Off to See the Wizard:
Guiding Your Child through the Assessment Process
by Pamm Scribner, MA, BCET

Testing for learning disabilities often strikes parents and children as a perilous journey. Like Dorothy and her Land of Oz sidekicks, they may focus on imaginary dangers, the "lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" As a parent, your job is to help shift your child's attention to the positive aspects of the process. You can help her experience the assessment not as something to be feared, but as an opportunity to figuratively "visit the wizard" and find out how she learns best.

A thorough assessment of your child's strengths and weaknesses offers relief from the vague sense that something is wrong. Assessments help pinpoint why your child is struggling, but they also identify your child's strengths. With this information, you and your child's teachers can develop a strategy to maximize her learning capabilities. Children face needless embarrassment and confusion when they do not understand their unique learning style.

Before you can guide your child along this yellow brick road, though, you must sort through your own feelings. This is often not an easy task. As a parent, you must see testing as a step that will benefit you and your child. You need to appreciate its power to make learning easier and more effective. The testing process can be divided into three stages, and parents play an important role in each.

Pre-Assessment: Putting your child at ease
Once you and your child's teachers determine that an assessment is necessary to best manage his or her educational program, your task is to reassure your child. Your child probably knows that she has more difficulty in school than most classmates. Bringing that out in the open is a good place to begin the discussion. Often children are secretly worried that they are retarded, crazy or "a loser." Uncovering these fears will smooth the transition to the first testing session.

Talk with your child about the upcoming assessment several days in advance of the testing. Some parents prefer to talk individually with their child to discuss the fact that mom and dad and teacher are aware of how much she struggles in school, even though she is smart and wants to do well. Other parents prefer to meet with the child and a teacher or private practitioner. Here are the points you must cover:

• Give your child the basic facts. Your child needs to know the who/what/when/where/why/how of the testing process. For example, if your child will be tested at school, you might say something like this: Ms. Taylor from the school will meet with you next week to give you some tests. These tests will help us figure out how you learn and how we and your teacher can help you. She'll work with you in her office next Tuesday and Thursday morning. Afterwards, you will have lunch and then go back to your classroom for the afternoon. If the testing is taking place off-site, tell your child where and when you will pick her up. Remind her that the examiner has your telephone number if she needs to contact you for any reason.
• Ask for your child's input. It's important to give your child an opportunity to share questions and concerns about the testing. Typically, the examiner (person giving the tests) will have met with the parent prior to testing to go over the process. Do your best to answer your child's questions based on what you know. Remind her that there are no grades for these tests. Explain that she is not expected to answer all the questions. The tests are designed so that some questions will be easy and some will be too hard to answer. If you don't have the information your child wants, let her know that you will pass her questions on to the examiner. The more your child has imagined the actual session, the more comfortable she will feel.

The Assessment Sessions
Assessment typically takes more than one session. There are several things you can do to help the testing process go smoothly.

• Maintain your child's regular routine as much as possible: a good night's sleep, a nutritious breakfast, and the usual preparation for school (if the child is attending school that day). It is often helpful to pack an extra snack.
• After each session, give your child an opportunity to download. Engage your child in a discussion of what went on in a general way: "Did you get to read (or draw, or do puzzles) today? Tell me about it." If they don't want to discuss the session, accept that decision. Younger children, in particular, will probably be happy to tell you what they did.

Post-Assessment: Explaining the findings
Once you understand your child's learning profile, you can decide who is best able to share this information in a manner that your child will understand. Often, parents will meet with the examiner alone to go over results, then schedule a second meeting that will include the child. If you were not satisfied with the way the examiner presented the information to you, you may want to explain the findings to your child privately or with another supportive professional. This discussion differs for each student, depending on age, maturity, and readiness to discuss her learning disability or learning difference.

One useful model is the three-step "LD Talk" used by The Churchill School in New York City to explain assessment results to their students. (The complete text is available at www.ldonline.com).

1. Begin with strengths: According to The Churchill School, "All LD Talks begin with the emphasis that the child is smart, discussing as many strengths of the child as possible. These strengths include not only academics, but social, athletic, and personal strengths, so the student can begin to understand his/her total person. With input from the student, the strengths are discussed and written so the child has a record of the discussion."
2. Discuss specific weaknesses. The second step discusses the academic weaknesses the student is experiencing. It is important to give very specific examples of school difficulties. This is where the student learns that her difficulty with reading or writing or math is connected to a processing deficit. You might use an example such as: "Your brain likes to work with a few pieces of information at a time; this is called memory. Sometimes there are more sounds in a word you have to write than your brain likes, so it leaves out sounds in words when you spell." Try to avoid using complex terminology. As much as possible, describe the impact of the processing deficit, rather than using words such as short-term auditory memory or processing speed.
3. Review coping strategies. The third step in The Churchill School model emphasizes the techniques, strategies, and methods that the student is learning to help overcome their weakness. Use concrete examples in this discussion, such as "Learning the sounds of the letters and blending them together helps you read new words." Ask the student to tell you which activities in the classroom are helping her to learn.

Throughout this process, it is important for parents to be hopeful and positive. Keep the focus on your child's strengths. School may be a challenge now, but it will get easier as her skills improve. Remind her that she is successful in many parts of her life. Emphasize that you are there to give her the support she needs.

Keep in mind that "the LD talk" is an on-going process that needs to be repeated often during the first year, then at least once a year at the beginning of each new school year. A child's understanding of her learning style develops over time. Children need to continue to learn about and discuss their learning problems. They need to know that they can improve: strengths get stronger and weaknesses less inhibiting. The knowledge that testing brings will not only make your child a more capable learner but help preserve her sense of pride and self-worth.

Bibliography

Levine, Mel. Educational Care, 2nd edition, EPS, Cambridge: 2002, ISBN 0-8388-1987-7
Levine, Mel. Keeping a Head in School, EPS, Cambridge: 2001, ISBN 0-8388-2069-7

Pamm Scribner, an Educational Therapist in the San Francisco Bay Area, has served adolescents and adults who are non-traditional learners for over twenty-five years. She earned a Master's of Arts degree in Education and the Learning Specialist Certification from San Francisco State University. Pamm is Director of the Certificate in Educational Therapy Program for UC Berkeley Extension.

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