{"id":2691,"date":"2014-11-03T09:19:02","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T14:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.equipmentlink.org\/blog\/?p=2691"},"modified":"2014-11-03T15:59:21","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T20:59:21","slug":"understood-a-website-for-learning-attention-issues-11314","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.equipmentlink.org\/blog\/?p=2691","title":{"rendered":"Understood – a website for learning & attention issues, 11\/3\/14"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contributed by Lori Markland, Director of Communications, Outreach and Development, MDTAP<\/em><\/p>\n

Right around this time of year, parents and teachers across the country\u00a0meet for the first\u00a0time\u00a0as they begin to map out their students’ academic paths during parent-teacher conferences. This year, in my house, these meetings were met with mixed emotions. While my older child is excelling in her third grade classes, it was immediately made clear that my kindergartener is not. With struggles that include inability to consistently identify letters and numbers, to\u00a0anxiety and forgetfulness, I left that meeting\u00a0ready to\u00a0do what many parents\u00a0do – practice, practice, practice with her at home. And research\u00a0online late at\u00a0night.<\/p>\n

And although we don’t know yet whether\u00a0she has an identifiable\u00a0learning disability, it is clear my child is struggling. And I need to help her.\u00a0And help other parents who are walking a similar path. In my efforts to do so, I found Understood<\/a>, a website dedicated to providing resources for children with learning and attention issues. It includes a plethora of information including school and learning resources, parent coaching based on the child’s individual needs, Twitter chats with experts on a variety of topics, simulation videos to give parents a sense of what their child might be experiencing,\u00a0assistive technology recommendations, a parent and expert community to live\u00a0chat, and WAY more.<\/p>\n

As a nice aside, the site also\u00a0includes a Spanish option and text-to-speech built in for anyone who may need it.<\/p>\n

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