4th - 6th grade\kitah daled - vav

 

The emphasis in upper-elementary school is no longer on learning to read but rather on reading to learn.

 

The child is expected to be able to work independently for longer periods of time, including homework. Children with executive function challenges such as organization and planning may especially struggle at this age. There is often pressure to achieve high grades in order to be accepted to middle school.

 

This is the time to develop effective learning habits and an intrinsic desire to achieve.

 

Testing at this age begins with an unstructured, playful interview. Afterwards, short age-appropriate tests include reasoning tasks, graphomotoric tasks, and number sense. Comprehensive didactic testing in reading examines phonemic and morphological awareness (the sounds and segments that are the building blocks of words), visual and verbal memory, decoding abilities, and reading comprehension.  The child's scores are compared to national norms for similarly aged children in order to determine if the child's abilities are within the range of what is considered to be typical.

 

Interviews with the teacher and a structured observation in the child's class are highly recommended in order to consider a complete picture of the child in his or her natural environment.

 

Overall, early intervention is crucial, so children feel good about themselves and their learning abilties. Often, at this age, learning problems impact a child's social competency as well. Having social difficulties can be a sign of an overall learning diability.