“This is a sponsored blog; while the views expressed here were genuinely mine, consideration was paid to me by Huntington Learning Center.”
Many of you know Peyton was diagnosed with ADHD in second grade. That diagnosis was not a shock but it was a relief. We had been having issues with her performance in school, her behavior and overall attitude. So getting an official diagnosis was a huge relief. I thought things would start to work themselves out but here we are, a year later. Yes, her behavior has improved. Yes, her attitude has improved. She’s made some great friends and was in the school play. But her performance does not seem to have improved to match her intelligence. I know she’s a bright child. But I’m not seeing it in her grades. When I found out that Huntington Learning Center does full academic evaluations and designs a plan that helps your child become the best student they could be I was pretty excited. I knew this evaluation would give us answers as to what was going on in school.
I signed Peyton up to take the testing on Saturday morning. The testing takes about 3-4 hours so I wanted to make sure she had a good nights sleep, a protein-packed breakfast, and a clear head to take the test. They also requested I send her with a snack to help keep her going throughout the testing. When Saturday morning came, Peyton was well rested, I fed her a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast and sent her off with a fruit salad and a bottle of water for a snack. Then I dropped her off and went to run some errands.
The testing consisted of a few different styles. Some of the testing was verbal, some on a computer and some on good old fashioned paper and pencil. When Peyton was about 20 minutes out from finishing her testing, Huntington Learning Center called me and let me know to come pick her up. When I arrived, I thought I would find a cranky, exhausted Peyton but instead, I found a bubbly and happy Peyton! She loved being there. Peyton had so much fun taking the testing that she didn’t mind. She said all the staff was super friendly and she really enjoyed the tutor she was working with one on one. As a mom, that made me feel really good about this. If she had this much fun taking tests, she is bound to enjoy her time there when she’s being tutored.
The results only took a day or two for Huntington Learning Center to compile but it took me a smidge longer to find an opening in my schedule to go back and go over the result. The results meeting is not something the child needs to be at. Being a single parent I did bring Peyton but I let her play on my phone while I went over the results. The results where pretty much what I thought they would be, she’s a bright child but she lacks study skills. She also struggles with picking out the important pieces in word problems and gets overwhelmed when there are several directions to follow. This is typical for children with ADHD.
So what now? We made a plan. Huntington Learning Center have been around for over 40 years helping students become the best students they can be. They have experience in helping children with ADHD. The plan was to have Peyton attend some one on one tutoring sessions to help her with learn how to identify what parts of a lecture or reading material are important. We also discussed working on her reading comprehension, she reads at 2-grade levels above her but she doesn’t necessarily retain or understand what she is reading. These are skills that can be taught and once Peyton masters them it would give her a solid foundation for tackling 4th grade and beyond.
Going through the testing confirmed what I thought was going on. Peyton is bright, she just needs a little help in fine-tuning her study skills so she can be the most successful student she can be. Huntington Learning Center can help Peyton master those skills in a one on one environment with a curriculum that is catered to her learning needs.
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