, such as technology assistance, digital recorders, speech-to-text technology, etc.
• Asks to discuss with SDS staff as to how to best introduce the subject with professors, if necessary

Only you and your child know what he or she is capable of. A learning disability shouldn’t dissuade them from pursuing their academic dreams.