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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

I have just seen the most interesting learning program online. It’s called Learning Aids, and it’s a system designed to retrain your child’s brain. If a boy or girl is struggling in school, it’s possible they have a learning disability. There are actually more than one kind of learning disability. Dysgraphia, dyscalcula, and dyslexia are three of the most prevalent.

Back when I was in school to become a special education teacher I learned the most interesting fact about learning disabilities. Imagine a line that splits down the child from head to toe, right down the center. This is called midline. A child with a learning disability will not cross midline. In other words, they won’t reach with their left hand to pick up something to the right. Isn’t that interesting?

That’s why I found the Learning Aids program to be so fascinating. It’s called Neuro Sensory Educational Therapy. Sounds scary, right? It’s not. They teach you the parent how to work with your child. The activities are somewhat simple looking. In one exercise you have the child draw figure eights, and then they quickly draw a letter or shape, then continue with the figure eights. Know what they’re doing? Crossing midline. There are 12 months worth of activities, and everything is demonstrated on a video so you know what to do. You can expect to spend about 20 minutes per day on the program.

According to the Learning Aids site, you need to work the program for about 3 months before you start seeing results. After that, improvement typically continues to increase.

A child with a learning problem can get into a very negative spiral. He struggles with the lesson and gets frustrated. He gets behind. Rinse, repeat. The longer the problem exists, the more he gets behind. Worse, the less he thinks of himself.

I haven’t personally tried this program with a child, so I cannot tell you whether or not it works. There are quite a few testimonials on the site saying that it does.

What I can tell you is that the science behind the brain retraining activities looks pretty compelling to me. If one of my kids was struggling with learning, I’d certainly like to try Learning Aids before putting him through the trauma of a special education evaluation and label.

If working with my kid for 20 minutes per day-on activities that are fairly pleasant-would help his brain get straightened out so he could learn in school, well…that’s a no-brainer.

Earnest Parenting: help for parents who want their kids to do well in school.