Early intervention is crucial in helping children struggling in school. Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” echoes this point.
Early identification is the first step to helping children. Parents who intervene early on help their child by finding the right support sooner rather than later or none at all.
Here are five pointers to keep in mind when concerns or questions come up.
1. Pull out the Family Tree
First and foremost, parents should dig deep into their family history. It’s important to keep in mind that ‘the apple does not fall far from the tree’. Dyslexia and ADHD are two of the most common conditions inherited from a family member.
2. Consult with Pediatrician
The best friend of any concerned parent is their pediatrician. Use your next visit to ask if further monitoring is needed. When prescribed to other professionals, like psychologists or educational therapists, referrals should be taken seriously.
3. Talk to your Child's Teacher
Astute teachers are good observers of behaviors. They can tell you if your child is on track or not. The most helpful parent: teacher conference may be the first one as it may lay the foundation for school success. It’s important to keep an open mind and follow-up.
4. Get Help
If concerns are raised, parents are best served to seek out help early on. A child psychologist can lay the path for optimum development. They can create a working hypothesis that is tested by administering validated and reliable measures of motor, cognitive, academic, social, and emotional development. Once complete, their conclusions serve to inform parents of approaches for home, recommendations to follow-up on, and accommodations for schools to improve your child's functioning.
5. Don't Delay
The commonly expressed sentiment, “they grow up so fast,” should be a wise reminder to parents to act early on - the sooner the better. If ignored, a child may develop poor methods to manage the distress of not being on the same level as their peers. They may resort to giving up due to repeated failures.
All children need mindful observers in the forms of parents who advocate at all levels to obtain appropriate services such as educational therapy. Research confirms that early interventions result in better outcomes. The luckiest child is the one who has been identified early enough to receive appropriate interventions.