Diagnosis
Dr. Rappaport’s areas of specialization include dyslexia and other disorders of learning including any disabilities that may be diagnosed or develop in childhood. Her many years of experience on a pediatric unit at an urban hospital has enabled her to work with and diagnose children from a wide variety of disorders first seen in childhood such as Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and nonverbal learning disabilities.
Children
Early intervention is key.
Predicting whether a preschool child has learned the necessary prerequisite skills to read is one of Dr. Rappaport’s specialties. Once a child's prerequisite skills are assessed, a lot can be done in order to prevent them from having trouble learning to read. Early and exact interventions are imperative.
Dr. Rappaport has had great success over the years working with young children who displayed vulnerability to reading problems by designing intervention programs to prevent reading failure, even for children at early ages.
Furthermore, it is important to have the experience and know-how to remediate any weaknesses that may show up during the evaluation.
Young Adults
Young adults may perform at the college level on standardized tests but still have a learning disability. It may mean that they worked very hard in school and have learned to compensate for their difficulties.
A thorough evaluation can pinpoint areas of weakness masked by compensatory skills or assumptions made by higher educational achievements and allow for appropriate accommodations when attending graduate school.
Adults
Adult diagnosis can be trickier as they often present with many conflicting skills and deficits. They require particular expertise in diagnosis since they may have developed unusual work -arounds to function at a high level.
Adults often present with unique problems. Young adults may perform at the college level on standardized tests but still have a learning disability. It may mean that they worked very hard in school and learned well to compensate for their difficulties but may require accommodations when attending college or graduate school.