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www.FredParent.NET 13 Sponsored Material Join us for the live conversation on Q: What's a typical tutoring session look like? We only work 1-1 with our students, because everything is tailored to the individual needs of each student. We usually do some kind of fun game/activity to get the brain warmed up. We then usu- ally do some microphone work where we are working to clean up the "feedback loop" from the ear to the voice to the brain. You will often find students doing physical exercises—these work on vision, motor and attention skills. Then they do more "brain training." It doesn't look like a typical tutoring session or like "schoolwork." But because we are addressing what is causing the struggle in the first place, the improve- ments occur much faster. For instance, our average student usually improves at least two years in only 40 hours of sessions. Q: If someone thought there was something more to their child's struggles and wanted to get an evalua- tion, how would they start? What would the process be like? We usually start with a phone consultation, where the director asks some questions to determine if we are the best place to start. If we think we can help, we will recommend an evaluation. During the evaluation, we examine academic ability, processing skills, visual efficiency and motor skills. The evaluation takes about two hours. At the end of the evaluation, we give a general idea of what we observed during the test- ing. We then set up a time to meet back to give a written report with the results of the testing and our recommendations on how to best help the student. Sometimes we don't recommend that a student start with us—we may feel that something would be better. We want to make sure that we are recommending the best, most efficient way to help each person we meet. Do you have questions about The Marshall School and Learning Enhancement Centers? Join us for our Facebook Live interview, Ask The Expert! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates. Facebook: @fredericksburgparent / Twitter: @FredParent / Instagram: @fredparentmagazine a sk t h e e x p e rt "Our goal is simple: to create learning success stories, one student at a time." ~ Learning enhancement Centers Q: What types of students benefit from Learning Enhancement Centers? Why? We work with students who are bright, but are struggling at school. We see students who are having difficulties in reading, math and spelling. Some of them are diagnosed with a learning dis- ability, but many are just not sig- nificant enough to get help from the school. Many of our students have attention and executive function skills deficits. Q: What is something you wish parents knew about how children learn? I think the number one thing is that you need to treat the cause, not the symptom. Reading is a great example. In the last 20 years of evaluating students with read- ing difficulties, I have identified three causes of reading challenges, each requiring a different type of solution. For instance, if a student has difficulty processing sounds in words, then phonics will be almost impossible to understand and use. In these cases, we need to train the brain to process the sounds, and then we teach phonics. The results are quite amazing when you treat what was causing the prob- lem in the first place. But what if the cause is a visual issue? These students often have issues with visual–spatial skills and visual efficiency, such as tracking. They are the ones who have reversals issues, who mix up letters, and who can't remember the word from one line to the next. They often can decode words, but struggle with reading flu- ency. While we still teach phonics to these students, we do many other activities to increase their visual skills first. Finally, the third cause is the one that Sally Shaywitz, author of Overcoming Dyslexia, calls a "double deficit." (I call it a "double whammy.") These students have both issues. Unfortunately, it takes much longer to address their issues. They don't connect the sounds to the symbols. We can teach them phonics until they are "blue in the face," and yet they won't naturally apply the rules. These students will need a combination of strategies to learn to read. All this to say, if someone is struggling with reading, you need to know what is caus- ing the problem in the first place. If someone tells you, for example, that your child doesn't know her consonant blends—that is good information, but you want to ask, "What is causing that to happen? Where is the breakdown occurring in her brain?" After all, once you know the problem, the solution is easy to determine. Again, this goes back to what I was saying in the beginning. We must determine what is causing the problem and then teach specific strategies to strengthen the weak area if we want to help students make lifelong changes. Q: Any myths you'd like to break about ADD/ADHD? I think parents need to know that attention challenges are real. However, just like with learning challenges, it is important to know what is causing the attention problems, so you know how to make it better. When we test stu- dents, we look at five possible causes of attention challenges: auditory processing, visual efficiency, retained primitive reflexes, sensory integration, and diet and nutrition. If a student has sensory integration issues, medicine won't usually help that, but treating the cause will make a huge difference. I am not opposed to medicine, I just don't think it should be the first line of defense. There are times that I have tested someone who is fine in all five areas, but they are still struggling—those are the ones for whom I feel more confident recommending medicine. Many of the programs and strategies that we use with students can be a great way to improve attention without medicine—which many parents often prefer.