How do we know what exactly a child’s learning barriers, assets and weaknesses are? How they view the work they’re being taught?  By what means do we understand their way of learning and demonstrating what they’ve learnt?

Three words – Full Educational Assessments

Besides my games and imaginative world for children, this is a wonderful tool in my therapist’s bag to support confused parents with what’s happening (or most often not happening) at school. Full Educational Assessments are frequently recommended when a child is performing substantially below their potential in addition to age.

An assessment is essentially for those situations when it just doesn’t make sense why the child can’t do the work (read, spell, write sentences, follow instructions, keep up with the class) even with continuous practice accompanied by repetition. As a result, the teacher, school or other therapists your child may be seeing at the time (such as Occupational or Speech Therapy) will most probably suggest an assessment be conducted. This suggestion is made to either help better understand why the child is battling, or for those situations when the child can do it verbally and understands what they are being taught but no matter how hard they try, they practically cannot do the work on paper in a manner their teacher can mark.

An educational assessment thus allows me to give you as a parent as many answers to your school-based questions as possible. Not only can I help you better understand your child academically, by unveiling their cognitive aptitudes (IQ), how they learn, the reasons why they do what they do and scholastic capacities (reading, spelling and mathematical ages), I can further assist you in achieving the overall aim of getting from:

• Point A (where your child is not coping with the school work) to
• Point B (where your child is flourishing). IT CAN BE DONE!

When you a book a Full Educational Assessment, a series of steps begins. These steps are as follows:

1. A consent form is signed by you as either the parent or guardian, providing myself with the required permission to assess your child as discussed and agreed upon between us.
2. Thereafter, relevant information is gathered about your child’s learning challenges and academic situation. This involves a Background History Questionnaire being filled out by you as the parents and a Teacher Questionnaire for your child’s class teacher to complete.

3. Once both questionnaires are completed, we then sit down together to talk about the responses provided, educational concerns present and I’ll also answer any questions you may have.

5. Next we book a morning appointment (about 4hrs) for the assessment to be administered.
6. Afterwards, once the tests are scored and a report written, I’ll then contact you to arrange a feedback meeting. Wherein, I explain the results and recommendations for your child’s individual requirements moving forward in their education.

As a parent, please note the above process and assessment results can remain completely confidential throughout and the school need not be involved, should you so wish.

Remedial Therapy, more commonly referred to as Learning Support and Inclusive Education now days, primarily focuses on your child’s underlying learning challenges. Thus not necessarily the results of the educational barriers in how they appear (incapability to spell, no comprehension of maths, difficulties in reading and writing sentences) but more so on what is causing those unpleasant classroom and homework experiences.

In view of this, remedial learning support is distinctively different from extra lessons. Owing to it not purely concentrating on the surface of the academic problems present but instead, identifies and supports the root of the scholastic difficulties. Hence what I do is implement an intervention program which works from the inside (how your child learns) out (what they put on paper for their teacher to mark).

Let’s say your child is struggling to read and spell for example. An extra lesson would solely work and place emphasis on repeating what was taught within the classroom in an effort to help the child practice it sufficiently enough to pass. However, only working on the superficial appearances of what is happening like this, means the real learning needs of your child aren’t being properly met nor resolved. Rather, they are masked over to repeatedly reappear in the upcoming grades when your child can no longer recognize the work being taught and what they battled with the most is still very much a part of the way they work.

Alternatively Remedial Learning Support works on both the classroom requirements necessitated in passing (the outside of the problem), in conjunction with what is causing the child’s reading and spelling incapability’s (the inside of the problem). Therefore, its objective is to assist as well as guide the child at their individual pace, in bridging the gaps of how they specifically learn to what they need to accomplish within the school environment.

A typical remedial lesson is foremost all about your child learning in a relaxed manner through games and fun. This breaks the mould of expecting them to complete difficult worksheet after difficult worksheet, while sitting still at a desk being told to concentrate and work harder for an hour (i.e. the typical classroom environment).

I choose to focus on supporting your child from the perspective of how they learn and where they are as a growing individual, to connecting them with what they need to be capable of achieving. For example; as a different approach to repetitively practicing sight words or phonics (which can drive any kid and parent mad), I’ll instead build up both their phonemic and phonological skills (depending on where their short fall’s lie) combined with what is always needed in a child’s educational world: imaginative learning collaboration!

As such, once lessons are formed around your child’s unique personality, learning style and a positive connection is established with them, not only will they be building their academic confidence each time we work together, they will furthermore be willing to try and learn what they battle with because it’ll no longer be seen as a threat but more so like a challenge in a game they want to win.

I believe life and emotions go hand in hand because you cannot experience living if you don’t feel it. And even though living is amazing, our moods may not always correlate.

Without a little bit of sorrow how can we know joy, right? Or what about, without a touch of stress how do we persevere in attaining our goals? This might sound impressive but actually living and feeling it is messy, complicated and unpleasantly intense to go through. Even for the strongest of people. That’s why every individual in life, no matter how educated, strong, attractive, friendly, healthy, fit and professional, has their personal emotional turmoil’s.

Everything is felt. Every decision and conversation evokes something within us. Whether we chose for it to or not. What I’m here for is to help you on those days you want to just scream and cry.  For the moments when your kids are too much to handle and you need some parental guidance, simply not knowing what’s up and what’s down anymore. I’m your confidant when school, hormones, partying, love, careers, studying or work appears unmanageable and a relationship, friendship or family bond seems to be falling apart. I’m that companion who truly listens, unconditionally accepts and helps your attempts in finding the path you’re looking for.

Counselling is aimed at being there for all the ages of life starting with those lost teen years in their entirety of adolescent mishaps and uphill battles, continuing into the blur of twenty something’s, relationships, love, careers, marriage through to parenting and all the way into those golden fortyish and beyond experiences. Being so assorted, there’s no set explanation for what a typical session is like because no one session, such as no one person, is the same.

Yet, what is the same is the entire conversation is controlled solely by you. You make the decisions regarding what we discuss and what you share. There is no right way to do counselling and there’s no wrong way. All there is, is your way of doing it. You can’t offend or hurt me and you’ll never be frowned at nor judged. You can simply let go while talking (or not even talking, should you wish). Ultimately, what’s important for you to understand is the time you book is yours to use in whichever way you feel you need to. It’s not about what you think I or others consider you should make out of it. Peculiar isn’t it? To focus on no one else but yourself as a priority during our appointment. But hey, they do say though, the weird things in life are often the best things!

The only few little points left to know is, when we’re together we start by chatting about:

• Confidentiality
• You, taking a moment to sign a consent form agreeing for our counselling sessions to occur
• What style of therapy suits your personality
• And finally, making certain all of your questions about what we’ll be doing together are answered

Once all that’s done and dusted the conversation flows so easily it’ll be a refreshing surprize!