Learning Disabilities in Pewaukee, WI
Was your child struggling during the previous semester at school? Is your child seeming highly frustrated with school? Does your child seem to struggle with making progress in their learning more than expected? At Sengstock Pediatric Neuropsychology, Dr. Sengstock can help parents identify signs of learning disabilities and also provide recommendations and consultation to assist with your child's academic success.
What is a learning disability?
A learning disability is a deficit that significantly impacts a child's ability to process, retain, and use information related to academics such as reading, writing, or math. The learning issues are not a result of low intellectual ability, physical impairments, or lack of access to quality education. They are neurological in nature and part of the child's brain development, and there is suspicion that they have a genetic link given that learning disabilities can sometimes run in families.
What a parent should look for
If your child performs below expectation academically or has struggled to make gains academically despite tutoring or other academic interventions, then he or she may have a learning disability. Some symptoms a parent may observe are:
- Reading skills that are well below grade level
- "choppy" reading and resistance to reading for pleasure
- Poor spelling skills
- Difficulty generating written work and poor use of punctuation/capitalization
- Poor handwriting
- Difficulty with math calculations or learning math facts
- Poor number sense and difficulty solidifying new math concepts
- Strong resistance/frustration on academic tasks
A comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation is needed to identify and diagnose a learning disability, and Dr.
Sengstock works with parents, schools, and tutors to help outline the child's needs or the necessary interventions. Testing will also identify other factors that may be impacting learning (e.g., attention, organizational weaknesses, motivation, psychiatric issues, etc.) so as to remove these obstacles from the child's academic progress.
Kinds of learning disabilities
In relation to academics, the main types of learning disabilities are:
- Dyslexia (also called Reading Disability)
- Dysgraphia (also called Disorder of Written Language)
- Dyscalculia (also called Math Disability)