Bedwetting, diabetes, and food and chemical sensitivities are just a few of the other problems that a careful pediatric assessment may uncover that may relate to these learning and social challenges. The child may also have real challenges not of his own making in the family, the school, or the community. When a child is in trouble, many adults are not aware that the fundamental challenge is to find a way for the child to grow and learn and find whatever success is possible without embarrassment and without being asked to participate in educational and social processes in which he can only fail. For example, unusual strategies may be required to help a child around or through a specific course in school, or indeed to be able to survive the entire school experience with as much normality and success as possible. In order to achieve the fundamental goal of helping the challenged child to mature and develop in a way that makes success possible, the parent or caretaker often has to become very creative about how the child's life is structured.
Children yearn profoundly to live lives that are as normal as possible.
It is a time of life where peer pressures are deeply important. If a challenged child is adequately assessed, then parents and caretakers can participate in a creative search for ways for the child to live without embarrassment and with whatever success and friendships he can find. Yet the work of the Children's Program is only half done when the diagnostic assessment is complete. Another very important point is that these challenged children are often developmentally delayed in critical areas of their lives. New skills and capacities, which develop before age 18 in other children, often do not fully develop until age 25 or even 30 in these individuals.