Interview with Newport Education Centre

1. How can parents find out if their kids have any learning difficulties? Any signs?

In my experience, if the school has not raised the issue of learning difficulties, most parents have a ‘gut feeling’ when there is something not quite right. In fact I have had many parents come to me when the school has said that everything is fine, but they know that their child is struggling. Mostly the alarm bells go off when there is a change in the child’s attitude to school or their happiness, but sometimes it is when the parents sit down to help their child, that they learn that they have fallen behind what is expected.

 

2. What are the common learning difficulties? (Attention problem, passive learner, etc?)

There are as many different learning difficulties as there are students, so it is hard to say which is the most common. Of course there are many students with attention difficulties, but there are just as many with different variations of processing problems, which means that they have trouble taking information in, trouble remembering, recalling, or retrieving it, or linking it to information already learnt. There are those who have difficulties with Literacy or Numeracy skills, or both, and those with medical issues that interfere with learning. Attention problems affect a large number of students of all ages, while others need their confidence boosted or need to be taught in a way that matches their learning style. 

 

3. What is your approach (as a educator) to help those kids with learning difficulties? Any examples?

It is important that each child is assessed so that informed decisions can be made as to how and what to work on. Full psychological and educational assessments carried out either privately or by the school can help us to pinpoint the weaker skills, which when worked upon can make a big difference to a wide variety of areas. Many students we see have had testing done already, but for those who haven’t, we do standardised testing so that we have a base line to compare to.

Once we have looked at both test results and at how the child is coping on a day to day basis both in the classroom and when at home doing homework, we design an individual program for them which will incorporate methods that work for that child. Often this is done in collaboration with the classroom teacher or other professionals working with them, so that as a team we can work towards the same goals. Assessment is ongoing and full written reports are provided to the parents at the end of each term.

Students always have the opportunity to bring in current problems from school to have them solved before we work on what we had prepared, so their program is quite fluid, depending on what the greatest need is at the time.

Parents are able to contact us to discuss their child’s program or make changes to it, which sometimes occurs when contact with their school highlights the need to work on a particular skill or topic, to boost understanding in the classroom.

Besides being mentors to our students, the teachers at Newport Education Centre try to assist parents in keeping their children organised and on top of their schoolwork. We encourage students to use their diaries well, get started on work as soon as it is given, constantly revise and strive towards getting all tasks in on time.

We have had many success stories over our 26 years of helping students on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where children have achieved far beyond their parents and teacher’s expectations. More inspirational to me, are the many strugglers who we have assisted to ensure that their journey through primary and high school ends in happiness with their confidence and motivation in tact.

 

4. What can parents to help their kids to overcome the learning difficulties, perhaps some activities?

Parents need to offer emotional support, understanding and as much time and practical help as they can. The students whose parents are knowledgeable about what they are doing, what they need help with, and how everything is going, are the ones who perform better and are more likely to succeed. Every minute spent helping students with special needs, is reflected in the end product, regardless of how frustrating it is!. Parents can really make a big difference in helping their children to feel more worthy and more confident by offering praise without criticism.