Is your child struggling in school$1 Do you see your son or daughter going to school each day excited about learning, and then coming home at night defeated and discouraged$2 If so, it is time to step in. Chances are your child is suffering from a learning disability, such as dyslexia or ADD. While it may be disheartening to learn that you have a learning disabled child, remember that with proper intervention, most children can overcome their learning disabilities and start to soar! Here are some of the more commonly diagnosed learning disabilities. While not always a learning disability, autism is sometimes put into this category. Autism is characterized by a child who is having difficulty with social interactions, exhibiting repetitive behaviors with restricted areas of interest, and using abnormal nonverbal communication. Children can be mildly or severely autistic. Children with a mild level of autism can function in a traditional classroom setting. However, knowing the disability is there will help the child’s teachers to interact properly with the child in the classroom. This is why diagnosis and screening are important for children with autism. Autistic children usually begin showing signs of autism when they are very young, and these signs become quite evident in the preschool years. Speech disorders are a problem for some children. Child speech disorders, such as speaking with a lisp, can hinder children’s abilities to learn to read and write, as well as negatively affect their mental health. Often children with speech disorders have trouble forming the sounds of letters. A speech therapist can help a child learn to properly form words and letters in their speech. Diagnosis in the preschool years is the best way to help a child with a speech disorder. Dyslexia is one of the more common learning disabilities. Children with dyslexia have difficulty learning to read. Children with dyslexia will often reverse similar letters when reading, such as p and q. Also, they will reverse words, reading dog instead of god. When children who are otherwise intelligent struggle to learn to read, they quickly become discouraged and consider themselves to be “dumb” or “stupid.” This is why early intervention with dyslexic children is so important. Children with dyslexia can learn how to read, provided they are given the tools to do so. Intervention involves training the mind to process words and letter sounds correctly. Most children who receive this help are able to learn to read in spite of having dyslexia. Finally, ADD is a common learning disability. ADD stands for Attention Deficit Disorder. As its name implies, children with ADD have difficulty focusing their attention for any length of time. They bounce from topic to topic, from activity to activity. These children also have high levels of energy and need to be kept active. Sometimes attention defecit disorder can be treated by designing instruction around the child’s excessive energy levels. Children with ADD need time to run around and expend some of that energy. In severe cases children may need ADD medications to help calm them. However, ADD medication should be used conservatively, because many children with ADD are medicated unnecessarily.