A mom of a teenager just called to see if I could help her daughter.
During our conversation she said:
“ I tell my daughter that she would do better if only she tried harder in school”.
“Do you really believe that she doesn’t even try?”, I asked.
“ No, of course she tries but she rarely succeeds. The only other alternative is just too horrible to imagine – Telling her that she’s lazy is certainly better than telling her that she’s stupid.”
The problem for most parents is that they only see two possible reasons for a learning problem – being lazy or stupid. They don’t even consider that perfectly normal or above average kids can have difficulties with information processing and that this difficulty makes academic learning so tough. Underlying learning skills such as attention, auditory and visual processing, speed ,logic and working memory are critical for academic success but they have little to do with high level thinking skills i.e. intelligence. Most importantly, these skills can be trained to become more efficient and with permanent results.
Schools don’t have the knowledge or resources to do this training. Tutors provide only temporary help with school work. But there are a number of very effective and research-based programs that will go a long way to help a struggling student to become more comfortable and independent in the classroom. Every day at the Malibu Learning Center we use these programs to help students who appear to be lazy, unmotivated or just not very intelligent. With the right help these students can become better learners for their entire lives.
“Sometimes it takes more than a tutor.”
This year can be so much better for your child.
Malibu Learning 
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