Educational therapy gets to the root of learning disabilities: Part 2

Educational Therapy addresses underlying learning skills such as visual and auditory processing, attention and memory skills on an individual basis. This is different from a tutor who provides subject support and deals specifically with academics. Educational therapy deals with the processing of information. Processing is the way a student thinks and learns. Good educators know that all students learn differently and process information in a unique manner. Some students learn best by watching while others learn best by hearing or doing. Pukkila commented that, "At Wired2Learn, I optimize the student's strengths to teach them how to learn best."

Researchers at the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University demonstrated with a Functional MRI study that the neural mechanisms underlying time and timing are highly flexible. This is good news for people with learning disabilities because attention, processing and motor skills are based on these internal timing mechanisms and, with our current understanding of brain plasticity, that means specific interventions can help improve these areas of concern.

Some students have focusing problems. According to attention specialist Thom Hartman, attention is a basic cognitive skill that affects performance in many areas. However, deficits in attention do not imply an absence of attention; rather deficits reflect a greater than expected inconsistency in control of attention. If a student isn't attending to information presented, then the student isn't learning. Traditional methods involve medicating a student, but educational therapists work with students to teach them to focus and attend. Today students are expected to hold vast amounts of information in their memory banks. Tracy Packiam Alloway, Ph.D., has spent her life researching memory and has found that many students are weak in this area as well and she reports that memory can be strengthened like any skill, which in turn affects academics in a positive manner.

Educational therapy provides remediation by addressing the specific learning disability with specialized teaching techniques, interventions and programs. This kind of therapy is tailored to meet a child's individual needs. Educational therapy provides intervention and programs to help the student improve processing, attention and memory skills thereby making it easier to learn.

"Wired2Learn is committed to promoting the strengths found in every child and adult and the idea that every brain is wired to learn," remarks Pukkila.

Wired2Learn uses educational therapy to help students find success using strength-based interventions and progressive brain training programs based on current psychological and educational research. Clients include individuals with sensory processing disorder, attention deficits, dyslexia, dysgraphia, math deficits and autism spectrum disorders. Free assessments in processing and internal timing will be available at Wired2Learn during an open house on Wednesday, Oct. 3 from 4-8 p.m. on the second floor of 1616 E. Seltice Way in Post Falls. Guests will get a sensory experience as they get to see and try some of the programs and interventions offered at Wired2Learn.

Alyssa Pukkila, MS is an educational therapist for Wired2Learn, (208) 699-6232.