Processing Skills
Processing Skills
Learning Disability
The PACE Story
Provider Support

Step 3

Testing - Does your child have the skills needed to learn?

Your child has probably taken achievement tests. These tests measure how well a child is doing in an academic subject.

Intelligence (mental skills/cognition) tests measure the underlying learning skills the child has. Unfortunately, these test results are very often misinterpreted. If your child has been tested in the past or labeled as LD or dyslexic, please click here for a short but important discussion of these test results.

Most intelligence/cognition tests look at all of these mental skills in our model and although most give a total "IQ" score, we are far more interested in the individual test scores of the different mental abilities that are being tested.

The "IQ" score is just an average of the separate mental skills being evaluated. It tells us nothing about the individual strengths and weaknesses of the underlying skills that would be important for reading, math calculations, comprehension, or geometry etc.

But, by analyzing the individual test scores and comparing them with the child's achievement levels in different subject areas, we can determine a cause and effect relationship between the underlying mental skills required and the achievement area affected.

For example, poor sound blending, segmenting, and analysis (the CAUSE) will result in difficulty in reading and spelling (the EFFECT). When these underlying skills are developed, reading and spelling will improve.

After testing has confirmed or pinpointed the underlying cause of a learning problem, the next step is to institute a program to correct the deficient learning skill.

Step 4

Five steps to help you help your child

By following these steps you will have gained some very important information that will dramatically improve you child's ability to do well in school.

  1. Understand the causes of learning difficulties.
  2. Know the skills necessary for fast and efficient learning.
  3. Find out what skills are weak.
  4. Learn what needs to happen to improve learning skills.
  5. Take specific steps that can help your child or student gain the skills needed to become a successful student.
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