Using a Team Approach for Students With Learning Disorders

Treating a child with a learning disorder (LD) often requires a team with many supporting players. Each team should have a clear manager to keep all the relevant people informed and coordinate the different pieces. A school psychologist would be in a good position to take on this role; however, anyone might be so designated, including a parent. This person would be responsible for keeping all members of the team informed about relevant shifts in the situation (e.g., within the family or at school).

Who might be on the team?

The composition of the team will vary, growing and shrinking at various times, depending on the child’s age and developmental level, the family’s resources, and the areas presenting the most challenge. The child cannot be overburdened with too many treatments or interventions at the same time, and some prioritization will be necessary. Thus, the successful treatment of a child with LD requires a coordinated, interactive, interdisciplinary team of specialists. Interventions should reflect an ecological approach to the biopsychosocial needs of the child with LD (Liza Little, 1999).

Here are the potential team members offered in the order they might be included:

Professional services:

• Developmental pediatrician
• Occupational therapist
• Physical therapist
• Speech and language therapist
• Neuropsychologist/psychologist for assessment
• Psychotherapist
• Child psychiatrist
• Social skills specialist
• Coach

Educational Intervention and Placement:

• Educational therapist
• Math tutor
• Written expression tutor
• Reading comprehension tutor
• Educational consultant
• Advocate
• Specialized school consultant
• College counselor
• Vocational and rehabilitation consultant

And, of course, family members:

• Child or young adult with LD
• Parents
• Siblings (depending on their age)

Specific information on the roles of each of these professionals can be found in Treating NVLD in Children: Professional Collaborations for Positive Outcomes (Broitman & Davis, 2013), edited by myself and John Davis. There you will find each practitioner’s methods, using the lens of Non-Verbal Learning Disorders (soon to be called Developmental Visual Spatial Disorders) as an example, including the instruments of assessment used to assess the area(s) of difficulty, examples of treatment plans illustrating how they might work for a child with LD, and sample school or parent reports in each discipline with typical recommendations or referrals for other professional services.

How does the team coordinate?

The frequency of coordinating meetings will vary with each situation and will be likely to shift as issues arise and are resolved. More frequent contact is usually recommended in the beginning as the team develops its process for smooth operations.

Get the contact information for all service providers and create a central email or chat thread to maintain a trail of requests and conversations about the child’s needs, being mindful of using secure systems and obtaining written consent to share information from the patient’s parent or guardian. Members of the team can then use the shared chat to provide a weekly report with a brief summary of sessions and offer any information that might be of help to the team.

Texting is often utilized to give each other a heads-up regarding an upcoming event, particularly when information is time-sensitive and cannot wait for a pre-planned or regularly scheduled appointment. Flexibility and availability in real-time as issues erupt have proven time and again to be a cornerstone of our success when treating an individual with LD.

Request that school personnel post assignments, projects, dates of exams, etc., online or through email, allowing access to all team members. There should be no surprises for the team with regard to schoolwork requirements.

When necessary, assignments should be shortened or adapted, and arrangements for how to do this should be clarified. Homework assignments should be able to be emailed back to school whenever possible. Textbooks should be kept both at home and school rather than moved back and forth.

The cooperation of the school will be critical, and therefore placement in an appropriate school setting should be carefully considered (see prior blog for additional information on choosing a school). After team meetings, encourage parents to keep notes, ask questions, and share them with the team (Broitman et al., 2020).

Education Essential Reads

The Siren Song of "Evidence-Based" Instruction

The Bad News About Teen Sex Education Reflects Good Trends

Prioritization of interventions is often necessary.

As has been emphasized above, all of the child’s issues can’t be treated at the same time, so the most pressing should be identified, and this should be regularly reevaluated by whomever is part of the original team. This may then require that “new” members or specialties will be needed to accomplish the prioritized goals.

As the team and/or case manager monitors the progress of the student and some interventions are completed, re-prioritization will likely be needed, which again may cause re-thinking of who will be needed on the team.

It is imperative that all of the providers work from compatible theoretical perspectives regarding how patients learn, develop, and change, understanding the need to address the co-occurring or secondary psychological issues in each area of concern.