For a student with ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, slow processing speed or another learning difference, receiving testing accommodations can be enormously important.
But accommodations alone don’t necessarily prepare a student to succeed on test day.
A student who receives extended time still needs to know how to use that time effectively. A student with ADHD may need a very different pacing strategy from another student taking the same exam. A student with dyslexia may understand the material perfectly well but need a different approach to dense reading passages or resolving complex grammar errors. Challenges involving working memory, processing speed or executive functioning can affect everything from when to skip a question to how to organize work on the page.
That is why test preparation for students with learning differences shouldn’t simply be conventional test prep with more time added to the clock.
For the past 15 years, support for students with accommodations has been one of Flying Colors’ most critical services.
Our program for students with learning differences is led by Rachel Erickson, our Director of Students with Learning Disabilities. Many of the instructors who work with Rachel are special education teachers or have specialized training and certifications. They bring together two kinds of expertise that don’t always exist in the same place: an understanding of the ACT and SAT and an understanding of how students with learning differences learn and test.
The team’s goal is to help students find strategies that allow them to demonstrate what they actually know and achieve their best scores.
Sometimes that means changing pacing. Sometimes it means breaking a section into more manageable pieces, developing strategies for maintaining attention, approaching reading differently, or learning how to make the best use of extended time. And sometimes it means recognizing that the strategy that works beautifully for one student may be completely wrong for another.
For families, the starting point is often a simple question:
Is my student’s test preparation actually designed around the way my student learns?
If your student has testing accommodations—or you are beginning to wonder whether a learning difference is affecting their academic or testing experience—we would be happy to talk with you about what you’re seeing and whether a more individualized approach could help.
Thank you,
Rachel Erickson
Director, Students with Accommodations
rachel@flyingcolorsprep.com