Blog
“Challenging & Difficult”
In many households there are temperamentally rigid and inflexible children who cause a great deal of distress. With their limited coping skills, such children become quite volatile and reactive to frustration. Jeff and Rose are the bleary eyed parents of three...
Don’t Wait For School’s Blessings: Trust Your Gut
Anxiety over a child’s school-based problems can start very early. After reading The Shut-Down Learner, a mom contacted me. "My son's drowning in in school. Do you think he could be a shut-down learner," she asked. After asking a few more questions, I was struck by...
Venting My Spleen (Once Again)
Those of you following this blog for some time know there are some recurring themes in these posts. Frequently, the blogs are my outlet for getting things off my chest that frequently come up in my interactions with parents. If you’re a relative newcomer, I will...
Dyslexia (aka “Voldemort”) – “He Who Must Not Be Named”
Parents frequently raise questions of dyslexia with their child’s school. When they report back to me how the conversation went, I get the feeling that the school goes into a sort of quiet hush mode, like they are talking about Voldemort – “He Who Must Not Be Named.”...
Reading Comprehension & School Bus Problems: Common Themes
When Kids struggle with reading comprehension, often there is an overlap in "real life” and the way the child interacts in their personal world. In this era of automatically labeling and pathologizing an unwanted behavior as “ADHD,” this overlap is something rarely...
Addressing Writing Disability
I am continually struck by the challenges struggling children face when it comes to their writing. At a very basic level, they have little to no idea what goes into the writing of a sentence, no less a paragraph or a typical three-paragraph essay. For children who...
Brief Tip: Know What You Are Targeting
Many children referred for assessments are related to struggles with reading, spelling and writing. Not knowing what direction to go, parents feel a sense of desperation and need guidance on appropriate next steps. Once the issues are identified, the remediation,...
Compound Interest Mentality
Change does not come easily for any of us. Think about how deeply ingrained our personalities, habits and proclivities are. Fundamentally, we are who we are. Parents spend a lot of time trying to change children and I sometimes find that their efforts may be a bit too...
IEPs & 504s: A Brief Primer
Parents frequently ask about 504 Plans and IEP’s. Before getting too far into the weeds, I will respectfully ask the parents if they know the difference between them and what they even are. A majority of the time, I get a half shrug, coupled with a “not really.”...
ADHD…Maybe!
Practically every week I hear an array of concerns regarding distractibility and inattentiveness. There's always the question lurking of, "Does my child have ADHD/ADD?" While talking to parents I try and broaden the narrative, reviewing other factors that may be...
Trusting Your Mom Intuition
As part of the assessment process I always conduct an interview to get an overview of the issues of concern. When a child is struggling, typically there will be suggestions of disorders that have been raised by different professionals along with opinions offered from...