Why Test?
What it takes to maximize your brain’s potential, and why your child’s future may depend on it.
A lab coat clad doctor strolls into an exam room where you’re waiting. He carries a syringe and a sealed medication bottle. Smiling, he fills the syringe and says, “Well there’s no doubt that you’re sick, but I am not positive of the exact problem. Let’s inject a little of this…it worked pretty well for a few of my previous patients. Come back next week and we’ll see if it worked for you, too.”
Bad medicine?
Terrified? You should be! To let a doctor treat a physical problem in that manner would be outrageous, dangerous, and absurd. So why is it that so many educational specialists attempt to solve learning problems in the same haphazard way—and why do parents let them? “Too often, symptoms are treated with stock or group ‘solutions’ without accurate knowledge of the exact cause of the problem,” says LearningRx President and Founder, Dr. Ken Gibson.
Is the future really in the balance?Tomorrow’s options depend on what you learn today. When it comes to learning, everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Some people can create ways to compensate for their deficiencies. Others are plagued with lifelong struggles. Left untreated, certain learning skill weaknesses can have devastating affects on academic performance, job productivity, and even social standing. For those people, life’s promises quickly lose their luster. A positive step needs to be taken, and taken early.
“Unfortunately, many approach learning remediation and enhancement like the careless doctor illustrated earlier,” continues Dr. Gibson, “simply applying some familiar strategy, fad, or perceived educational truism in the hope of seeing results which often do not appear. Worse yet, students are admonished to ‘just try harder’ and then judged as if their poor learning performance is due to laziness or lack of motivation.” When little changes, parents often blame the continuing problems on bad teachers, crowded classrooms, and boring textbooks —or they excuse the struggle under the umbrella of an ADD, ADHD, or a Learning Disabled label. “Parents often grasp at anything that might offer a glimmer of hope when what they really need to do is to pinpoint the root problem through accurate and effective testing,” emphasizes Dr. Gibson.
Why the struggle?
The vast majority of contemporary educational research indicates that the root cause of most learning struggles is not lack of motivation or poor classroom instruction, but rather specific cognitive skills weaknesses. If a student is unable to process information accurately and effectively, he will likely suffer from numerous other symptoms such as poor reading comprehension, the inability to stay focused, and difficulty following instructions.
“Even the best teachers and curriculum cannot make up for undetected cognitive weaknesses,” reports Dr. Gibson. And as problems carry over into different subject areas, frustrations and failure multiply and often lead to plummeting self-esteem. Some students learn to compensate early, but the skill weaknesses continue to hinder potential. Adults focus on strengths to get by, but live with lifetime limitations.
So then, is it possible that even bright students can have insufficient underlying skills that are hindering potential excellence? “Of course,” Dr. Gibson replies, “We run across a lot of ‘undiscovered’ learning issues through our assessment process. Even straight-A students, especially in early grades, can have weak underlying mental skills, which can hinder them later in life. That’s why effective cognitive skills testing is so important.”
In fact, in American schools today, far too many students work too hard to learn, read, do math, or maintain adequate grades. Even if these students are able to sustain average performance, they do it at a cost of frustration, discouragement, and missing out on the success they are truly capable of achieving. When you consider both struggling students along with those who could excel if a hidden cognitive weakness was uncovered early, you have a strong case for the value of cognitive skills testing for everyone.
Taking the first step
Good medicine starts with an accurate diagnosis. So does good education. You shouldn’t continue to settle for methods that repeatedly produce little or no consistent change, but “…without specific information for each child, what choice do educators or parents have but to try what worked for others?” says Dr. Gibson.
Any reputable doctor will first test to determine the source of the patient’s symptoms. Likewise, any successful strategy to overcome learning problems or enhance learning skills should begin with the right tests — simple but accurate tests that can reveal a person’s cognitive abilities (both weaknesses and strengths) and uncover the root cause of almost any learning difficulty.
Discovering skills strength is the key
Each of the underlying mental skills listed in the sidebar can dramatically impact learning performance, and must be tested. Fortunately, all of these skills can also be trained and strengthened if the need or potential is identified in time through individual skills testing.
The tests are the tools
LearningRx uses a variety of nationally acclaimed cognitive abilities, achievement, and reading mastery tests in addition to proprietary screening tools developed to further enhance identification of individual skill strength and weakness. At LearningRx Training Centers, such broad, accurate, and definitive testing pinpoints weak underlying cognitive skills related to poor performance and serves as the foundation for individualized, effective training.
Specific skills need specific strategies
“You must accurately measure individual cognitive skills to determine the exact cause of processing problems. From this precise information, it is possible to create an effective training strategy that boosts learning and improves performance for each student,” says Dr. Gibson. “This combination of testing and training allow us to team with parents and students to overcome specific weaknesses and target areas of potential gain rapidly and effectively.”
If you believe your child has unrealized learning potential, get his or her underlying skills tested today. It could very well be the first step to a lifetime of faster, easier learning. Dr. Ken Gibson is the author of “Unlock the Einstein Inside” and is the founder and President of LearningRx. Dr. Gibson has spent his entire professional career finding ways to help students—children and adults—learn and read faster and easier. You can learn more about Dr. Gibson at any LearningRx Training Center.
If you would like to speak to a learning professional, please contact your local LearningRx center.
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