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Raising children with learning disabilities or disorders and syndromes can present interesting experiences and challenges. In our series, we have already presented the importance of an accurate diagnosis and the steps parents can take to ensure a precise diagnosis. This article deals specifically with what to do with the observations you’ve collected over the past few months. To help diagnose a child who exhibits unusual behavior, detailed observations of the child’s behavior and his or her surroundings is critical. Documenting a child’s unusual behavior can be difficult and time-consuming. However, once this information has been documented over a one- to two- month period, parents begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is then time to put some order together. To make sense of the information you’ve gathered, begin by categorizing the information by time of day. In other words, put all the behavioral observations (parents, teachers and/or caregivers) of your child into 5 categories: 1) morning, 2) midday, 3) afternoon, 4) evening and 5) nighttime. Within each category, try to determine obvious patterns, inappropriate behaviors which appear to happen consistently at the same time. For example, many children have difficulty falling asleep after watching television just before bedtime. They’re more excited and apprehensive. By eliminating television, computer and video games (anything with an electric magnetic field) after 6 pm, parents might start noticing how much more relaxed the children are and how much quicker they are to fall asleep. As you place the behaviors in each time category, you may start to notice some potential triggers: Events or circumstances which precede the child’s reaction.  This is very important because in many instances, it just may well be the source of your child’s reaction. Sometimes the trigger is obvious and other times it’s not so easily detected. Care needs to be taken when looking for triggers because it’s also possible your child may be reacting to something that happened at an earlier time, perhaps a disagreement with a friend or sibling earlier in the day or Mom and Dad’s terrible week at work. Children do react for a reason. They feel the good vibes as much as the bad ones. The key is finding the right trigger and this is no easy feat. The feedback you obtain from your child’s educator/teacher or caregiver is essential. They spend the longest consecutive alert hours with the child and are in a fantastic position to be able to provide parents with a lot of detailed information. If you find the information given to you to be out of character with the knowledge you have of your child, feel free to ask the teacher or caregiver for clarification. You know your child best and by asking for an explanation, you may be able to understand your child’s behavior more than others.Food and drinks can play a significant part in a child’s behavior. Food plays a major role in how a child behaves: Food additives, preservatives, colouring (especially Red dye), flavouring (especially MSG or monosodium glutamate) and any other word a parent cannot pronounce on the label. Moreover, the effects of food are not always immediate. In some cases, the effects can be seen and experienced days afterwards. Take cow’s milk for example. Cow’s milk is very difficult for the body to digest. Many children experience irritability and bloating after ingesting cow’s milk. Some children even demonstrate aggressive behavior and sleepless nights after ingesting cow’s milk. These reactions are not unlike adults’ experiences with cow’s milk.There is a huge increase in food sensitivities as well as allergies for children. Children react in different ways but some of the most common symptoms would include irritability, hyperactivity, mood swings, inability to sleep, and distractibility. Therefore, when reviewing the behavioral information on your child, be sensitive to what your child ate and its effects. Also on the rise are children’s reactions to various forms of toxins. These may be environmental or chemical. Items as simple as soap, shampoo, cleaning products, carpets, and furniture are laced with toxins.  For example certain fresheners exacerbate asthma and other cleaners have antifreeze imbedded in their products. Dr. Gideon Koren, a pediatrician, pharmacist and toxicologist from Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto has been studying the effects of toxins on children for a number of years. He can attest to the damage toxins have on the brain, most particularly growing brains.  For more information on toxins, see http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/home/cleaners/index2.html.In a notebook, write down the patterns you detect, identify the various triggers, make note of consistencies in your child’s behavior.  All this information will become invaluable in a parents search for the proper diagnosis.Next month, we’ll discuss what to do with the information once it’s been organized.