I wholeheartedly agree! I love your work and have recommended you to many of the families I work with. Our education system is failing children and I see many children in my practice who have been left traumatised by their experiences in school. Children all develop at different rates and by imposing age-based standards we seriously disadvantage those who are late developers. These children are often labelled as low ability with serious implications for their confidence and self-esteem. We also need to remember that children are not properly ready for academic learning until they are 7. This is recognised in many countries in Europe but sadly not here. Until the age of 7, they don't have the visual or auditory processing processing skills required for learning. Learning difficulties can also arise if the child has retained any primitive reflexes. Retention of these reflexes can hinder full development of the brain and prevent the child from accessing or expressing their intelligence, as well as impact their ability to regulate their emotions.
The problem with waiting until 7 is that early intervention is so key. While it's plausible that some students who are late developers may get incorrectly identified as having a learning disability, a full cognitive eval will also identify ASAP the kids who need high doses of intensive instruction due to deficits in working, short term memory etc. Dyslexia can also be diagnosed by this age. The sooner a parent has that information, the sooner they can make the appropriate decision for their child's education.
I agree that we don’t need to wait till a child is 7 which I why I work with children who are much younger. If a child still has retained primitive reflexes by the age of say 3, then it is likely the child will experience difficulties of some kind as they get older. The majority of children with dyslexia , for example, will have a retained ATNR. Extra tuition won’t help that child until its visual and auditory sound processing skills are fully developed - it will merely lead to frustration and in some cases trauma. In an ideal world all children would be tested at a young age to see if their primitive reflexes have integrated and programs put in place to help integrate these reflexes. One of my daughters struggled with her learning and was classed as low ability leading to years of trauma. Coupled with high levels of anxiety and bullying, by age 12 she developed serious mental health issues resulting in an eating disorder and lengthy hospitalisation. Her story luckily has a happy ending and she is off to uni in September as we were fortunate to have her treated by Bob Allen for neuro-developmental delay ( evidenced by retained primitive reflexes). This is what inspired me to train in this field. Her story features in a short documentary called Attention Please on Amazon Prime.
I'm focusing on parent education for 0-5 years olds after becoming frustrated with how inadequate public schools are for so many kids. It is traumatic, and while we can work to change the system, what about the kids being traumatized right now. It's so far from ideal, and for many of the kids that need it most there is no support at home.
As flawed as the US public school system is, there have also been countless failed 'tracking' programs that resulted in students basically getting dumped into remedial classes that also failed to deliver. Parents have to understand that their child is ahead or behind relative to the system in which they are in. From there they need to make the best decision for their child.
Thank you for this! We do many ASQs at my family medicine clinic - more than is even recommended. I honestly hadn’t considered the harms of these screenings. Really great to keep these perspectives in mind. Thank you!
Have been behind almost all my life, or so I’ve been told in myriad ways, only to discover it to be a coverup of a huge hole in our society. This constant emphasis on knowing is only to hide we do not understand. Approaching sixty I slowly get a feel for the size of this collective ignorance. Teaching is a very dangerous activity when done as a representative for the infallible truth. The teacher can only ever be an assistant to the learning. The same is true for parenting. If governments start raising kids we are in deep, deep trouble.
I also like the way you express the parent worry and sadly I’m afraid I have to say Ive had so much of this ... actually parents need reassurance and comfort that their child will be fine.
This is a great article. My child has been screened a lot. So in some ways it has helped us make sense of behaviours and meltdowns I have to say as informally parents are “-averaging” constantly ... why is my child the only one who can’t wait in line? Etc. But the wider issue of needing to fit an education system with rigidly held expectations at each age... ah... yes I don’t know how we will manage. At home we simply look for progress or live our child for who he is but that’s not the cass at school or in the wider world.,
I wholeheartedly agree! I love your work and have recommended you to many of the families I work with. Our education system is failing children and I see many children in my practice who have been left traumatised by their experiences in school. Children all develop at different rates and by imposing age-based standards we seriously disadvantage those who are late developers. These children are often labelled as low ability with serious implications for their confidence and self-esteem. We also need to remember that children are not properly ready for academic learning until they are 7. This is recognised in many countries in Europe but sadly not here. Until the age of 7, they don't have the visual or auditory processing processing skills required for learning. Learning difficulties can also arise if the child has retained any primitive reflexes. Retention of these reflexes can hinder full development of the brain and prevent the child from accessing or expressing their intelligence, as well as impact their ability to regulate their emotions.
The problem with waiting until 7 is that early intervention is so key. While it's plausible that some students who are late developers may get incorrectly identified as having a learning disability, a full cognitive eval will also identify ASAP the kids who need high doses of intensive instruction due to deficits in working, short term memory etc. Dyslexia can also be diagnosed by this age. The sooner a parent has that information, the sooner they can make the appropriate decision for their child's education.
I agree that we don’t need to wait till a child is 7 which I why I work with children who are much younger. If a child still has retained primitive reflexes by the age of say 3, then it is likely the child will experience difficulties of some kind as they get older. The majority of children with dyslexia , for example, will have a retained ATNR. Extra tuition won’t help that child until its visual and auditory sound processing skills are fully developed - it will merely lead to frustration and in some cases trauma. In an ideal world all children would be tested at a young age to see if their primitive reflexes have integrated and programs put in place to help integrate these reflexes. One of my daughters struggled with her learning and was classed as low ability leading to years of trauma. Coupled with high levels of anxiety and bullying, by age 12 she developed serious mental health issues resulting in an eating disorder and lengthy hospitalisation. Her story luckily has a happy ending and she is off to uni in September as we were fortunate to have her treated by Bob Allen for neuro-developmental delay ( evidenced by retained primitive reflexes). This is what inspired me to train in this field. Her story features in a short documentary called Attention Please on Amazon Prime.
I'm focusing on parent education for 0-5 years olds after becoming frustrated with how inadequate public schools are for so many kids. It is traumatic, and while we can work to change the system, what about the kids being traumatized right now. It's so far from ideal, and for many of the kids that need it most there is no support at home.
YES. My third kid didn’t walk til two. My first, 20 months. Earlier doesn’t mean better.
As flawed as the US public school system is, there have also been countless failed 'tracking' programs that resulted in students basically getting dumped into remedial classes that also failed to deliver. Parents have to understand that their child is ahead or behind relative to the system in which they are in. From there they need to make the best decision for their child.
Thank you for this! We do many ASQs at my family medicine clinic - more than is even recommended. I honestly hadn’t considered the harms of these screenings. Really great to keep these perspectives in mind. Thank you!
Have been behind almost all my life, or so I’ve been told in myriad ways, only to discover it to be a coverup of a huge hole in our society. This constant emphasis on knowing is only to hide we do not understand. Approaching sixty I slowly get a feel for the size of this collective ignorance. Teaching is a very dangerous activity when done as a representative for the infallible truth. The teacher can only ever be an assistant to the learning. The same is true for parenting. If governments start raising kids we are in deep, deep trouble.
I also like the way you express the parent worry and sadly I’m afraid I have to say Ive had so much of this ... actually parents need reassurance and comfort that their child will be fine.
This is a great article. My child has been screened a lot. So in some ways it has helped us make sense of behaviours and meltdowns I have to say as informally parents are “-averaging” constantly ... why is my child the only one who can’t wait in line? Etc. But the wider issue of needing to fit an education system with rigidly held expectations at each age... ah... yes I don’t know how we will manage. At home we simply look for progress or live our child for who he is but that’s not the cass at school or in the wider world.,
Hey Naomi! This was my first article I read of yours and I really like it! Is there any way I could reach out to you?