Therapeutic Learning Programs

» Reading & Spelling
» Comprehension
» Attention (ADD / ADHD / Undiagnosed Attention Problems)
» Math
» Writing
» Learning Skills / Processing Skills
» Motor Skills & Sensory Processing
» Organization Executive Function
» Tutoring (Multisensory)
» Behavior and Self-esteem
» Listening Therapy Program

Reading and Spelling Problems:

Early Years

Difficulty labeling and recognizing the alphabet and the sounds
Difficulty with phonemic awareness
Blending sounds that are heard
Segmenting sounds apart that were together
Difficulty learning and recalling early sight words
Poor spelling of short sound combinations and early words
Avoids reading tasks; frustrated with reading
Had delayed speech or language development, or history of ear infections
Unable to comprehend what was read
Yawns or fatigues easily (reading takes too much energy)
Feeling “dumb”
Guessing at words instead of sounding them out

Later years

Difficulty decoding (sounding out words)
Difficulty blending sounds together that are read
Avoids reading tasks
Yawns or fatigues easily (reading takes too much energy)
History of speech, reading, or learning challenges within the family
Guessing at words instead of sounding them out
Poor spelling
Difficulty reading multi-syllabic words (these are especially common in core subjects in school and specialized areas of work)
Slow reading fluency (accuracy & rate)
History of special class placements or reading problems
Had delayed speech or language development, or history of ear infections
Reading is choppy
Poor comprehension of what was read.
Feeling “dumb”; low self-esteem; lacking confidence

SPELLING
Does poorly on spelling tests
May do well on spelling tests (good visual memory), but the correct spellings do not carry over into written work
Writing usually contains words that are shorter and easier to spell, when compared to the student’s oral (spoken) vocabulary
Hates to write
Struggles with written expression
Difficulty processing auditory information correctly
May have speech articulation errors
Guessing at spelling of words
Difficulty learning and retaining the spelling of words
Relies on spell-check on the computer
Asks others to spell words for them

What Our Reading & Spelling Programs Do:

The purpose of reading is to comprehend something meaningful!  Our reading programs address the challenges that an individual has in a logical, meaningful, and sequential manner.  After determining the cause of the reading challenge, and the exact reading weakness, an individualized plan is developed by using one or more structured programs.  If the individual’s testing reveals auditory processing or visual processing deficits, these will be therapeutically addressed in conjunction with the reading program.

Beginning Level

Our beginning reading level is designed for any parent who would like their child to have a head start in reading, as well as for a child who is struggling with reading.  We begin right where the student is and use: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile methods. This multi-sensory approach connects what is seen with what is heard, and the result is accelerated learning.

We begin by teaching the letters and sounds in a fun, interactive, way.  The focus is on phonemic awareness, blending sounds that are heard and written, and introducing sound families. We build visual memory skills by teaching simple, complex, and multisyllabic words.  We also introduce grapho-motor activities such as printing and copying to reinforce what is learned.

Basic Level and Advanced Level

These individualized programs are appropriate for individuals in elementary, junior high, high school, college, and adults who are experiencing challenges with decoding (sounding out words or word-parts), blending sounds, or comprehending what is read.  All work is one-to-one.  Utilization of engaging and interesting stories, passages, and books, increase motivation.

The activities address: phonemic awareness, direct instruction in sound-letter relationships, building vocabulary, and pointing out spelling tendencies and rules.  In addition, visual memory for words and word parts, and strategies to read multi-syllabic words are addressed.

Multi-syllabic words are common in core classes such as history (constitution), science (fahrenheit), and math (perpendicular).  When reading improves, subject areas improve since accurate reading allows learning new information in subject areas.  For example, to complete a math problem, the student must read and understand the directions correctly in order to set-up and answer the question.

The end result includes significantly improved reading skills and self-confidence!

COMPREHENSION Problems:

• Difficulty recalling important facts and details
• Feeling “dumb” or that she can’t keep up
• Avoids reading or says that it is “boring”
• Misunderstands what is heard; misses information while listening.
• Unable to identify the main idea
• Yawns while listening (indicates that listening is taking a lot of energy)
• Doesn’t pick up on new vocabulary including slang used by others
• Unable to read between the lines (inferencing)
• Weak understanding
• Reliance on impossibly trying to remember everything (often word-for-word)
• Appears distracted or inattentive
• Difficulty listening with background noise (fan, TV, students in a classroom)
• Doesn’t get concepts easily
• Inconsistent ability to follow multi-step directions and instructions
• Says “huh?” often
• Unable to pick out the most important (salient) information
• Poor understanding of what is heard or readDifficulty with understanding math and word problems
• Difficulty predicting possible solutions or outcomes (cause and effect)
• Difficulty expressing thoughts (missing details, or is out of sequence)
• Weak auditory processing (incorrectly receiving auditory signals to the brain)
• Poor test-taking even though he seemed to know the material
• Unable to create strong mental images
• Cannot follow along with fast-speaking peers

What Our Comprehension & Meaning Program Does:

Our structured process helps children, adolescents, and adults, to develop critical foundations for comprehending what they hear and read. Good comprehension of what we hear and read depends upon receiving a clear, accurate, and complete message to think with.  This program is completed one-to-one so that students are guided at the exact level needed, and they are immediately corrected, so that they cannot practice new skills incorrectly.

Significant improvements in reading, understanding, verbal expression, and organization, result from our Comprehension and Meaning program.

The comprehension building blocks are foundational in helping students in the following ways:

• Improved auditory processing
• Hearing the flow and phrasing of language while reading and listening
• Developing verbal inner language (“hearing” it in his mind) to improve auditory memory
• Visualizing as the language comes in, in order to improve visual processing and comprehension
• Showing understanding of the gestalt, or whole idea, and how the details relate to each other
• Identifying critical story details and elements (helps with predicting and comprehending)
• Analyzing and answering vocabulary and questions (using higher-levels of reasoning, problem solving, and analytical skills)

We expect to see progress each and every class that a student is with us.  We closely monitor this progress and the progress that the student and parents are noticing at home, school, and work.  The systematic teaching and practice directly correlates to academic expectations.

The end results after completing the Comprehension and Meaning program include:  less confusion, significant improvements in listening and reading, learning is easier, verbal expression is more organized, and confidence skyrockets!

About ATTENION:

When individuals struggle to pay attention, it can affect them in a multitude of ways including:  academically, socially, and emotionally.  Problems with attention may not be the REAL problem, but rather the symptom of an underlying learning problem.

Learning problems stress attention skills and attention problems stress learning!  When it takes more effort to do something, the brain uses more energy and it can eventually lead to exhaustion.  Without that energy, it is more difficult to pay attention.  Reciprocally, the brain must maintain attention in order to efficiently process information.  Our Learning Skills Assessment will determine if attention is the primary problem, or if it is a symptom of a learning problem. Recommendations will be made to address the REAL problem.

Medication is one way to temporarily “control” attention, however, once the medication wears off, attention remains a challenge.  Brain-training produces permanent results. 47% of our students that take a prescription drug for attention problems no longer require medication once completing our attention-training program. Even more are able to reduce their dosage (per medical doctor orders)!  When you do not have to work as hard to pay attention, the available energy can be directed toward more efficient learning and comprehending.

ATTENTION Problems:

• Poor listening skills
• Inadequate sustained attention for age level
• Easily distracted
• ADD / ADHD diagnosis
• Acts like the class clown; distracts others
• Commonly has breaks in train of thought (“What was I just saying…?”)
• Procrastinates
• Difficulty with follow-through
• Poor divided attention- unable to pay attention to two things at one time (e.g., note-taking- listening to the teacher and taking notes at the same time)
• Impulsive- acts before thinking
• Poor mental flexibility; rigid thinking
• Overly sensitive and worried (anxious)
• Difficulty shifting attention
• Learning problems
• Hyper-focuses for highly-motivating activities
• Difficulty taking another perspective
• Disorganized (work or physical space)

What Our Attention Programs Do:

Our one-to-one structured attention program is appropriate for children, adolescents and adults.  When an assessment determines that attention is the REAL problem, and not just a symptom of a learning problem, a comprehensive, structured, drug-free, and individualized program (specific to the individual’s weaknesses) is developed.

The program is based on a theoretical model about what is currently known about cognition and brain training for attention.  It provides a structure, which encourages systematic delivery of therapeutic tasks, with the ability to customize, depending upon a student’s individual needs.

Our programs are based on the two major attention control systems in the brain including:

Avoiding distractions in the surrounding environment.

Being able to pay attention, including:

Sustained attention:  The ability to maintain a consistent behavioral response during continuous or repetitive activity.

Selective attention:  The ability to pay attention to something, and to notice and ignore other auditory or visual distracters.

Alternating attention:  The capacity for mental flexibility, which allows for moving between tasks that have different cognitive thinking requirements.

Divided attention:  The ability to simultaneously respond to multiple tasks.  For example, listening to a teacher while taking notes.  As you are writing notes from what the teacher just said, you have to continue listening to the new information and choose what to write down in your notes.

Our program identifies the individual’s external distractions and reduces the response to them.  In addition, we build internal awareness (mindfulness) of those distractions.  This allows the individual to identify and master whatever caused the confusion, or triggered the loss of focus.  It also builds internal control to choose what to focus on, so that the individual can get back on-task when he chooses to.

Specialized, and intensive, attention and focus drills are part of each session in order to create new neuropathways in the frontal lobe, which is the command and control center for attention in the brain. Training attention and processing skills relies on the reorganization and training of brain systems or “muscles”.  This requires repetitive performance of retraining tasks within a target area and it forces the activation of neuropathways for attention processing.

Attention strategies are learned and practiced by role-playing difficult attention tasks for the individual, along with how to use those strategies in real-life situations.  All successful students with attention issues must develop excellent skills and strong confidence.  Only when they control their attention, do they truly become the success that they, and others, know is possible.

We use score sheets and graphs, so that students (and parents) can easily view and monitor their progress. This is a powerful motivational factor for our students and it is useful for facilitating improved attention and cognitive processing.

We rely on student (and parent) input to share progress noticed in the student’s everyday environments of:  home, school, work, and social activities.  We expect to see progress EVERY SINGLE hour of our cognitive training sessions!  We also expect the student and significant others to notice positive changes, and direct carryover into the student’s everyday functioning of home, academics, socially, and life!

The attention program is often done in conjunction with our Learn, Listen & Move Program (link) since it addresses primitive reflexes, body control, and organization which are the foundation of higher-levels of attention, focus, and executive function (link).

MATH Problems:

• Struggles with math concepts
• Difficulty solving word problems
• Often uses fingers for calculations
• Difficulty recalling math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
• Thinks she is “dumb”; avoids math work
• Inconsistent with math processes (can do it sometimes and not others)
• Can’t figure out how to correct math errors
• Unable to show work
• Math homework takes too long
• The student is unhappy and frustrated with math and homework ends in tears
• Difficulty memorizing times tables
• Skips critical steps necessary to complete math problems
• Poor reading skills (affects reading the directions, math terms, and word problems)

What Our Meaningful Math Program Does

Our math program takes a very unique approach!  It is built upon the theory of dual-coding by Allan Paivio, Ph.D. The theory supports that we have two systems for storing and retrieving information, verbal and non-verbal, and both are necessary for understanding new concepts such as those in math.

Our Meaningful Math starts each new concept by understanding what that concept looks like in reality.  Students explore the concepts hands-on with 3-D manipulatives, and then they translate the concepts into words. The students put the math onto paper after they truly understand the concepts. It bridges the gap from limited math skills through algebra and geometry.

With Meaningful Math, students don’t just “do math,” they understand it!

Since Meaningful Math has us talk through each concept, we are able to coach each student on: comprehension strategies, visual memory, reasoning, problem solving, vocabulary, and expressive language, all while focusing on math!  It gives us another way to exercise and strengthen the student’s underlying processing skills, and math vocabulary.

The math program is suitable for students in elementary school, as well as for adolescents and adults who are experiencing difficulty with understanding math concepts. It is also consistent with the California curriculum.

Since imagery is important for math, this program is often done in conjunction with our Comprehension and Meaning Program.

WRITING SKILLS Problems:

• Writing takes forever
• Thoughts don’t flow- difficulty generating thoughts
• Poor punctuation and capitalization
• Weak language skills
• Poor organization skills
• Weak spelling skills
• Incorrect word order or incomplete sentences
• Difficulty writing expository essays (informs the reader) or research papers
• Poor working memory, or long-term memory
• Sentences lack variety
• Written expression is significantly weaker than verbal expression
• Unable to write a summary of a familiar story
• Poor attention
• Difficulty with problem solving or taking another person’s or character’s perspective
• Missing key details when writing
• Poor grammar
• Fine motor weakness for writing (graphomotor)
• Can’t get started by herself

If a student exhibits 1 or more of the above, then it is likely that he or she would benefit from our Writing Skills Program

What Our Writing Skills Program Does

Our one-to-one writing skills process is:  structured, systematic, logical, and it follows the sequential progression of skills to be an independent writer.  In general, the programs help children, teens, college students, and professional adults to:

• Write clear and concise sentences
• Organize sentences into paragraphs
• Link paragraphs together into narrative writing and cohesive essays
• Write with intention for her audience and write in her own “voice”
• Independently plan, research, organize, and write complete essays

Beginning and Basic Writing

A student struggling to create and write good sentences with appropriate capitalization and punctuation will benefit from the beginning writing program.  The basic writing program focus is on developing and writing simple sentences to paragraphs and even includes creative writing.  Many students lack sentence variety and are unable to expand their sentences beyond subject-verb-object (e.g., The boy caught a ball).  We help students to add descriptors and rich details in order to expand their sentences (e.g., The brown-haired boy caught a pop-fly ball in the outfield before the game started.)  We focus on mechanics as well as imagination.  Students are encouraged to write from what they are mentally imagining.

Advanced Writing

Students who are ready to learn to write quality complex sentences, paragraphs, and essays are ready for our advanced writing program.  Spelling tendencies are pointed out during this program.  The program is excellent for students in 6th grade through college, as well as for professionals who want an edge on writing clear emails and other professional documents.  We help students to think about their audience and to develop their point-of-view and authentic “voice” in their writing.

The following common paragraph & essay types are taught and practiced:

Narrative Writing: Writing or retelling stories.  This type of writing includes: characters and a setting, a problem, solution and ending in a logical sequence.  This is the most common type of writing done in school at the elementary level.

Expository Writing: Writing that informs the reader.  There are several types of expository writing (paragraphs and essays) including:

• Informative– Provides factual information about a specific topic.
• Operational– Explains how to do something along with the steps, materials and what the reader needs to know
• Persuasive– How to convince a reader to act or believe in a certain way.
• Comparison and Contrast– Describes the similarities and differences between people, characters, things, places or ideas.

Writing a formal letter- Includes all of the components that are needed to write a formal letter.  This type of letter will typically contain one or more of the expository writing types listed above.

We focus on mechanics as well as imagination.  Students are encouraged to write from their mental images.  Our writing program is often done in conjunction with our Comprehension and Meaning Program since students who struggle with written expression also struggle with mental imagery.  The end result of the program is written expression that has direction and flow, and a student who now has the confidence to express themselves and their ideas!

About: Learning & processing skills:

Academic testing is wonderful in order to learn how much knowledge an individual has and how he uses that knowledge.  However, if he is struggling in academics, this type of testing does not help us to understand WHY his is struggling with reading, writing, spelling, math or other content areas.

By evaluating the type and amount of weakness of the learning skills, we can determine a logical solution to address those areas.  Once the learning skills are strong, learning is easier, attention improves, and confidence is boosted.  We see this over and over again!

It was once thought that the brain you’re born with is the brain you’ll always have, and that your IQ won’t change over time.  This idea has been discounted by brain research comparing pre- and post-testing using functional MRI.  According to studies by neuro-scientists Dr. Michael Merzenich, and others, your brain has plasticity, or the ability to change with specialized, intensive, and sequential training.  When specialized training “stretches” an individual’s thinking, a chemical and physical change occurs in the brain.

Research now proves that this kind of “neuro-rehabilitation” is possible, and that with the right tools and strategies, new higher-functioning neuro-pathways can be developed to enhance a student’s overall learning, attention, communication, and performance. This type of brain-training can be thought of as physical therapy for the brain, and it can enhance skills and independence for people of all ages with learning and communication disabilities, brain injuries, and learning and attention problems.

Learning & processing skills PROBLEMS

• Learning takes more effort (has to work harder than others)
• Makes more mistakes and doesn’t self-correct them
• Homework take too long (20 minutes of homework takes an hour)
• Difficulty paying attention
• Doesn’t test well; can’t recall facts or steps to complete problems on tests
• History of special classes
• Slow thinking (processing) speed; can’t keep up or learn as fast as peers
• Weak memory
• Poor attention (or diagnosed with ADD / ADHD)
• History of developmental delays; speech and language delay
• Poor visual processing or poor auditory processing (the brain is not receiving the information correctly)
• Family history of learning, attention, or communication problems
• Poor reasoning and problem-solving (cause and effect, sequencing)
• Doesn’t get slang, jokes (non-literal language)
• Can’t keep up with conversations or fast-talking peers
• Weak vocabulary, spelling, reading, or math
• Poor communication skills
• Weak executive functioning (link)
• Self-esteem and confidence is eroding
• Learning is frustrating and homework may end in tears

What Our Underlying Learning & Processing Skills Programs Do:

Our Brain Skills Bootcamp Program’s effectiveness is based upon evidence-based, clinical research on how new neuropathways are created in the brain.  These neuropathways allow better connections and improved communication between different areas of the brain, so that thinking is faster and more efficient.  This is necessary for independent learning!

*The tasks are fun and intense for students, because the activities feel like challenging games, and not like academics.

*Teaching is 1-on-1, by an encouraging professional, and there is immediate correction and feedback

*Parents and students will notice change quickly.  This is necessary for raising self-esteem and it encourages the student to work at improving skills even more.

*Tasks are sequential and build upon the last task

*Loading the task is necessary to push easier levels to become automatic.  This is done by increasing the number of processing tasks, increasing the speed, and by adding auditory and visual distractions.

*Students pass levels quickly, adding success after success (they also highlight each level passed which increases awareness of improvement and motivation!  This is a powerful motivational factor for our students and it is useful for facilitating improved attention and cognitive processing.

*Modifications are made when necessary to ensure student success until the modifications are no longer necessary.

*Average improvements of 7.5 years growth in processing skills after training.

The following improvements are expected as a result of our Brain Skills Bootcamp Program:

* Overall learning will be easier and faster!
* Self-image and attitude improve!
* Remembering instructions
* Reduced errors
* Able to sound out words
* Reduced reversal of letters and words
* Tasks take less time to complete.
* Easier to stay on task, improved attention
* Homework takes less time and is easier
* Reading comprehension improves
* Students are able to remember more
* Math skills improve
* Able to make associations and conclusions
* Phonemic Awareness
* Auditory Processing of sounds
* Reading- Decoding Skills
* Reading- Comprehension
* Spelling
* Math foundational facts
* Logic and reasoning for math and social skills
* Listening comprehension
* Speed of completing a task
* Remembering names
* Speed for keeping up in social conversations
* Sports:  sensory-motor integration, visual processing, quicker reactions
* Sweeping eyes from left to right for reading (less skipping of lines & losing place on the page)
* AND MORE!

ABOUT MOTOR SKILLS AND/OR SENSORY PROCESSING:

The mental flexibility and adaptability needed for ease in:  learning, attention, social relationships, and general functioning, begins at a foundational level.  Students with learning and attention challenges are often very inflexible mentally and physically.  They are disrupted by any change in routine.  They have only one way of doing things because they do not have the physical and mental flexibility to feel secure trying something in a different way.

MOTOR SKILLS AND/OR SENSORY PROCESSING PROBLEMS:

• Poor motor-planning
• Poor/low self-esteem
• Poor posture (could look like: tired, lazy or not caring)
• Uncoordinated or awkward in movements
• Had delayed motor development
• Poor mental flexibility
• Weak fine motor skills for writing, buttoning, Graphomotor (fine motor writing)
• Works excessively hard, or fatigues quickly
• Bright child who is underachieving
• Poor attention
• Sensitive to light, sounds, textures, movements
• Disorganized in her life (as well as her body)
• Poor sense of rhythm and timing
• Extraneous physical movements
• Difficulty following motor sequences
• Difficulty transitioning (from one activity or location to another)
• Primitive reflexes are not integrated

What Our Motor Skills Program & Sensory Integration Program Does:

The Learn, Listen & Move Program is a one-to-one programs that consists of thirteen core skill areas, each of which has a number of different, and sequential, activities designed to:

• Increase attention and concentration
• Build body awareness and control
• Improve sensory processing
• Develop visual skills (visual processing)
• Integrate primitive reflexes
• Build internal organization needed for learning
• Stimulate the vestibular system which controls balance, movement, and coordination

Learn, Listen & Move supports foundational learning skills, and involves a series of skills and exercises that are done daily make neurological connections in the brain that are critical to comfortable learning and functioning.  These are connections that should have occurred early in development but did not fully develop. The movements exercise both hemispheres of the brain.  This impacts learning, attention, balance, and processing skills.

The training activities also help to integrate primitive survival reflexes and improve interpretation of: sensory input, body and attention awareness and control, and learning efficiency.

The goal of the student is to bring the movements to an automatic level so that they can be executed with little effort. We are working toward students doing the activities effortlessly, independently, and with flexibility.

We meet students where they are physically, and mentally, and we modify and break-down activities as needed.  We increase body awareness and control, and later, attention awareness and control.  We do this by questioning students to guide them in thinking and problem solving about their awareness of body position, where their eyes are gazing, movements, breathing, and where their attention is.

ABOUT ORGANIZATION & EXECUTIVE FUNCTION SKILLS:

Executive Function has been called the “CEO” of our brain.  It covers a collection of interrelated functions responsible for purposeful and goal-directed behavior.
Most executive function difficulties are identified in middle school when organization and independent work are required. However, young children who have difficulty transitioning from one activity to another, or experience trouble following a sequence of instructions (such as getting ready in the morning, or completing homework assignments) are likely demonstrating problems with executive function.
Developing executive function skills helps children, teens, and adults become more independent and to manage their life better.  This allows the following to become easier, logical, and faster:  school work, homework, social life, work life, balancing multiple responsibilities, goal-setting, and planning for the future.
Some of the difficulties with executive function have been associated with conditions including: ADHD, Tourette’s Syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, Depression, Learning Disabilities, and Autism Spectrum Disorders. (Bradshaw JL, 2001)
Younger students exhibit fewer signs of difficulty, because parents and teachers manage their academic and social activities. As higher-levels of organization and independent problem-solving become required in middle school, high school, college, and in adulthood, individuals become more challenged.

ORGANIZATION & EXECUTIVE FUNCTION SKILLS Problems:

• Constantly needs reminders
• Thinking, schoolwork, or homework takes too long
• Impulsive (verbally or physically)
• Difficulty predicting possible consequences or outcomes (cause and effect)
• Poor test-taking (understood it during homework, but teacher changed format of the test)
• Loses track of what she is doing
• Literal thinking- doesn’t get jokes, humor, and slang
• Poor attention
• Difficulty coming up with logical solutions
• Disorganized (work, physical space, communication)
• Difficulty planning or staying on schedule
• Wants immediate gratification
• Poor time management; poor prioritizing of activities and work
• Poor memory (information, instructions, phone numbers, directions)
• Difficulty with active listening
• Poor reading skills (especially comprehension)
• Limited study skills
• Poor emotional control; difficulty controlling reactions, or reactions to change (cries easily, temper tantrums, easily angered)
• Rigid thinking; not mentally flexible, can’t shift mindset
• Doesn’t plan ahead
• Difficulty organizing materials and physical space
• Doesn’t self-monitor social interactions
• Test anxiety
• Difficulty prioritizing and managing long-term projects
• Difficulty seeing another person’s point-of-view

What Our Life Prep University Program: (Brain & Behavior Management-Before and After Graduation) Does:

Executive function skills are high-level thinking skills that depend upon getting complete and accurate information to think with.  If a student has weak processing or learning skills, they should be addressed prior to doing the executive function program.

This extensive, one-to-one, individualized program, is geared toward students in 6th grade to adolescents and adults.  The practice activities, and teaching, match the responsibilities, assignments and activities that are typical for the individual’s age.  The actual activity content is drawn from the individual student’s own life, so that the proactive activities are as relevant and applicable as possible.

Each student doing the program has a workbook to highlight, to take notes in, and to keep as a reference.  The dialoguing between the Therapeutic Learning Coach (TLC) and the student is instrumental in developing and internalizing the concepts and strategies presented.

ABOUT Tutoring (multisensory):

Our Multisensory Tutoring is taught one-to-one with our Therapeutic Learning Coaches and addresses each student’s individual needs in an effective and multisensory way.

Tutoring is re-teaching what should have been learned the first time in school.  It is also necessary when students have missed a lot of information and in a short period of time are able to “catch up.”

If an individual continues to need tutoring in order to get through one or more classes, then a Learning Skills Assessment is recommended.  It will help you to determine if the reasons for needing the support of a tutor are due to underlying learning skill deficits.

We can provide the materials necessary for learning, or students can bring in the work that they are working on, or trying to study.  Many parents have brought in extra student work from their child’s teacher to work on.

In addition, we have adults come in for tutoring who are looking for additional support to:  pass a class, to get ready for passing an upcoming professional test (such as for the police academy), or to learn necessary information specific to their job or industry.

Behavior and Self-esteem PROBLEMS:

• Shows signs of anxiety
• Bright child who is underachieving
• Complains of: headaches, stomach aches, not wanting to go to school, interrupted sleep, nightmares, expresses worries
• Low frustration tolerance
• Poor mental flexibility
• Avoids school, schoolwork (coping strategy)
• Individual tries hard with minimal outcome
• Poor/ low-self esteem
• Recognizing he is struggling more than peers
• Feels confused
• Appears lazy and unmotivated
• Angry- taking frustrations out on others unnecessarily, affecting relationships
• Lacks confidence
• Requires a parent, or tutor, to help her get through school work
• Poor posture (may appear lazy)
• Difficulty maintaining attention

Many of these behaviors are symptoms of another problem.  Parents are often surprised by the changes in these problems while completing our learning programs!

Since everything we do and think about begins at the neurological (or brain) level, we find that as we make changes, and form new neuropathways in the student’s brain, that past challenges and symptoms are often resolved, or significantly improved.

Be assured that we would make a recommendation to another professional, if we believe that the student’s challenges in behavior and self-esteem are significant enough to warrant a referral to a counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, or other professional.

ABOUT OUR LISTENING THERAPY PROGRAM:

Our Listening Therapy Program is a therapeutic, highly specialized, and exquisitely recorded program that involves listening while performing bilateral, interhemispheric, movements. The purpose of the program is to improve:

• auditory processing
• coordination and organization
• attention
• listening and communication
• thinking and learning
• emotional connections (& reduced anxiety)
• brain integration

Each program is individually prescribed, to support the goals and needs of the student.  Young children through adults benefit from the program. This program is primarily completed at home with facilitation by a parent or caregiver.

Listening is a function of the entire brain.  When we listen, we listen with the whole body.  Alfred Tomatis, M.D., the original pioneer and researcher in the field of sound therapy, indicated that the voice cannot reproduce what the brain cannot hear.

Our Listening Therapy Program is very powerful and has been life-changing!  This “sound diet” allows students to receive a greater range of sound frequencies, and it supports and stimulates the brain.

Individuals with the following challenges will benefit from a Listening Therapy Program:

• comprehension difficulty
• mispronounces words,
• low energy; difficulty staying alert
• gets confused with auditory information
• poor fine motor skills (speech and writing); poor gross motor skills
• low confidence
• misunderstands when listening to information from others
• sound sensitivities
• poor spatial awareness (knowing where he is in relation to people or things)
• has difficulty sounding out words while reading
• speaks with poor inflection
• “engine” runs too fast or too slow
• speaks with a monotone voice
• poor balance; vestibular difficulty
• auditory processing disorders
• anxiety; unable to relax
• poor body organization

Purpose:

Once the brain is processing a greater range of frequencies in sound, the listener will have better energy and better input with which to think and learn. This type of “sound therapy” increases the brain’s ability to pay attention to a wide range of frequencies in sound.

Lower frequencies in sound are especially important for coordination, movement, rhythm, feeling “grounded”, attention, and organization. Mid-range frequencies are especially important for hearing and reproducing speech sounds. High frequency sounds are energizing to the brain and are critical for attention, thinking, and learning.  They also carry the detailed information that make it possible to discriminate between similar speech sounds and words, tone of voice, and different instruments and voices.

Format:

A prescriptive and individualized therapeutic Listening Program is provided for each student, depending upon their needs and goals. During the detailed Listening Orientation with our Listening Consultant, parents and students are provided with the materials and the directions for the program.

Students generally listen at home for 30 minutes once or twice per day.

The music selections have been chosen in order to target the student’s specific goals and needs. We gradually build the tolerance of higher-frequencies. We teach the student and family how to continue benefitting from the music, once the prescribed program is over.