Learning Challenges

One of the more frustrating and stressful aspects of parenting is having a child that is experiencing difficulties in school.  What adds to this stress is that learning challenges do not magically disappear when a child becomes an adult:  Learning challenges can be present at any age.  The good news is that many of these challenges can be overcome - at any age.

Researchers who have been studying the process of learning have discovered two important facts:

• We do not all learn the same way.  Everyone has a preferred style of learning.  Sometimes the reason people do poorly in school is simply due to a mismatch between a student's preferred learning style and the educator's teaching style.
• There exist a number of identifiable patterns of "different" thought processes in our population.  As these different thought processes are identified they are named and therapies are developed to help the people with these differences to more easily function in our world.

There are probably hundreds of reasons for a child not performing well in school (or for an adult not performing as well as they would like).  Sometimes the reason for the challenge may be obvious, but usually it takes the skills of a professional to figure out the root cause (or causes) of the situation.  Sometimes these causes are physical in nature, sometimes they are emotional, sometimes environmental, etc.  Surprisingly, sometimes the underlying reason for the poor performance is ridiculously simple and easily remedied.  Sometimes, however, the underlying causes are more complex, more obscure, and concerted efforts are required to remedy them.

One of the special services All Ways Health offers is the diagnosis of, and therapy for, a wide variety of learning challenges.  We are not, however, pill pushers!  It is All Ways Health's policy not to prescribe any medications until a child's (or an adult's) situation is fully understood AND non-medication based remedies have been proven to be ineffective.  For example, if a child comes into our practice because his or her school believes they have ADHD, we won't automatically prescribe Ritalin.  We know that the symptoms of ADHD can be caused by numerous different conditions, only one of which is helped by Ritalin.

Here is a list of some of the reasons we have found underlying poor performance in school or in life in general.  As you read down the list you should begin to realize why looking into an individual's complete situation a little deeper is so important.

• Grief - over the death of a family member, the loss of a friend, the loss of a prized possession, etc.
• Stress - fear of failure, family dynamics, financial concerns, etc.
• Plain lack of motivation.
• Boredom - a child or adult not being challenged enough to hold their interest.
• Autism spectrum disorder - intellectually the individual is intelligent but overall performance suffers due to the stress of the classroom (or employment) situation.
• Enlarged tonsils - the person isn't getting enough quality sleep due to snoring.
• Dyslexia - a condition where people have difficulty associating the correct letter with the sound they should make.
• Hearing issues - simple auditory impairment, ear dominance mismatch, or cognitive issues.
• Difficulties seeing - either simple optics (eyeglasses correct), or more complex perception issues like scotopic sensitivity syndrome.
• Shoes too small - yup, it happens.
• Etc.

If your child or an adult in your family is experiencing learning challenges and nothing seems to be helping them (or nothing is helping them fast enough), consider contacting All Ways Health for an evaluation (928-779-1100).  Early diagnosis and effective therapy can prevent years of agony for everyone involved.