Before You Meet With a Professional

As a final thought, before any meeting with a professional, you should review all of the information available about your child and take it with you to the consultation or evaluation. Report cards, teachers’ comments, testing results, documentation of any existing medical conditions, writing samples, letters of recommendation --literally any information that might help a professional diagnose the problem. And finally, you might want to keep a journal in which you note your own observations (and perhaps those of others) of your child’s behavior, attitude, successes, frustrations, etc. This comprehensive folder of material collected in a systemic way, and untainted by the emotional baggage often attendant in such cases, should improve the prospects for successful remediation.