From Struggling to Confident: A 2021 LearningRx Success Story
The success story of one of our students who has experienced extraordinary improvement over the past year and a half through working with her personal brain trainer.
As 2021 comes to a close, we’d like to take a moment to appreciate all that has happened here at LearningRx throughout the year. Our clients make incredible progress each year, and every one of their accomplishments is worth celebrating.
In this blog, we’re sharing the story of Malika, one of our students who has experienced extraordinary improvement over the past year and a half through working with her personal brain trainer. This is Malika’s success story.
Malika’s Background and Learning Struggles
Malika’s learning difficulties first became apparent in preschool, but it took years to finally determine that she had a learning disorder. In that time she received tutoring, saw multiple experts, and finally went through testing.
When she first came to LearningRx, Malika had trouble reading, sounding out words, and retaining what she read. Because reading was such a struggle, she often avoided it altogether. Despite having help from a tutor, her reading skills had fallen far behind her grade level. In addition, it took her a long time to catch on to new things, she had trouble keeping up with conversation and understanding jokes, and her confidence and self-esteem were declining.
But Malika had one important quality in her favor — the strong desire to improve and develop her skills.
Our Recommended Program To Improve Her Cognitive Skills
Because her recommended program was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Malika’s training took place over the course of about a year and a half. The initial focus of the program was on improving her cognitive skills across the board, including attention, memory, visual processing, auditory processing, logic and reasoning, and processing speed.
We began by focusing specifically on addressing her difficulty with reading fluency, followed by her ability to remember, comprehend, and enjoy what she reads. We also worked to fine tune other skills that she found difficult such as processing speed and logic.
Malika trained one-on-one with her personal brain trainer three times a week for 90 minutes each session. The sessions were intense and focused on activities that she could not do on her first attempt. Though it can be frustrating to be asked to do something that you struggle with, Malika persevered and overcame challenge after challenge, passing numerous levels of difficulty between various activities.
Malika’s Perseverance Paid Off
And that perseverance delivered big results. According to Malika’s parents, “She was able to read, pronounce words, and spell better after just the first program!”
Malika has also experienced a 22-point increase in her IQ and her school grades have improved across the board. Even better, her confidence has greatly increased and she now enjoys the challenges of learning. She was even named LearningRx Cary’s 2021 Student of the Year!
Her teacher and speech therapist noticed Malika’s drastic improvement as well. In fact, she improved so much that she was able to decrease the frequency of her speech therapy to only once a week.
Malika’s trainer notes that she has grown from a “quiet, shy girl who was reluctant to engage in conversation and had low confidence in her academic abilities to a talkative, witty reader who takes pride in her educational achievements!”
Malika’s confidence has grown leaps and bounds. Her parents say that she now “loves showing off her knowledge and even goes up to the front of her classroom to answer questions in front of her peers.”
Her trainer has also been thrilled to witness her improved ability to socialize, including making and understanding jokes. “As her logic and reasoning went up, Malika was better able to catch on to sarcasm and even make jokes of her own that made sense with the subject and pace of the conversation she was part of. This skill has visibly given her so much more confidence socially, which has been amazing to see.”
Overall, Malika’s hard work paired with her cognitive skills training through LearningRx has resulted in not only significant academic achievement, but also increased confidence and improved social skills.
Could Cognitive Skills Training Be Right For Your Child?
Malika’s story is one example of the effect that LearningRx’s programs can have on the lives of students and their families. There are many more stories like hers of children who came to us with learning difficulties and experienced marked improvement through our brain training program.
Could your child benefit from cognitive skills training? Take our free brain quiz here, and contact us to learn more about how our program can help meet your child’s specific needs. We look forward to sharing their success story one day!
