Did you know that children’s and adolescent’s behaviors can talk? 

• “I hate school!”

• “I forgot my homework—again.”

• “My stomach hurts; do I have to go to school?”

At the Institute for Brain Behavior Integration (IBBI) we believe that children and adolescents often use their behaviors to tell us that something is not quite right. Our brains are made up of a series of interacting modules:

• auditory and visual processing
• attention and memory
• complex problem solving
• reading and language
• motor skills

Learning requires these modules to work in concert in order to produce a written, oral, or behavioral response.  A breakdown in one of these areas can interfere with your child’s ability to learn and achieve academic success.  And, since children and many adolescents are not aware of how their brains work, they use their behaviors to communicate with their parents. Most often, defiance and noncompliance regarding homework can be ‘tip-off’s’ that they have an undiagnosed learning disability that can give rise to depression if not recognized.

How Can You Tell if Your Child or Adolescent May have a Learning Disability

Here are some simple clues:

• Poor Handwriting
• Tends to be clumsy
• Meltdowns while doing homework
• Reads in a slow and choppy manner
• Difficulty sounding out and spelling words
• Delays in fine and gross motor skills
• Family history of learning disabilities
• Speaks and/or writes in short, choppy sentences
• Homework is returned with many comments from the teacher

Substance Abuse, Depression & Learning

It is well documented that learning disabilities and substance abuse go hand-in-hand. Adolescents with an undiagnosed learning disability tend to personalize their academic underachievement rather than attribute it to how their brain processes information. They may develop depression-generating thoughts such as:

What’s wrong with ME? How could I be so stupid? I am such a loser.

When thoughts such as these go unchecked, they begin to take on a life of their own and can negatively shape a child’s self-perception. By adolescence, negative thoughts and habits may have become ingrained, affecting friend choices as well as their relationship with their parents. Adolescents with undiagnosed learning disabilities not only have higher rates of depression, their rate of substance abuse is also much higher than that of their peers.

How a Neuropsychological Evaluation Can Help

An evaluation at the Institute for Brain-Behavior Integration can be an important step in putting your child or adolescent back on a path to success.  IBBI evaluations focus on the pathways between brain functioning and daily behavioral functioning. We work to identify resources that help clients improve day-to-day functioning by improving the integrative functions of the brain through various therapy tools we utilize. This can result in positive changes to school performance, relationship health in families and with peers, and benefit social relating skills. 

By Nancy Foster, PhD