Accommodations, IEPs and LearningRx – Helping Kevin Improve

In helping Kevin improve, his parents considered accommodations, IEPs and LearningRx. When a child is struggling academically and/or has a diagnosis like ADHD, dyslexia, ASD or a general learning disability, there are several options to consider.  Common school intervention strategies include an IEP and accommodations.  These can be helpful as they enable a child to have 1-on-1 help and they usually make the work easier for a struggling student by not requiring the same level of performance as other students.

For example, for students with ADHD, accommodations often include strategies like allowing more time to complete schoolwork or tests or allowing work to be completed in a quiet room.  For those with reading struggles or dyslexia, students can have tests read to them vs. being required to read it themselves.  

Accommodations can be helpful for a child who needs ADHD or reading help, but it’s important to understand their limitations.   While they make school easier and can reduce the stress a child can experience trying to keep up, these strategies are not addressing the root cause as to why the child is struggling and needing accommodations in the first place.

When Kevin came to us, he was really struggling.  He was diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, a learning disability and a speech and language impairment.  All of this meant that keeping up in school is extremely difficult for Kevin.  His parents had an IEP and were receiving accommodations, but they also realized those interventions were not helping Kevin improve his abilities.  

Kevin completed a program at LearningRx where our focus was on strengthening the core skills he needs to be successful.  Kevin’s academic struggles were not the main issue, these difficulties were a symptom of cognitive skill weaknesses including attention, long-term and working memory, visual and auditory processing, processing speed and reasoning.  They shared about their LearningRx experience:

“LearningRx has done SO much to help my child. They worked with him on his level and made accommodations when needed to help him be successful in their program. If it wasn’t for them, he would have fallen behind more in school than he already was. All the staff is very welcoming and made my child and myself feel welcome. We plan on continuing with them for additional programs to help our child become more successful with his education! I highly recommend Learning Rx and their programs; I am glad we enrolled our child! We are looking forward to his next program.”

When your child is struggling, seeking help from the school via 1-on-1 interventions and/or an IEP is important and helpful.  Schools may also be able to provide tutoring.  However, it is critical to identify why your child is struggling so you can address the root cause.  The first step towards this is to contact the LearningRx Eagan location to schedule an initial assessment.  The assessment will pinpoint why your child is struggling and enable us to recommend a strategy to address it.  Tutoring will provide the academic content, but LearningRx training will address why your child even needs improvement to help them excel.  

At LearningRx, a diagnosis like ADHD, dyslexia, ASD or a general learning struggle does not need to define or hold back your child.  

Call LearningRx in Eagan today to get started.