Academic Support in Math, Reading, and Writing What would you do if your student had all A’s except for a D in history? Chances are, you’d try to get to the bottom of the issue. Maybe they’re bored by the subject matter or the class is right after lunch and they’re falling asleep. Perhaps it’s the last class of the day and they’ve left class early every Friday to play in their hockey tournament. Whatever the reason, you’d take action to find the root cause and fix it, right? Chances are, you’d send them to bed earlier, request a later lunch period, quiz them with history flashcards, or even hire a tutor to help them brush up on their WWII facts. But what if, instead of history, the class was math? Or reading? Or writing? While history is certainly important, you may be less likely to jump to the conclusion that your student has a learning struggle. That could be because we tend to think of history as a “subject” and math, reading, and writing as essential skills we need to succeed in other classes, at work, and in life in general. Knowing that tutoring is a solution geared to reteach content that was missed the first time, it makes sense that you’d hire someone to help them “catch up” in history. So why can’t tutoring simply help a child “catch up” in math, reading, or writing? Math, reading, and writing are much more cumulative than history. Students must build upon earlier concepts and master skills to help them succeed in higher classes. If your student hasn’t mastered each level of math, reading, and writing before moving onto the next level, it’s highly unlikely they’ll excel in more advanced classes that use those skills. So, if tutoring isn’t the solution, what is? That’s where cognitive skills training—also known as personal brain training—comes in. What are cognitive skills? Sometimes referred to as “brain skills,” cognitive skills are the foundation tools that impact our mental performance in every area of life, including school, work, and even sports, musical performance, and other activities. When these skills, which include attention, auditory processing, logic & reasoning, memory, and processing speed, are strong, learning anything is faster and easier. More specifically, each skill helps us perform an essential task in learning: • Sustained Attention: Enables you to stay focused and on task for a sustained period of time • Selective Attention: Enables you to stay focused on a task despite distractions • Divided Attention: Enables you to remember information while doing two things at once • Auditory Processing: Enables you to analyze, blend, and segment sounds • Visual Processing: Enables you to think in visual images • Logic & Reasoning: Enables you to reason, form ideas, and solve problems • Long-term Memory: Enables you to recall information stored in the past • Working Memory: Enables you to hang on to information while in the process of using it • Processing Speed: Enables you to perform tasks quickly and accurately When these skills aren’t maximized for full learning potential, learning can be difficult. In fact, most learning struggles are caused by one or more skills. That’s why even incredibly bright students could struggle to perform well in school or take hours to complete homework that only takes their peers half the time. Just imagine a bright student whose cognitive skills are all strong EXCEPT FOR processing speed. They make take longer to complete standardized tests (in some cases, not finishing in time), homework, or their part of a project with a team of classmates. Likewise, a student with weak memory skills may have trouble remembering what he/she has read, what the teacher said in class, or that play his/her coach told them to run in the game. It’s also worth noting that most kids and teens don’t simply “outgrow” learning struggles. If these skills aren’t strengthened before college or adulthood, chances are that their difficulties will continue to affect their performance. Luckily, Dr. Ken Gibson, the founder of LearningRx, has spent 35+ years researching, developing, and fine-tuning programs to target and train specific cognitive skills. How personal brain training works When clients come to LearningRx for the first time, we start with an initial Brain Skills Assessment. The results of this one-hour test help pinpoint which brain skills are strong and which can use some work to bring out the person’s full learning potential. Using the results of the Brain Skills Assessment, our team creates a personal brain training program designed to target and strengthen the skill or skills most in need of a boost. Your student will be paired up with a personal brain trainer who will use game-like mental exercises that are both fun and challenging. Our rigorously developed programs include loading, intensity, and positive feedback, among other tools, to help boost both cognitive skills and the student’s confidence through each step of training. We offer a variety of programs to meet the needs of our clients, three of which are specific to math, reading, and writing skills: • MathRx: This program trains the cognitive skills needed to efficiently and effectively develop numerical fluency, learn math concepts, solve problems, and perform calculations. • ReadRx: This program incorporates a powerful reading intervention that trains auditory processing and other skills critical to reading success. It also incorporates our core program, ThinkRx, which works on all the core cognitive skills. • ComprehendRx: This program takes reading intervention to a new level, focusing on the brain skills that are critical for reading comprehension, including visual processing, reasoning skills, sequential processing, working memory, and metacognitive strategies (the latter of which develops self-awareness and the ability to self-assess). Looking for a combination of these programs? Ask about Einstein, which includes ThinkRx, ReadRx, and MathRx. Getting started Don’t’ worry if you’re not sure which program to enroll your student in. That’s where our Brain Skills Assessment comes in! For now, just contact your local LearningRx center to schedule the initial Brain Skills Assessment. You can find a program near you by entering your zip code on www.LearningRx.com.