FOR PARENTS

YOU KNOW YOUR CHILD NEEDS HELP, NOW WHAT?

AGC inception began at a dyslexia parent support group meeting.  We truly understand what it feels like to have a child struggling to read. Therefore, the heart of what we do is centered around how to help parents of struggling children find the diagnosis, treatments, and support that they need.

Ways we can help:

1. Provide general information about dyslexia and information about what community resources are available.


2. Help you better understand Special Education Law as it relates to IEPs and 504 Plans.


3. Timely evaluations for dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and/or ADHD, and more.

  • From start to finish, the average time to a diagnosis is less than 6 weeks.
  • For any child 6 or older, a diagnosis is possible.
  • We do not just screen or tell you that your child “fits the characteristics” of someone with dyslexia.
  • Your child will receive a diagnosis if diagnostic criteria are met.

4. OT and Speech and Language evaluations and/or treatment.


5. Follow through advocacy to understand what to do with the diagnosis to help your child close their reading gap!  Yes, we teach you how to work with the school to get a supportive list of accommodations available for your child while they are struggling. But the goal is to TEACH YOUR CHILD TO READ and thus not be so dependent on all the accommodations.


6. Advocacy, parent support meetings, and more!

  Get Started!

STEP 1:

START HERE

Step 1 is to call our office to set up an appointment. Our office staff will be happy to schedule you and your child an appointment with one of our physicians.

STEP 2:

ASSESSMENTS

Step 2 is an initial screening visit with one of our physicians.

Every school-aged child will enter our center through a medical office visit with one of our pediatricians. This visit will include a detailed review of the student’s past medical and educational histories, along with a medical examination, as well as a review of any previous testing. At this visit, our physicians will discuss the reasons suspected behind your child’s struggles and recommend further assessment and/or treatment course forward.
Why is screening for Attention and Behavior so important?
  • The initial screening process will include a formal evaluation of attention skills – the ability to focus, sustain, divide, and switch one’s attention between various tasks that may or may not be of high interest. • Attention is usually assessed using tasks that involve auditory tasks and/or visual tasks.
  • Since over half of children with learning disabilities also have attention disorders, it is important to determine whether attention problems could be contributing to the learning difficulties or be the primary concern.
  • It can be problematic to assume that attention abilities are fine and to skip formally evaluating attention.
  • Undiagnosed and untreated attention disorders may cause additional evaluations of academic, language, sensory-mo- tor, or other skills to be invalid or to provide vague information about attention versus cognitive abilities.
  • For example, in a child with attention problems, it is very difficult to determine whether low scores on a reading test are due primarily to attention problems or to problems reading words.
  • We will discuss options for addressing attention problems if needed

STEP 3:

GAME PLAN

Step 3 is an individualized assessment related to the specific concerns identified.
  • Students are scheduled for individualized assessments based on previous testing and recommendations from our doctors. 
  • There are varying levels of assessment available based on the student’s unique needs.
  • Where one student may be able to proceed directly to intervention, another may need a more broad neurodevelopmental evaluation, to assess attention/focus skills, speech and language skills, sensory-motor skills, processing skills, and a deter- mination of whether or not the individual is a good candidate for our extensive range of treatment services