By Dr. YVONNE FOURNIER, Scripps Howard News Service

DEAR DR. FOURNIER: I am a high-school counselor working with a student who is highly capable but exhibits some deficiencies in reading comprehension. He has recently completed psychological testing that revealed no significant problems. However, previous standardized test scores show a difference in areas specifically covering reading as compared with other areas tested.

DEAR DR. FOURNIER: Now that you have told us about not doing homework and being respectful toward the teacher, please tell teachers that more than 60 minutes of homework a night is more than any child should have to do. This is what I would call respect for my family, who is involved in many other activities.

DEAR DR. FOURNIER: I read with interest a recent opinion you gave on a "straight-A 11-year-old being disrespectful of her mother" because she didn't want her mother looking at her homework. I think there is more than disrespect involved (assuming these are real people).

DEAR DR. FOURNIER: I am a single working mother of three with a degree in psychology, yet I'm an administrative assistant who had to learn on the job. I started this job at $18,000 and have worked up to $40,000, but am afraid I am reaching my peak. I still have fifth-, seventh- and eighth-graders to get through college. Yet look at what college did not do for me!

Dear Dr. Fournier:

Dear Dr. Fournier:

My son's school recently sent a notice home saying he would be taking the PSAT on October 15th. What is the PSAT and what do I need to do?

ASSESSMENT

DEAR DR. FOURNIER: Someone asked for advice to give a young person leaving the nest. It can be found in Shakespeare's "Hamlet," Act I, Scene iii. Lord Polonius' son, Laertes is going to France, but this applies even for a move across town:

Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

DEAR DR. FOURNIER: I am a patent agent and noticed early on that my creative clients tended to fit a profile: ADD, dyslexia, tending to be ambidextrous or left-handed, and sleep-disordered. So I studied up on these labels to find a correlation and realized that I was the poster child for all of the above.

DEAR DR. FOURNIER: My daughter will be taking her ACT for the first time in October. She is a 10th-grader and has taken geometry but not Algebra II. She is anxious to see how she does to determine where she should improve. She is aiming for a scholarship. She has already been practicing on her own and has asked to take a course right before the test. Should she?

DEAR DR. FOURNIER: My son is having a hard time returning to school. Last year he was in kindergarten and had homework. This year, his homework has increased. Now when he sees a full page of homework, he has a meltdown, thinking it will take him forever. He now brings home a math sheet and a reading sheet as well as spelling for Friday tests.