What is Educational Therapy?
Educational therapy helps children and adults with learning disabilities and learning challenges by providing focused, personalized support to solve learning issues. We help students understand their learning challenges and that understanding empowers students. It also helps them recognize their strengths, so they can use those strengths to improve or manage their weaknesses.
What is an Educational Therapist?
An educational therapist uses both highly skilled teaching and therapeutic techniques to assess areas of need; remediate learning struggles; act as case manager with school, other providers, and the family; and advocate for children, teens, and adults with learning disabilities or learning differences.
We design targeted lessons based on information that we gather from different areas, including the student's team in school, their social strengths and challenges, what emotional issues might be cropping up due to learning challenges, and targeted assessments.
We use a wide variety of testing protocols to determine the best possible approach to a student's learning needs.
As an educational therapist, I am trained and have access to assessments that go deeper and wider than educational testing that schools and tutors have access to unless you have managed to gain an IEP.
Sometimes an analogy can help in determining what level of support your child might need.
Let's say that you want some trees removed that are close to your home so that you are safer from wildfire. You would probably choose to spend more money to hire an arborist, because they have the training and expertise about which trees are a danger and which are not. They also understand which cuts are needed in the correct order to fell the tree in a way that doesn't damage your home.
If you are suspecting that your child is struggling due to a complex learning issue, you would probably want to hire an educational therapist. If they are doing ok overall, but just need a little help in history, you'd probably want to hire a tutor.
A gardener will probably bring a lot of skill to keeping your property looking nice, but may not have the expertise to determine complex problems with trees and how to deal with them safely and efficiently.
Below, you will find some helpful information about what Educational Therapy is and whether you need someone with that level of expertise.
How to Get Started?
Step 1.........
Book a Call Schedule a free phone consultation to find out if your child could benefit from educational therapy.
Step 2.........
Meet & Greet I meet with your child at my home for one hour. I ask that you have them bring something that they are working on in school - language arts or math - whatever you think will give me a window into their struggles. During this time, I observe and take some notes. Afterwards we have another conversation about my insights and determine next steps.
Step 3.........
Action Plan This often starts with some formal assessments. These could be around phonics, discreet math skills, writing, or any other area where foundational skills may be lacking. I share results and write up an action plan. Provided we are aligned as a team, I begin my work!
Step 4.........
Let the Learning Begin Once I know where to start, I sketch out a plan of action. I plan each lesson based upon my assessments and what I discover during each lesson. Sometimes the child’s response to a lesson will prompt a change of course. That might be another assessment, stepping into a different concept, or providing some level of emotional support that I see is necessary for your child’s growth. I will always keep you posted with updates for every session. Parents have said they place a high value on these updates and often share them with the school team so that we are all on the same page. Communication is key to success!