Dyslexia, dyscalculia, high abilities and Tourette's: when school does not fit
If your teenager tries harder than anyone and still falls short, or gets bored and switches off, or has tics they cannot control, this guide explains what lies behind the most common learning differences, how to recognise them, what genuinely helps and where to get an assessment.
Updated: September 12, 2026
What learning differences are
A learning difference is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of effort. It is a different way of processing certain information: letters and sounds in dyslexia, numbers and quantities in dyscalculia, language in language disorder. The brain gets to the same place by another road, and the school's road is built for the majority.
High abilities are the other side: a pace of learning and an intensity the class cannot keep up with. What looks from outside like boredom, disengagement or even bad behaviour is, from inside, an engine with no road. And they do not always come with good grades: many teenagers with high abilities fail.
Tourette's syndrome is different from the others: motor and vocal tics that appear in childhood, change over time and cannot be controlled at will. It does not affect intelligence. What it affects is how life goes in class, with classmates and with the shame of it showing.
What they share is that they are noticed late. They get mistaken for laziness, absent-mindedness, lack of interest, and the teenager ends up believing the problem is them.
How to recognise them
- They read slowly, skip lines or words, and avoid reading aloud; writing costs them far more than talking.
- Simple calculations take forever, they mix up the signs or do not understand what a problem is asking even though they know the operations.
- They understand things first time and get bored; they ask questions that wrong-foot people; they perform below what they know.
- They have tics: blinking, head movements, throat-clearing, sounds, which come and go and get worse with stress.
- They study twice as much as their classmates to get half the result, and have started saying they are stupid.
- They get frustrated, angry or give up as soon as a task looks like the ones they struggle with.
- School reports say "could do more", "doesn't try" or "gets distracted" year after year.
What helps
Naming it, with an assessment. Knowing what is going on changes the story the teenager tells about themselves: from "I'm stupid" to "I read differently". A psycho-educational assessment says it clearly and opens the door to accommodations.
Accommodations at school. Extra time in exams, questions read aloud, a calculator, oral exams, higher-level work for those ahead. They are regulated, and the school is obliged to apply them when there is a report.
Re-education, not extra tuition. It is not repeating the same thing more times. It is training, with a professional, the specific functions that fail and the strategies to work around them.
Protecting self-esteem before grades. Years of effort with no result leave a mark. The teenager knowing that their difficulty has a name and an explanation is, very often, the first thing that changes.
What therapy does. In therapy what is going on is assessed, the re-education of what fails is worked on and the emotional side is supported: the frustration, the shame, the feeling of not fitting. With tics, they learn to manage them and to manage how others react. And it coordinates with the school, because that is where daily life is played out.
What it does not do. It does not change how the brain is built or promise the difficulty will disappear. It changes what is done with it.
When to ask for an assessment
A bad term, or one subject that will not give, are not a learning difference. It is time to ask for an assessment when the difficulty is the same year after year despite effort, when the school has been pointing at the same thing for a long time without anything changing, when tics interfere in class or in relationships, or when the teenager has started talking about themselves as someone who is worthless.
If frustration has reached thoughts of self-harm, do not wait: call 024 (Línea 24h de atención a la conducta suicida). If there is immediate danger, call 112. We Are Psycho does not handle emergencies.
Who you would talk to
Licensed professionals on our team who work on this. You choose, and you can change if it does not fit.
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Ainhoa Corbera
Licensed psychologist · Clinical director
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Joan Salmerón
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
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Maimuna Balde
Licensed General Health Psychologist
Frequently asked questions
- Where do you get an assessment?
- At the school itself, through the guidance team, or privately with a psychologist who carries out psycho-educational assessment. A private report also serves to request accommodations at school.
- Do tics go away on their own?
- Many childhood tics disappear or reduce a great deal in adolescence. When they persist and interfere, there are psychological treatments that teach how to manage them. Medication is assessed with medical staff when needed.
- Do high abilities need treatment?
- They are not a disorder and are not treated. What they need is recognition: accommodations at school so the pace does not bore, and support when the emotional intensity or the feeling of not fitting weigh heavily.
Sources
An informational guide prepared by We Are Psycho from reference bodies and guidelines. It does not replace an individual clinical assessment.