Getting Started at Home

Here are ten initial ways that parents can help their children with learning disabilities (LD).

Learn more about learning disabilities.

Information on learning disabilities can help you understand that your child does not learn in the same way as other people do. Find out as much as you can about the problems your child has with learning, what types of learning tasks will be hard for your child, what sources of help are available, and what you can do to make life and learning easier for your child. You can find much of the information you need by reading this web site and following links to outside resources.

Become an unobtrusive detective.

Look for clues that can tell you how your child learns best. Does he or she learn best through looking, listening, or touching? What is your child's weakest approach to learning? Also pay attention to your child's interests, talents, and skills. All this information can be of great help in motivating and fostering your child's learning.

Teach through your child's areas of strength.

For example, he or she may have great difficulty reading information but readily understand when listening. Take advantage of that strength. Rather than force reading, which will present your child with a "failure" situation, let your child learn new information by listening to a book on tape or watching a video.

Respect and challenge your child's natural intelligence.

He or she may have trouble reading or writing, but that doesn't mean learning can't take place in many other ways. Most children with learning disabilities have average or above average intelligence that can be engaged and challenged through using a multi-sensory approach. Taste, touch, seeing, hearing, and moving are valuable ways of gathering information.

Remember that mistakes don't equal failure.

Your child may have the tendency to see his or her mistakes as huge failures. You can model, through good-humored acceptance of your own mistakes, that mistakes can be useful. They can lead to new solutions. They are not the end of the world. When your child sees you taking this approach to mistakes-your own and the mistakes of others- he or she can learn to view his or her mistakes in the same light.

Recognize that there may be some things your child won't be able to do or will have lifelong trouble doing.

Help your child to understand that this doesn't mean he or she is a failure. After all, everyone has something they can't do. Capitalize on the things your child can do.

Be aware that struggling with your child over reading, writing, and homework can draw you into an adversarial position with your child.

The two of you will end up angry and frustrated with each other, which sends the message to your child that, yet again, he or she has failed. You can contribute positively to your child's schooling by participating actively in the development of your child's Individualized Education Program (IEP) and by sharing with the school the special insights about your child that only you as a parent have.