What We Do Frequently Asked Questions
We help children and adults that have problems with reading, spelling, math and writing. We provide help when the basic processing skills have not been learned adequately. Our programs are based on research from the National Institutes of Health. An excellent article regarding this research is entitled "Cracking the Code." It appeared in Teacher Magazine. Much of our work is also based on the 2001 Harvard Education Forum and the 1999 national PTA resolution.
The basic processing skills include:
1) Attentional skill - this is the ability to stay on task
whether reading or listening. It is a very
complex
subject. There are many issues that must be addressed when there is a
problem (trauma,
anxiety,
depression, temperment,
nutritional, medical, ecological). The definition of AD/HD can be found
here. AD/HD
can exist
with other disorders at the same time. The
impact on the family an be
devastating. Realizing these various aspect is especially important in
treatment.
2) Balance Integration - Successful learning involves the integration and timing of both hemispheres of the brain, as well as the integration of the vestibular, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile senses.
3) Timing, Rhythm and Motor Planning - these skills are tremendously important in order for our left and right brain to communicate between each other. Deficits in timing will affect many learning processes.
4) Tracking skill - this is the ability to visually track across a line of print without losing place, skipping words or lines. This fundamental learned skill is often lacking.
5) Binocular Skill - this is the ability for both eyes to coordinate together for sustained periods of time. Many times one eye will drift and result in visual confusion.
6) Phonological awareness - being able to match sounds to letters and to manipulate sounds within words. This is tremendously important in learning to read and decode. Also see the article from the National Association of School Psychologists. Please check our resource list of phonologically appropriate books for early readers.
7) Auditory & visual memory - remembering what is heard and seen.
8) Speed of processing - being able to work faster and more efficiently.
9) Imagery or Visualization - this ability helps us to understand and comprehend.
10) Fine Motor Coordination - this relates to eye-hand coordination and penmanship skills.
11) Learning Style Awareness - many parents and teachers do not recognize "how" their child learns. Everyone is unique and our learning styles are also! Recognizing a learning style will give you many clues on how to work with your child.
Dyslexia and other learning problems are often misunderstood. Click here for common myths.
The process begins with specialized testing. We must be sure that information gets to the brain efficiently (sensory), is processed properly (cognitive) and is outputted properly (motor). Deficits in this sensory - cognitive - motor process will affect learning potential.
Are you unsure whether you child needs help? Here are some signs that we may be able to help. Also check out this screening questionnaire.
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1.
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Your child's teacher or school counselor
recommends it. This may happen at a parent-teacher conference. It may also
occur when progress reports are issued, or at report card time.
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2.
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Your child's grades start to fall independent of how hard he or she seems to be working, where before they were improving or holding steady. |
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3.
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No matter how long your child spends on
homework, it's neither complete nor accurate. This may indicate a lack of
basic skills or a weakness in a specific academic area.
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4.
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Caught in a cycle of frustration and failure, your child shows an increasing lack of confidence and motivation. |
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5.
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Your child has lost interest in learning.
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6.
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Your child experiences
extreme anxiety before tests and exams.
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7.
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Your child is reluctant to go to school, fearing
failure and criticism from others.
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8.
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Your child's teacher reports that he or she is
acting out, becoming a behavior problem in class.
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9.
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Your child says, "I'm too stupid. I'll never
understand this stuff."
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10.
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Your child says, "I give up." Or, worse, you
hear yourself saying it.
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Our office provides different types of sensory - cognitive - motor therapies depending on the deficient area(s). Training is provided on a one-to-one basis. Sessions occur one to three times per week with supplemental home activities given. For a more detailed explanation, please see our Frequently Asked Questions and examples of therapy equipment.
Recommended Books
"Why
Our Children Can't Read" by Diane McGuinness, Ph.D. gives many insights into why many children have problems with
reading. The excellent message is that no child has to fail at learning to
read. This is important information to the 43% of American students that
are not reading on grade level. Click on the book to learn more.
Another
recommended book is by Lawrence J. Green, entitled "Finding
Help When Your Child is Struggling in School."
This book shows you how to work within the educational system and how to seek
assistance outside the system. Concrete, step-by-step plans of action are
included to help inform and educate parents.
"Seeing
Is Achieving, Improve Your Child's Chances For Success" will change
the lives of many thousands of families around the world! Written i
n
a simple, straightforward style, this practical guide is for parents who want
their child to develop to his or her fullest potential in school, sports, and in
everyday interaction with others. The authors show that a great many of the
problems children face in school, sports and social activities can be corrected
relatively easily if they are caught early by developing proper channels for
their eyes to communicate vital information to the brain. They explain why kids
with "good eyesight" can still have poorly developed vision and
perception, and how you as a parent or teacher can spot the telltale signs. This
book gives case histories of typical childhood vision problems, and how they
have been helped with vision therapy.
It
discusses Jean Piaget’s theory of
development and then illustrates activities and strategies to help a child with
experiences best designed to develop his/her full potential as a “thinking”
human being. The book proposes to show how children can be prepared
to develop their full potential as thinking human beings. The activities or
'games' (170 are included) described provide a general foundation which should
help the child to deal successfully with specific academic subjects. Even
though this book was published years ago it is a timeless classic that is
referred to on a daily basis by many in education and human development.
Another important book ("Failure to Connect" by Jane M. Healy, PhD) that is a welcome addition to the growing (and long overdue) debate about how much of a good thing it is to mix computers and children.
Healy is a professional educator of wide
experience, and a recovering techno-fundamentalist. She is scrupulously fair
about the evidence presented in various studies on the ways computers help or
hinder learning, and quick to offer positive anecdotes where there are positive
ones to be had. (She freely notes, for example, what a miracle computers have
been for some handicapped children.) But her conclusions about the routine use
of computer technology in the classroom are overwhelmingly--and
persuasively--negative.
A major theme of "Failure to Connect" is the federal government's culpable idiocy (not her term, but she implies as much) in jumping uncritically, to the tune of $4 billion a year, on the "computer in every classroom" bandwagon. As she shows, there is scant evidence that computers teach basic skills any better than traditional methods, or that children who don't have computers are somehow "left behind." Conversely, there is abundant evidence that an uncritical infatuation with computers as an educational panacea is replacing skill building and learning with formless play while forcing art and music lessons, and in some cases math textbooks, off many school budgets.
This book (Your Child's Growing Mind : A Guide to Learning and Brain Development from
Birth to Adolescence by Jane Healy, PhD) became an instant classic when it was published in 1987. The most recent version is 1994. It has always been a cornerstone for educators. Now revised and updated to reflect recent findings in brain research, this book guides parents, teachers and doctors as they gauge the level of development of an individual child's brain.
"Eye
Q and the Efficient Learner" summarizes lessons that the author,
Dr. James Kimple, learned during 45 years of of successful prevention and
treatment of learning disabilities. Children with these problems have been
burdened with labels: ADD/ADHD, perceptually impaired, neurologically impaired,
dyslexic. Many are called lazy, slow learners, or just "dumb".
Whatever the label, we treat symptoms and ignore causes.
Until parents and educators recognize that the foundation of effective learning
is good functional vision, we will continue to use elaborate, cumbersome, and
ineffective treatments.
This book addresses the identification, prevention, and treatment of functional vision problems. It an analyzes the visual demands of reading, and indicates what parents and schools can and should do to help children succeed in school.
"Suddenly Successful" by Hazel Dawkins is "a readable and thorough presentation of visual dysfunction which often results in significant learning difficulties and behavioral problems in children, adolescents and adults." states Morris Wessel, M.D., Pediatrician, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
"Buzzards to Bluebirds" by Allen and Virginia Crane outlines exactly how you can help your child realize her or his potential in six weeks. The authors, who team-taught for many years, dedicated three decades to researching and developing this valuable material. Part I is for parents, Part II is for the parent-teacher team, Part III is for schools. The book offers a clear guide to identifying and eliminating problems that trigger learning difficulties-from straightforward checklist to test and charts. Here are practical, proven ways to resolve learning and behavior problems.
This next book, "Vision and School Success : A Guide to Understanding Vision's Role in Learning and What the Teacher Can Do to Facilitate Learning in the Classroom" by George B. Spache, Ph.D., Lillian R. Hinds, Ph.D., Lois B. Bing, O.D., is written for those involved with children's learning. A broad concept of vision, including its sensory, motor and central processing dimensions. It helps educators recognize the visual demands of the classroom, the behavior of students who are experiencing stress because of their vision problems and ways and means of alleviating this stress.
"How To Develop Your Child's Intelligence" by Dr. G.N. Getman is a classic. It has been analyzed, critiqued and approved by authorities in several fields including education, psychology and behavioral optometry. This book stresses that professionals and parents realize the importance of childhood, and how it intellectually prepares children for the culture into which they are being thrust. Children are finding themselves in cultural demands for which they have not had adequate physiological, neurological or cognitive preparation.
There is now so much emphasis upon the reading skills needed for the impact of a tremendously symbolic world that children are being hurried into the task earlier and earlier. All of this ignores the fact that reading abilities are now of greater concern to parents than they are to children. Further, there is too little attention being paid to the stresses being heaped upon these children who have not achieved the learning skills they must have for all academic subjects. "How To Develop Your Child's Intelligence" includes two separate wall charts of intellectual development that are excellent resources.
Although the multidisciplinary nature of learning disabilities has been recognized for some time, the scope of each of the several disciplines involved is often less well understood. Professionals, such as pediatricians, and parents often are unable to measure the quality of services being rendered to a child. This book, "Treatment and Management of Children With Learning Disabilities" by Dr. Harold A. Solan (Editor) takes the panorama of information about learning disabilities and enables the reader to develop a reasonable expectation of the scope and level of educational and professional services administered by each of the individuals who is teaching and/or treating the child. Contributors include neurology, education, behavioral optometry, psychiatry, psychology and speech/language.
"Eye Power" by Ann Hoopes is based upon the premise that vision is the principal link between the brain and the outside world and thus serves as the master coordinator of every part of the human organism. The author is the director of the Wellness Center in Washington D.C. writes that vision therapy can result in improved self-awareness, vitality and mental efficiency.
Please call our office for further information.
100 North Rancho Road, Suite #1
Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
Telephone (805)495-3937 Fax (805)373-9843
E-Mail