Concrete signs of negative emotions toward school

Have you noticed your child or teen displaying negative emotions toward school? They may complain of a stomachache during the morning rush, ask about upcoming vacation days, or put up a fight when it’s time to start homework.

Even if their grades are ok, you may be wondering why a smart and well-liked kid could be avoiding school and delaying homework. If you’ve ruled out bullying, boredom, and other potential causes, we’ve got another consideration: a learning struggle.

The truth is your student probably IS very smart. In fact, most of the children and teens that enroll in personal brain training at LearningRx are of average to above-average intelligence. Over the years, we’ve learned that the learning struggles most students experience in school have nothing to do with intelligence, laziness, poor teaching, or genetics. They come from cognitive skills that simply need a boost to help the student excel.

How strengthening cognitive skills might help with school

Also referred to as “brain skills,” cognitive skills are the foundational tools we use to think, learn, read, remember, and pay attention. They include logic & reasoning, processing speed, memory, auditory and visual processing, and attention. When these skills are strong, learning is fast and easy. But if they’re not maximized, students can’t live up to their full potential in school, work, and life in general.

If you’re not sure that a learning struggle might be manifesting in your student, it helps to first understand what each of our cognitive skills does:

• Attention can be broken down into three subcategories:

1. Divided attention enables us to remember information while doing two things at once.

2. Selective attention is the skill that enables us to stay focused on a task despite distractions.

3. Sustained attention enables us to stay focused and on task for a sustained period of time.

• Auditory processing enables us to analyze, blend, and segment sounds.

• Logic & reasoning are skills that allow us to reason, form ideas, and solve problems.

• Memory can be broken down into two subcategories:

1.  Long-term memory is the skill that enables us to recall information stored in the past.

2. Working memory enables us to hang on to information while in the process of using it.

• Processing speed is the skill that enables us to perform tasks quickly and accurately.

• Visual processing is the skill that enables us to think in visual images.

Cues that strengthening cognitive skills might help in school

If your student has a learning struggle, you may have already picked up on some cues. Maybe a teacher has mentioned that he/she is easily distracted in class, or the school has already taken measures to allow him/her to take tests alone in a different setting. Or perhaps the nightly homework battle is taking its toll on your family, and you worry that less-than-stellar grades don’t put your student on track for a good college.

Although these broader issues may be indicative of a learning struggle, you may be able to recognize even more specific signs that your student’s brain skills could use a boost. For example:

1. Does your student have trouble multitasking?

Solution: Strengthen their divided attention.

2. Is your student easily distracted?

Solution: Strengthen their selective attention.

3. Does your student have lots of unfinished projects because they jump from task to task? Solution: Strengthen their sustained attention.

4. Is your struggling with learning to read, reading fluency, or reading comprehension?

Solution: Strengthen their auditory processing.

5. Does he/she frequently ask, “What do I do next?” or say, “I don’t get this” because they feel stuck or overwhelmed?

Solution: Strengthen their logic & reasoning.

6. Does your child or teen frequently forget names, perform poorly on tests, or forget things they used to know?

Solution: Strengthen their long-term memory.

7. Does your student need to read directions again in the middle of a project or have difficulty following multi-step directions?

Solution: Strengthen their working memory.

8. Does he/she take longer than his/her peers to complete tasks at school or homework?

Solution: Strengthen their processing speed.

9. Does your student have difficulties understanding or remembering what they read, reading maps, or doing word math problems?

Solution: Strengthen their visual processing.

It’s worth noting that we sometimes find that learning struggles come in clusters, meaning it’s possible that your student may have more than one cognitive skill that needs a tune-up. Not to worry! The one-on-one brain training programs at LearningRx are tailored to meet the needs of each unique student.

How do I know which cognitive skills need some work?

When you come to LearningRx, every initial consultation starts with a discussion, a demonstration of our programs, and a Brain Skills Assessment. This affordable test only takes about an hour and the results can help us pinpoint which skills are strong and which could use a boost to bring out your student’s full learning potential for school and life in general.

Our team will use the results of the Brain Skills Assessment to create a personal brain training program to target and strengthen the skill or skills that need the most work. We’ll pair your student with a personal brain trainer who will work with them for the duration of their program. Using game-like mental exercises that are challenging but fun, you’ll see your student’s confidence soar as they get positive feedback throughout the program.

Why didn’t tutoring work for my student?

Some parents who bring their students to LearningRx have tried tutoring with little or no success. But that’s not because tutoring doesn’t work! It’s because it’s simply a solution to a different problem.

Learning is made up of two parts: educational content (i.e., knowledge) and the cognitive ability to apply that content. Tutoring is helpful when you need to deliver or redeliver academic material. For example, if a student misses a chunk of instruction due to an extended illness, injury, or mid-schoolyear move, tutoring can help them get caught up on material they missed.

But for students who are falling behind in multiple classes in school year after year, the problem is more than likely that their brain skills just need to boost. Strong brain skills can help them learn, understand, and remember the information they were taught (or read) the first time.

Rather than reteaching the material in hopes that maybe it will “stick” this time, personal brain training addresses the root cause of the problem. By targeting and strengthening the foundational tools that your student needs to excel in school, they’ll be able to learn ANY subject faster and easier.

Visit www.LearningRx.com to find your nearest LearningRx center and schedule a Brain Skills Assessment.