Jenny Whichard ’92, Head of Lower School
Why Wait? The Benefits of Early Intervention
“He’ll catch up.”
“We can always get her a tutor if we have to.”
“He’s only 6, there’s time.”
“She’s not far enough below benchmark.”
I’m going to let you in on a secret: your child doesn’t need to fall behind or fail before getting the support they need—and deserve—in order to be successful. Nor do they need a diagnosed learning challenge to benefit from early intervention.
Early intervention helps students improve their abilities and learn new skills. But too often, early intervention is reserved for select students who are either diagnosed with a learning challenge or at a specific academic level.
It’s a fact that children develop in different ways and at different speeds. This can make the process of identifying when, why, and how a child needs help extra challenging—especially for parents who may not know what to look for or teachers tending to a group of 25 or more students the same age.
Early signs of learning challenges may go unnoticed, or perhaps testing is put off for fear that “labels” or learning supports will hurt a child’s self-esteem. My years of experience and training have shown that the longer you wait to address concerns, the more likely it is to affect a child’s progress and confidence in the classroom, which can lead to behaviors and beliefs that are detrimental down the road. Research also consistently shows that early intervention works. For example, it takes four times longer to bring a struggling fourth-grade student up to grade level than to do the same for a kindergartener (Lyon and Fletcher, 2001).
For this reason, I’m a proponent of early intervention in kindergarten, grade 1, and grade 2 (and beyond) being embedded into the classroom for all students—empowering them from a very young age to understand how they learn best, creating a valuable toolbox of resources, and preserving their confidence.
Early intervention for all normalizes different ways of learning and reduces stigma. All schools offer early intervention, but not as part and parcel of their program. At McLean, we are proactive, not reactive, and this access and availability ensures that students’ needs are met along the way without being tied to documentation, state policy, or relative to how classmates are doing.
The younger you are when you get help for what’s hard, the better your self-esteem in the long run. When a child identifies as a student who struggles, their confidence takes a hit—and we know from experience that it’s easier to build skills than self-esteem. While early intervention may not eliminate academic struggle, it puts it in the context of “this is what I need to fulfill my potential” rather than “something is wrong with me.”
The sooner a student starts accumulating skills, supports, and strategies, the more resources they have to be successful. Back to the toolbox: as a child moves up in grades, they have a great collection at their disposal and are encouraged and empowered to use it.
The further you fall behind, the harder it can be to catch up. It’s easier to take incremental steps as you go than work twice as hard to catch up. A student may still get where they need to go academically, but not without investing a lot of effort and resources to make up for lost time.
Early detection and intervention is the best way to ensure all children receive the most from their education. So while a wait-and-see approach is tempting, I strongly advocate not to wait—and instead just see.
Curious about the early intervention McLean teachers and specialists provide? Visit our campus.
Concerned with your child’s reading skills? Learn more about our Complimentary Reading Screenings.