Parents expect a lot when they have their children go into therapy, whether it is occupational therapy or speech and/or language therapy and physical therapy.

Of course, they expect a lot because they pay a lot of money to be able to get these services for their children.

Here in the Philippines, parents/families of children receiving therapy services pay for these services, unlike those children in other countries who get these as part of their tax benefits.

Getting into these therapy services don’t mean instant relief and instant improvement of the developmental and behavioral problems that need to be addressed.

So what should parents expect during the first few weeks of therapy?

Below are a few observations I have made during the course of working with these therapists:

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Writing or composition is one of the most difficult tasks children with developmental problems can do, especially those with Language Learning problems. Several  of my students have this problem, with grades in the Language subject bordering on the failing status. Why does this happen? Read here.

Yes, some of them have difficulty understanding the grammar rules or the syntax. The fact that they have difficulties understanding some of the finer skills in language like pragmatics and semantics, writing seems not a priority.

Many times this has happened to several of my students, they are able to explain in detail what was asked of them. But when they were asked to write down what they have just explained, they look blankly at me and ask: “What am I going to write?” When I tell them to write what they have just said, they really have that blank look on their faces like I have said something foreign to them.

Writing is a complex task and there are several ways to do this, to teach this:

• Plan what to write. making a graphic organizer or writing down key words and concepts would be a great help.

• Be sure that basic grammar rules, particularly subject-verb agreement is understood. Sometimes children can do this in drills but can not apply what has been learned in writing.

• Write in drafts so that corrections are easier to spot.

• Clear rules for what needs to be revised should be made known. It is also important to explain why the revisions need to be done.

There are many ways to encourage children to write and here are some suggestions:

• writing down a telephone message.

• Writing ideas, thoughts, dreams, quotations heard,movie or TV lines heard and even writing down information like phone numbers and addresses are just some examples.

• Writing down instructions like when to take the medicine and how to operate something.

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Sit.

One of the first things children need to do before they are ready to do some learning.

Sit.

One of the precursors in determining the attention span of a child.

Of course,not because a child is sitting down does not mean that the child is ready to learn.

For children with language processing problems, this is how to tell them to sit down. Not “Come sit here on the red chair.” or “I need you to sit now so we can start our lesson.” Chances are they will not be able to grasp if the message was about coming, sitting, the red chair, the starting, the lesson.

Why do children need to learn how to sit?

They sit when they eat. They sit when they do table top activities. They sit when they need to have a haircut. They sit in church. They sit when they are traveling. They sit when they wait for their turn at the doctor’ clinic. They sit when they watch tv and play with their computer games.

On the other hand, sitting does not mean that there is learning happening. There are those who just sit and not squirm but are not really learning anything.

Some children learn better when they are on the move.

Those schools that have the “Sit-down-and-listen-to-the-teacher” method should be avoided, if there are other alternative school. Children are active individuals and they won’t sit still for a long time. It is important to alternate both movements and table-top activities for them.

Click these Symptoms of ADHD and What to do if you Suspect Your Child has a Learning Disability?

This article, A Letter to My Grandmother by Dale S. Brown describes what she went through when she was growing up.

Another wonderful read: Beware the Sitting Trap.

Have you ever wondered if your preschool child or a preschool child you know has learning disabilities? Perhaps you have wondered why this child seem different, slightly though it may be, from his/her peers. So what clues should one watch out for to know if a child in preschool age has manifestations of a learning disability?

1. Communication delays. Does the child exhibit difficulty in understanding directions? Does the child have difficulties communicating his/her thoughts? Does the child have difficulties in seemingly understanding what is being said?
2. Speech problems like poor pronunciation of words and articulation problems are examples.
3. Poor physical and/or motor coordination. Problem with using scissors? Always tripping on his own feet? Unable to write letters and numbers correctly?
4. Memory and routine problems. Can’t seem to remember what tasks to do? Have forgotten what has been done a few moments ago? Can’t seem to count properly using rote memory and recite the letters of the alphabet in the correct sequence no matter how many times these has been taught?
5. Difficulties in doing multiple instructions.
6. Socialization and interaction delays with children.

In suspecting if a child has a learning disability, there are really no definite characteristics to measure. A child can have several of these characteristics, but not just one.

A learning disability manifests itself when school-based standards and demands on a specific grade level are not met.

Of course, it is also good to know if the current school’s standards are not so “advanced” that these requirements are not what the grade level should be having. Some schools are like that so it is best to know the different developmental milestones of the child according to his/her age. Keeping records intact is also a big help.

Self-monitoring is assessing how you are doing DURING and AFTER doing something. In other words, this is self-regulating. Why do we need to do this? Why should children with special needs need to learn to do this?

Children with developmental disabilities are often bound to make careless actions. Not that they like to do that. Some of these are:

• Turning in a test paper without looking or re-checking at the answers written on the paper.
• Instructions are read hastily and sometimes misunderstood so more often than not, the answers are wrong.
• When there are manifestations of work output with little or no awareness thereof are observed, then self-monitoring should be practiced.

How?

• Be reminding to check work or output.
• By setting standards that should be adhered to, to make work output good.
• By laying down ground rules on how to do what needs to be done, step and step and making a checklist if these steps are being followed.

These are just a few of the steps to make self-regulation a habit. But when properly done, work output would be better. And remember, this is not just only for these children but for everybody.

Short Term Memory is a skill about processing and holding information in awareness and then manipulating it within a few seconds.

Have you had some problems like these? You are about to say something and you stop in mid-sentence, completely forgetting the word or thought or idea that you are about to say? My children tease me about this, having “memory gap”, teehee, :D. If these happen at times, rest assured, nothing serious is the matter. Especially for those who are moving up the age brackets, you know what I mean.

But if these happen with children? Then there is an underlying problem. Some of the “symptoms” for short term memory problems can be:

• poor memory about physical/action sequences (tendency to forget activities in school, steps on how to do a project, dance steps)
• inconsistent visual memory (tendency to forget what has been seen or watched)
• inconsistent auditory memory (tendency to not being able to listen to or hear words spoken, having difficulty memorizing song lyrics)
• disrupted flow of ideas when speaking and writing (happens when words, or images or thoughts were forgotten)
• repetitions numbering more than the required number of times to be taught, in other words, drills will be taught, retaught, over and over again but there are still parts or bits that would be forgotten.