Diagnosing a Child Who Is Two Grade Levels Behind

Help! My Child Is Two Grade Levels Behind

Communicate With Teachers

When you first suspect that your child may be falling behind other students, it's important to immediately communicate the concern to his teachers. Sometimes, students grades may be low due to missing work or other factors the teacher can inform you about. However, if it is looking like your child is behind, the teacher is usually the first person that can provide you with an early confirmation by letting you know what he or she is seeing in your child's work.

Get School Counselors Involved

After you've spoken with the teachers, it's a good idea to get counselors involved if they're aren't already. Often, if students are really struggling in school, teachers will let counselors know so they can begin monitoring the students. However, if this has not happened, you may need to let your child's counselor know yourself. Once the counselor is involved, he or she may be able to provide special services to assist your child in the classroom. In addition, counselors can help with the testing that needs to be done to see if your child is actually a few grade levels behind.

Seek Professional Help

If the testing performed at school does determine that your child is behind, professional help may be needed to discover the reason why. It's possible that your child could have a learning disability. Additional testing will reveal what disability - if any - your child actually has. Two of the common learning disabilities are briefly described below.

Dyslexia: Dyslexia is a disability that affects students' ability to read. Students often have problems with comprehension because they struggle to understand or determine how various letters, words and phrases go together.

Dyscalculia: Dyscalculia deals with problems in math. Students will often have difficulty memorizing and organizing numbers, which makes it difficult to solve even simple math problems. In addition, students with dyscalculia struggle with basic counting procedures like counting by twos or threes.