According to an April study of 1500 participants, understood.org found that in the remote learning environment, “nearly three-quarters (72%) of parents have become aware of or noticed their children may have learning challenges or differences.” The pandemic only punctuated the point that parents and educators appreciate insight into their learners’ underlying abilities in order to help differentiate levels of support. In order to uncover a learner’s present levels and wholehearted capabilities, parents and educators must seek inventories, screenings and evaluations administered by professionals in the field. There are very few affordable and accessible resources available that are able to provide pinpointed information into the inner workings of learners’ processing skills and aptitude abilities in areas such as literacy, math, executive functioning and cognition. Then, provide clearly defined recommendations, resources, and referrals to match the learners’ diverse needs. Once you uncover both how your learner is performing and what their overall potential is, you can streamline a plan to expedite progress and strengthen feelings of success. So let’s get started!
Learnfully’s Screening
The Learnfully screening is truly like no other – we are able to discover an accurate appraisal of your learner’s skill set through two online evaluative sessions. To optimize learner engagement, we establish a strong rapport between learner and educational specialist before proceeding with the screening. Each screening is individualized in nature, yet standardized in administration. Depending on your learner’s needs and struggles, we are able to create a screening to specifically measure, then address, your learner’s current abilities in order to heighten cognizance of your learner’s entire profile. This way, you can understand how your learner learns best, what personality and instructional style works best to maximize engagement and what multisensory, evidence-based programs will develop, strengthen and apply the underlying sensory-cognitive areas of challenge. Areas that our screening explores are:
- Reading/Literacy – phonological processing, phonemic awareness, decoding, spelling, sight words, reading fluency, comprehension and written expression
- Math – computation, conceptualization, problem solving and word problem skills
- Cognition – areas such as processing speed, verbal/visual memory and the like
- Executive Functioning – each of the eight levels are measured
Traditional vs. Whole-child Screening ComparisonTraditional Classroom AssessmentTina does not know how to write her ABCs, so she scribbles during class. This feedback leads to frustrated parents who think that their child is lazy in the classroom. This is because Tina is perfectly capable of writing her ABCs at home. This only increases Tina’s anxiety levels at school which makes her performance worse. Learnfully’s Whole-Child ScreeningTina is a fluent reader and knows her ABC’s; however, she has undiagnosed auditory processing issues which makes it hard for her to consume auditory instructions. The parents now know that Tina is perfectly capable of completing her tasks when the instructions are written down, versus when delivered auditorily. In traditional settings conclusions are solely based on the performance, as a result the root cause of the issue is missed and can go unnoticed. This turns into a lost opportunity to find effective intervention that helps them unlock their potential. In this case, just merely changing how the instructions are delivered would have solved the issue for everyone, reduced anxiety and increased confidence which helps Tina’s overall performance in and out of the classroom! |
Screening Review & Consultation
The discussion following the screening administration paints a vibrantly clear picture about your learner as a whole. The findings shed light on interests, strengths, areas of need/challenge, differentiated recommendations (programming and short/long term goals) as well as the importance of proactive collaborative efforts with your learner’s ecosystem. We are able to gauge academic, cognitive and social-emotional skills in order to delineate a personalized learning plan that will help your learner not only reach, but realize their strong learning potential. In the screening report itself, we are able to report on the following components:
- Relevant background information
- Learner strengths and interests
- Areas of challenge
- Learner Impact (in and out of the classroom)
- Program Recommendations
Now What?
So now that you have the screening results and recommendations in hand, what’s next? Learnfully Educational Specialists will help secure a plan that will place your learner on the path to confidence and success. We will take care of finding the best fit Educational Specialist in terms of interests, certifications and personality so that you and your learner can start seeing and feeling progress right away! Also, we pride ourselves on proactive communication with the learner’s ecosystem – parents, educators, outside specialists – so we will make sure to maintain collaborative efforts with anyone on your learner’s team in order to provide insight and maintain consistency across all environments. Lastly, if we find that your learner is in need of supplemental support such as speech therapy or comprehensive psychological assessments, for example, we can provide you with the resources and referrals your family needs!
