Teaching your child at home is tough enough without adding a learning disability to the mix. No one wants to think about their child having problems with learning. However when your homeschool student is struggling more often than not, you may want to take a closer look and see where the true problem lies. Here is a small checklist which you can use to hone in on the issue plaguing your little one.
Visual Processing
Can the homeschool student process what he sees with ease. This can be seen in terms of describing a picture, reading the words of a text, and even reading out flash cards loud. Check if the problem lies with the eyesight, or with processing the material that is being seen. Should you find a simple eye sight problem, glasses should make a world of a difference. There will be more work involved in correcting a visual processing problem.
Motor Skills
Is the child able to use a pencil or a crayon easily? What is the hand to eye coordination of the child like? If the child is repeatedly having to correct or compensate for what action he wishes to complete, there may be a deeper issue at hand. Please remember not to make flash judgments, as each child takes his own time to achieve certain skill levels. Just because your first born was able to do a certain action by a certain age, it isn’t compulsory that your second one will also develop skills at the same pace.
Auditory Processing
There are two parts to check for here. First off does the child hear you when you give him instructions. Secondly is he able to follow those instructions and get the result that you wanted to achieve? Try checking for hearing in both ears to check for a physical problem with the ears. Then try giving simple to more complex instructions to the child to follow to check how well he can process the instructions given. Do remember to keep the instructions aligned with the age and the grade level of the child.
