Treatment for slow learners

Treatment for slow learners

Every child in a class learns at a different rate, but the difficulty of the mainstream schooling system is that children are required to learn at the pace that the teacher teaches. The teacher must keep pace in order to fulfil the requirements for the year, despite galas, talks, casual days, and many other events that can disrupt or take away from focused teaching time. As a result of this, some children are able to keep up, and others are classified as “slow learners”. There also may be legitimate learning difficulties, attention difficulties, or socio-emotional difficulties that cause a child to actually learn more slowly than his/her peers. Treatment for slow learners, in all forms, is available  at Catch Up Kids. Catch Up Kids conducts a school observation if possible, to determine what environmental factors are playing a role in the child being classified as a slow learner, to get a feel for the pace of learning required at the school and the teacher’s teaching style, and to evaluate the way that the child learns and the factors influencing his/her rate of learning. A thorough review of school reports and reports from other professionals who have been involved in the child’s journey to that point (including speech and occupational therapists) is also conducted to give background information on what has led to the child requiring Catch Up Kids services. An assessment is then conducted to put the finishing touches on the treatment plan and introduce the child to his/her Catch Up Kids team. The method of instruction used as treatment for slow learners at Catch Up Kids is Applied Behaviour Analysis. This is a research-based method of intervention and is complemented by our broad curriculum which equips us to effectively treat issues related to emotional self-regulation, behavioural outbursts, social interaction difficulties, fine motor difficulties, planning difficulties, attention difficulties, sensory difficulties, and many other problems that typically contribute to children needing treatment for slow learners. Catch Up Kids provides a highly collaborative and cohesive treatment solution. If the situation requires, we can draw up and monitor progress using an Individualised Education Plan (IEP) and/or meet with parents and teachers on a monthly basis. Feedback is provided to the parents daily in the form of a WhatsApp group update, and approximately every two weeks in the form of a report from the case supervisor. Constant data-taking means that the parents receive regular and concrete measures of progress, and that the case supervisor has the information he/she needs to determine whether the child is achieving the best possible rate of progress, and make adjustments to the programme if he/she is not. This dynamic approach sets us apart from other methods of treatment for slow learners.