Often times parents struggle to figure out the pieces of the puzzle for their child, when he or she is having difficulty in an academic environment. Some challenges overlap and may require several different approaches or types of therapies to be completed in order to fully address the child’s challenges. I will outline in this blog for you the benefits and reasons of why you may want to have your child work with one of the following types of professionals. Please listen to this full episode for more details of how these programs nicely compliment each other and can ultimately help your wonderful, but struggling child be more confident and successful in a comprehensive way.

Occupational Therapy: These services can help you identify the reasons why children have a hard time sitting still, paying attention, focusing on their work, initiating school assignments, keeping their desk space organized, holding their pencil properly, writing within the spaces provided on blank or lined paper, having neat handwriting, following directions/sequencing, and getting along with others (i.e.- not playing too rough, feeling uncoordinated and/or needing to be in control). These problems can be related to having low muscle endurance (despite the fact that their muscles may appear to be very strong). Low muscle strength or endurance means the eyes, hands and postural muscles may tire out very quickly, causing a child to be wiggly in his or her seat, and/or appear to be inattentive. Often times when children have sensory processing difficulties, they appear to have behavioral problems, like the problem list mentioned above. These children need to be moving often, using their muscles and/or touching objects, or even having their own work space, to avoid upsets and negative interactions with the other students.

Speech Therapy: Speech therapy would be an excellent service for your child if his or her expressive and/or receptive language skills are delayed. This is a very common concern that is tested by Speech Therapists. This information tells the parent whether or not a child understands what is said or asked of him (receptive) and then how well the child can communicate his wants or needs with others (expressive).  This is the foundation for all communication and expectations to be established. Speech therapists also assess and treat their articulation skills, eating/feeding, and social skills, just to name a few.  They would be the best therapist to work with your child if he or she needs help sounding out words, blending words, articulating all sounds, making sense of directions given, understanding basic language concepts (on, over, under), and staying on topic when having conversations with others (without causing the other person to be confused or less interested when compared to other peers). When completing writing assignments, Speech Therapists are needed to help children gather and organize their thoughts in order to get it on paper.

Psychoeducational Testing:: Psychoeducational Testing is more comprehensive testing of the child’s overall development which is completed by a licensed school psychologist. This service is provided in public elementary school settings, or privately at a psychologist’s office.  This testing addresses all aspects of learning in terms of long and short term memory, attention, reading, writing, language concepts, visual motor skills, etc… This is the most comprehensive testing you can have done to help determine your child’s academic strengths and weaknesses, in order to find the best ways for him or her to learn and retain information. These professionals often recommend OT services for fine motor skills, attention and/or sensory processing and ST services if there are language delays, language processing difficulties, frequently missed social cues, and/or oral motor difficulties.

So what’s the great news? Well, all three of these disciplines all tend to compliment each other nicely. If you are still feeling unsure, my recommendation is to talk to your child’s teacher, administrator and/or guidance counselor and see what the primary concerns are, and then ask for guidance on the side or a team meeting. Teachers see your kids every day and can quite easily compare them to their peer group and let the parents as well as the other professionals know when something is developmentally not achieved or if there are any concerns that may require professional attention.

As a concerned parent, you should also be able to contact the individual therapists who provide these services and ask if your list of concerns are most commonly addressed by them, or if you should be looking for another type of service.

Please post any comments or questions that you have, if you are still feeling torn on which way to go for the best interest of your child. Please keep in mind that early identification of academic problems and remediation is key! The longer you wait on these concerns/struggles, the more challenging it can be to address.

Best Wishes!

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