Before your child starts school, we recommend that you take time to meet with his or her teacher and school nurse. Educate the school about your child’s symptoms, safety concerns, and action plan.
Learning Challenges
There are many reasons why your child may have problems learning. For example, health issues may cause learning problems and can cause fatigue, making your child too tired to learn. Medicines also sometimes cause problems with learning, language, and attention. Finally, it is important to consider a problem with mood or behavior.
It is very useful to document your child’s level of knowledge and learning ability before starting treatment or soon after starting treatment to establish a baseline. Objective measures of your child’s academic progress should be documented carefully by the school and, additionally, by a neuropsychologist.
Behavior Challenges
Most parents struggle at times with their child’s behavior. It is often challenging for parents and physicians to determine the cause of the behavior problems.
To better understand your child’s behavior, your child’s physician may find it useful to know:
- What are the behaviors of concern? Try to state examples.
- When did the behavior start?
- How have adults responded to the behavior problem?
- Where are the behaviors most likely to occur? Home? School? With friends?
- Are there triggers for the behaviors?
- Do you see any link to your child’s behavior and health issues, school problems, family problems, problems with peers?
You should discuss how to set limits for your child with your child’s physician.
There are many people that can help you get a better handle on your child’s behavior. Ask your child’s pediatrician.