We work with children and adults who have one or more of the following problems:

• can't remember which letters go with which sounds (phonemic awareness)
• can't "sound out" words (reading)
• have difficulty remembering spelling words (spelling rules, visual memory)
• can read words, but can't remember anything they read (reading comprehension)
• have trouble following directions at home and at school (auditory processing, receptive language, auditory memory)
• have weak reasoning skills ("common sense")
• have trouble with math facts or math word problems (visual memory)
• do homework well, but are unable to do similar problems on a test (executive function, visual memory)

The usual solution to helping a person with learning problems involves assessment of the academic areas in which the person is having difficulty, followed by one-on-one or small group instruction in those academic areas. We use training methods that work with individuals who have not been successful with the usual methods of remediation and tutoring.

At the Communication & Learning Clinic, we also address the underlying issues that are associated with learning disabilities, such as Attention, Memory, Organization of Information and Language Processing.

Attention: A child may have difficulty attending to instruction even without a medical label of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD). A common misconception among parents is that a child must be "hyper" or "bouncing off the walls" in order to have an attention deficit.

Many times we hear, "My child doesn't have an attention problem, he can play video games or watch TV for hours at a time." We have no doubt these comments are true. However, watching TV is a very passive activity. Images flash on the screen every two to three seconds on the average, which keeps the child's brain stimulated without requiring a thoughtful response from the child.

School and in particular, test-taking, demands very precise, organized information gathering, organized planning and an organized verbal or written response. These are not the skills that are being exercised while watching a typical TV program.

Video games require responses, but they are very rapid, impulsive responses based on visual input. If the child makes a mistake, there is always another chance. Impulsive, trial and error responses require very little thinking. What you want as a parent is to encourage the type of thinking skills that will help your child become a good student and a responsible adult.

Organization of Information:
A person without a learning disability continually looks for patterns in what they are learning. The process is so automatic and happens so quickly, that most of it is done subconsciously.

• Have I seen this before?
• How is it the same?
• How is it different?
• What do I do first?
• How can I organize this information so it's easier to remember?
• Do I need help? What kind of help do I need? Who can help me?
• How will I know if the answer is correct?

Typically, a person with a learning disability sees a learning situation as one big impossible task. What you tend to hear is, "This is too hard." "I can't do this." "The teacher didn't tell me how to do this one." "I didn't have enough time to get it done."

Memory: This part of learning gets more children in trouble and fools more parents and teachers than any other in our experience at this clinic. Memory difficulties can look like attention problems, behavior problems and even mimic some behaviors of inviduals diagnosed with autism. Rather than go into a detailed explanation of the types of memory, some of the typical scenarios involving memory that we see in our clinic are listed here.

• Learning Disability (LD) - Parents say, "He's smart. He can memorize anything, but then he forgets it on the test." "She's in 5th grade and all of a sudden she hit a wall. She's been getting A's and now she's failing." "He just needs more discipline. If I sit with him, he can do it." Adults say, "I don't have a problem with reading. I have a problem remembering what I read."
• Mild Mental Handicap (Article 7 terminology) - Parents say, "We can go over it and over it and over it and no matter how many times we go over it, he still doesn't get it."
• Receptive Language Disorder, Expressive Language Disorder or Auditory Processing Disorder - We are seeing more and more children who are able to communicate in entire sentences as long as they are talking about something they are interested in. As soon as someone asks them a question, they are unable to answer or they may answer only in single words or sentence fragments. They may simply repeat the question (echolalia).

Language Processing: Academic success also depends on efficient neurological timing and sequencing. Parents often express concern that their children are spending hours doing homework each evening. Most tests, including ISTEP and the SAT are timed. Our treatment plans improve the ability to process language quickly and more efficiently.

What can we do for you?
We do a language-based diagnostic evaluation to determine learning strengths and weaknesses and make recommendations based on that evaluation. We then recommend a plan of treatment that addresses deficits in attention, memory, organization as well as the learning skills necessary to become a successful student or employee.