Maybe Julie struggles with attention, but she also may have other kinds of neurodevelopmental differences.  Sometimes teachers and health care providers are too quick to jump on the ADHD bandwagon.  Other considerations include dyslexia.

Dyslexia presents such a hardship to students and families.  If you think your child struggles with dyslexia look over the indications copied from this link and compare how your child's learning differences compare.  If you think you or your child has the same difficulties described below, we may be able to help make sense and develop plans to manage the problems more effectively.

    Indications of dyslexia ages 6-11

     
    • Has difficulty pronouncing words, may reverse or substitute parts of words
    • Has difficulty carrying out a sequence of directions
    • Doesn't hear fine differences in words; e.g., writes "pin" for "pen"
    • Has problems stating thoughts in an organized way
    • Confuses the order of letters in words
    • Doesn't recognize words previously learned
    • Spells a word several different ways; doesn't recognize the correct version
    • Has poor reading comprehension

       
    Indications of dyslexia in ages 12-adult
     

     

    • Has difficulty remembering what he just read
    • Has difficulty concentrating when reading or writing
    • Is unable to tell important information from unimportant details
    • Spells poorly; misspelling is not phonetic
    • Has problems taking notes accurately
    • Has difficulty organizing and completing written projects

Before considering any evaluation complete, observations from teachers, parents and the student should be reviewed and compared.  The ANSER* Questionnaire and/or other observation formats for obtaining feedback and direct observations should always be included in order to get the best understanding of your child's neurodevelopmental profile.  At Celebrating Minds, we suggest having teachers, parents and students complete the ANSER* Questionnaire or for older students, the STRANDS.  This is a great way to begin looking at the whole student with information from the most knowledgeable people.