HOW TO PREVENT LEARNING DISABILITIES
The intention to prevent learning disabilities requires an exploration of the early learning experiences that occur between birth and five years of age. This is required because these experiences play an important role in academic achievement.
When children enroll in school with learning disabilities already in evidence, it suggests that something is negatively impacting the child in his out-of-school environment, usually the home.
To prevent learning disabilities, research findings endorse identifying and removing the specific factors in the home that are preventing normal development of the child's central nervous system.
If you are the parent or primary caretaker of a developing child, or a child with learning disabilities, this may modify your lifestyle while you learn what to look for, but deciding to make a difference in the life of a child is a major decision that every parent or primary caretaker must make.
Prevent Learning Disabilities by Removing the Causes from your Home
To prevent learning disabilities, look for poor nutrition, allergies to food, toxic chemicals, and heavy metals. A lack of sleep and physical exercise are additional factors that may interfere with brain and central nervous system development. And, more importantly, when these harmful factors are removed, the brain returns to normal development and function.
These simple acts alone would benefit 98% of children diagnosed with learning disabilities.
Removing harmful irritants and other sources of trauma from the child’s environment first requires a commitment on the part of parents or primary caretakers to identify and eliminate them. Once the commitment is made, a short learning curve is required while the parent or primary caretaker becomes familiar with what to look for, and what to do if it is found. Researchers report that, in some instances, suggested methods have shown results in only a few days.
Again, preventing learning disibilities is a task that only the parent or primary caretaker can undertake, because they create the environment in which the child lives. This can be a big challenge, but it can be done. Help with the process is available in our LD Reference Book. We tell you what to do, and how to do it. The most time consuming part is reading the instructions.
As a parent or primary caretaker of a child with learning disabilities, this may modify your lifestyle while you learn what to look for, but deciding to make a difference in the life of a child is a major decision that every parent or primary caretaker must make.
Treat Learning Disabilities by Removing the Causes from Your Home
Simply stated, to treat or intervene with learning disabilities at home, you do the same things that you did to prevent them. Prevention and treatment are the same at home
- make sure that the child is not allergic to what he is eating (no sugar coated cereal for breakfast);
- see that he gets at least 8 hours of sleep; and
- be sure that he isn't being poisoned by some hair spray, dust mites, pet dander, cleaning product, cigarette smoke or other environmental toxin.
If the child is enrolled in school, the earlier the intervention the better the outcome. If the child appears to have learning problems, get him identified early. Early intervention, with appropriate classroom accommodations and teaching techniques, has the best prognosis. The human body has an infinite ability to adapt, adjust, and return to normal function when trauma is removed.
Needed information has been researched summarized and made readily available for immediate application in meeting these challenges.
The steps are:
- make a commitment,
- empower yourself with the needed information,
- apply the information, and
- give it a few days.
Then watch his teachers behavior. She will be so pleased with your child's improvement that she will treat him differently and he will improve even more.
Remember, you are not alone in this effort. Coaching, counseling, and professional interventions are available from Ceres Psychological Services for free by phone, fax, or email. We will hold your hand through the complete process undertaken to treat or prevent learning disabilities. We are retired with time on our hands. Just contact the author.
Leave Preventing Learning Disabilities go to Rearing Successful Children