Does your smart struggling child have challenges with reading fluency, reading comprehension and/or math word problems? Would you like to help improve and instill a greater love for reading this summer?
Our goal in this blog post and in a webinar we will do next Tuesday June 25th, is to help you to be a more informed, empowered and proactive parent who has greater insights into your child’s strengths, challenges and the emotional component.
Our expertise is with the smart struggling child, many of whom are right brain neurodivergent learners who learn best when they see and experience information.
Having helped two of our four kids with our program and over 2500 students succeed, we know that schools and many interventions are not as integrated, engaging and effective as what your child needs.
We also recognize that if your child fits the characteristics we outline below, they will benefit from a program that teaches to their strengths, identifies and addresses their challenges and reduces their anxiety, while boosting their confidence. We also recognize the importance of providing parents with insights and tools that will make parents even more effective coaches and advocates for their child
Is your child a right brain neurodivergent learner? Research shows that over 60 percent of the students today are, and we estimate that 80 to 90 percent of the smart struggling students learn best when they see and experience information.
Does this sound like your child:
- Does your child remember places visited, even from years ago?
- Does your child learn best when they see and experience information?
- Is your child a lot smarter than present results would indicate?
If this sounds like your child, we highly recommend downloading our “is your child a right brain neurodivergent screening tool” and complete the form with your child. Their answers may surprise you.
If you suspect your child is a right brain neurodivergent learner, we strongly recommend you either click her to register for our Summer Success for Your Smart Struggling Child Webinar, call us at 561-361-7495 or click here to schedule a mutually agreeable time for a Summer Success Conversation
If your child appears to be a right brain learner, there is a good chance they also struggle with some combination of challenges that may include one or more of the following:
- Anxiety and frustration – that often gets worse every year
- Working memory – Your child may have an excellent memory for what they see and experience, but really struggle to remember what they hear and read.
- Processing speed – They may read slowly and take longer to process information.
- Attention – They can often hyper-focus on that which is interesting, but struggle to pay attention to that which is boring or frustrating.
- Visual processing – They may have good peripheral vision, but skip words and/or lines when reading
- Low self-esteem and the feeling they may not be as smart as they are
This infographic shows the intersections of the right brain neurodivergent learner, who often has challenges with visual processing and executive function issues and may have dyslexia or other learning disabilities.
The Right Brain Neurodivergent Learner Benefits from an Informed, Empowered and Proactive Parents Committed to Helping Their Child To Be All They Can Be
As a parent, you may be even more frustrated by challenges with:
- Getting the right help from school
- The slow progress your child is making despite your significant investment of time, money and effort
- How hard your child has to work to just do the basics
- That feeling in your gut that your child is so much smarter than present results would indicate, but you are not sure who to turn to.
This blog has four goals:
- If you have a smart struggling child we want to position you as a Make The Difference Parent. You are not alone. Millions of parents are in a similar position. We want you to understand that if your child is far behind, there is a strong likelihood the gap will widen. Conversely, we want you to be aware there are solutions that can help your child to be far more successful in months. While others might say schools should be doing this, we say we tried that, and they were not successful. As parents and educators, we have been there with two of our four kids. We invested in multiple programs and yet the gap widened. Our turning point was when we were told our daughter was not college material in 8th grade. “I am a right brain learner myself”, says Mira Halpert, a mother and educator with a Master’s in Education from the University of Michigan. “I was committed to finding the right program for my daughter and wound up developing the 3D Learner Program ® that helped our daughter to improve her reading comprehension 4.2 years in 7 months and later earn her Master’s from the University of Florida. Julie has just completed her 20th year of teaching and she is now the teacher she never had. Julie will be an integral part of our Durham – 3D Learner team.
- Help you to focus on your child’s strengths and encouraging you to consider options that will leverage their strengths.
- Recognize the many comorbid conditions that often plague the right brain neurodivergent learner. We want to make sure you get help to identify and address. these challenges.
- Position you to be the Informed, Empowered and Proactive Parent who helps your smart struggling child become far more successful.
If you suspect your child is a right brain neurodivergent learner, we strongly recommend you either click her to register for our Summer Success for Your Smart Struggling Child Webinar, call us at 561-361-7495 or you click here to schedule a mutually agreeable time for a Summer Success Conversation
For 27 years, 3D Learner has offered summer programs to improve student’s reading fluency, reading comprehension and to instill a love for reading. Our expertise is helping the right brain neurodivergent learner to leverage their visualization skills to make significant gains in months.
Kids exclaim “I’m a READER!” – building confidence. One third grader went from the lowest reading group, to being an avid reader and to the highest reading group in her fourth grade class. Her father asked her how that happened. She commented, “3D Learner taught me to visualize what I read, do you know how cool that is”.
3D Learner has helped students to make dramatic gains in 4 to 6 months including:
- A second grader, who went from the Kindergarten level to comprehending at the second-grade level in 4 months and she improved her reading comprehension to the 3rd grade level in 7 months. She also started to read chapter books on her own for the first time — completing 23 books in 7 months. Her attention, dancing and self-esteem were significantly better
- A third grader improved his reading comprehension 3 grade levels in a year and his teacher said he made more significant gains than anyone she had seen in 27 years
- A fifth grader improved her reading comprehension 4 grade levels in 6 months, doubled her reading speed and cut her homework time in half — from 2.5 to 1.25 hours. It now only required 15 minutes from mom vs 2.5 hours previously — saving mom over 10 hours a week
- A ninth grader improved his reading comprehension 4 grade levels in 3 months, increased his reading speed by 80 percent and wound up getting full scholarships to college
If you would like to discuss your specific situation, your child’s present situation and how we can help, you can either call us at 561-361-7495 or click here to schedule a Stress to Outrageous Success Conversation.
3D Learner has extended our summer programs to include:
- The 3D Learner Assessment (™). Prior testing has often helped to identify a reading problem and may have identified your child with dyslexia and often executive function challenges. We focus on 5 key factors
- Our kids often learn best when they see and experience information. They are often right brain neurodivergent learners, but this has rarely been identified. We assess how your child learns best and where they might struggle. If your child is a right brain neurodivergent learner, we explain why this might have historically led to learning challenges, and how we leverage this skill to improve reading comprehension and a love for learning.
- Visual processing issues impact over 70 percent of our students and are often never identified or addressed. If an issue exists, we explain it to you and we share how it can be improved.
- Executive function issues impact more of our students. That is, a combination of attention, working memory, processing speed and/or planning issues. We identify both your child’s executive function strengths and challenges,
- Does your child have dyslexia and what are the specific issues that need to be addressed
- Anxiety has become a major issue. We discuss how this can be addressed.
Our students are often right brain, kinesthetic and neurodivergent learners with a combination of visual and auditory processing and/or executive function challenges and they may have dyslexia and anxiety issues
Our assessment includes:
- The Structure of Intellect Assessment ® that shows how your child learns best, where they struggle and where they excel – a principal commented that the SOI assessment was the best assessment tool they ever used. Her special education professional responded, “The problem is it does not label a child which is required for special education and 3D Learner uses it correctly to tailor a program to meet the student’s needs
- A visual screening tool to identify visual processing issues
- The Mindprint Assessment ® to identify executive function strengths and challenges
- The Core Assessment that is part of the UFLI Dyslexia Program ® developed by the University of Florida. This allows us to screen for dyslexia and target our efforts
- A Woodcock Johnson Reading Comprehension ® Assessment that allows us to assess your child’s present reading comprehension level
- A debrief that allows you to understand your child’s strengths and challenges and their present level of reading comprehension and how we can help your child succeed
Our traditional 30-hour 3D Learner Program ® is an integrated, engaging and effective program that is significantly different than others, because:
- We first and foremost leverage our student’s strengths. This accelerates progress and builds self confidence
- Based on our assessment, we individualize the program to meet the student’s needs
- We address 7 key issues
- Phonics, phonemic awareness and decoding skills
- Building vocabulary – especially for high frequency words that do not generate a picture
- Teaching students to improve their reading comprehension with a strength-based approach. We also strive to instill a love for reading and a love for learning
- Addressing the visual processing issues that are present in over 70 percent of our students
- Addressing attention, working memory and processing speed issues, where needed
- Lowering anxiety and improving confidence and self-esteem
A new comprehensive 60-hour program that is designed to help the student who has significant upside potential and would benefit from an effort that works more intensively on improving the relevant challenges (e.g. attention, working memory, processing speed and visual processing), and is designed to significantly improve reading fluency, reading comprehension and instill a love for learning
A Group Summer Learning Program that can improve reading fluency, reading comprehension, and math skills while instilling a love for learning, for students needing to improve their skills, but not needing the 1-on-1 program. This is for all students seeking enrichment this summer.
Summer Group Learning Program
Over a 6-week period, this program is designed to improve student’s reading fluency, reading comprehension and math skills. This program will meet twice a week for 6 weeks for an hour.
Small group for:
Rising first graders
2nd-3rd grade
4-5th grade
- Groups are forming now to start June 24th
- Live groups available in the Durham, NC area
- Active Zoom sessions will be available for kids nationwide.
Please contact us for more information at 561-361-7495 or click here to schedule a Stress to Outrageous Success Conversation.
We have helped thousands of bright right brain neurodivergent learners over the last 27 years. While they often came with labels, what is often missed are their strengths. Our students are often:
- Right brain learners who learn best when they see and experience information
- Neurodivergent learners as compared to their neurotypical peers, who are logical, sequential and auditory learners. The neurodivergent learner often solves problems in unique ways and cannot always explain how they got there.
- Kids who learn from whole to part, but they are often taught part to whole
- Hard to understand. They are often much smarter than present results would indicate, but they learn differently and may have dyslexia, executive function challenges, visual processing issues and/or anxiety challenges.
Many smart struggling students learn differently and have a combination of dyslexia,
executive function, and/or auditory and visual processing challenges
- Capable of making significant gains in months, with the right help
- Dependent on their parents to find the solution that will help them succeed
Parents often share that their child has been diagnosed with dyslexia, a learning disability, ADHD, or Executive Function and/or anxiety challenges. Or they might say your child is just lazy and unmotivated. Even worse, too often parents are told their child has limited potential.
How We Learned Our Child Was a Right Brain Neurodivergent Learner
In our case, they told us at a transition meeting in 8th grade, “Your daughter is not college material because her reading comprehension is 3 years below grade level. We recommend putting her on a vocational track for high school, so she can get a job when she graduates”
This was after years of several dyslexia treatments, intensive reading programs and many hours of at home help, with me. I had my Masters in Education, years of experience, but I was at a loss”, said Mira Halpert, her frustrated mother. Mark, her father, asked Julie what she wanted to be when she grew up and Julie answered, “The teacher I never had”. It was at this moment I became “A Mom on a Mission”.
“Then I discovered that while her prior diagnosis was technically correct, they missed that she was a bright right brain neurodivergent learner, who could do far better with a hands-on experiential program that leveraged her strengths. With the 3D Learner Program I developed, our daughter improved her reading comprehension 4.2 grade levels in 7 months, went on to earn her college degree and Master’s in Education from the University of Florida and she is completing her 20th year as “The Teacher She Never Had””.
Note, after helping thousands of bright right brain neurodivergent learners, I realize that parents can make the difference if they:
- Screen to see if their child is a right brain neurodivergent learner. If your child is a right brain neurodivergent learner, it may change how you parent this child, what you believe is possible and who you partner with.
- Realize that their bright right brain neurodivergent learner can either:
- Struggle for years as no one leverages their strengths
- Be much more successful within months
- Assess for other co-existing conditions
- Engage in a conversation on how they can make the difference
Is your child a right brain neurodivergent child?
- Does your child remember places visited even from years ago?
- Does your child learn best when they see and experience information?
- Is your child a lot smarter than present results would indicate?
Click here to download our ‘Is your child a right brain neurodivergent learner screening tool?”.
If you have a neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner and want to have a conversation, call us at 561-361-7495 or click here to schedule a Let’s Discuss Creating a Pathway to Success for Your Child.
3D Learner Helps The Right Brain Neurodivergent Learner to Make Significant Gain in Months
3D Learner offers a tailored, integrated, engaging and effective option that has helped thousands of neurodivergent, right brain and kinesthetic learners from 46 states and 13 other countries.
As Dr. Linda Silverman, the Director of the Gifted Development Center in Denver Colorado said:
”Your program is what many gifted students who learn differently need. I recommend many of the components you use, but you are the first professionals who have so effectively integrated them with your very unique and effective learning system.”
3D Learner Options
3D Learner offers parents several unique options, including:
- Coming for a one-week intensive program followed up with 10 hours via zoom. We have had students come from California, New York, Texas and many other states — as well as hosting students from 13 other countries.
- For students who live closer, but not close to our Durham NC office, students have come for 3 days of intensive training, followed up with 2 days of intensive training 4 to 8 weeks later. We then can do the appropriate follow-up via zoom.
- We have traveled to other places to do training for multiple clients – with Singapore being the place we traveled the furthest.
- We have also helped students solely via zoom – -which works well for some students – although we do prefer a live option. Note, for the very busy parents where travel is not an option, our program may be far better than local options.
If you have a neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner and want to discuss the options, call us at 561-361-7495 or click here to schedule a Let’s Discuss Creating a Pathway to Success for Your Child.
Note, we have had students make dramatic gains including:
- A third grader improved his comprehension 3 grade levels in a year and his teacher commented, “He made greater gains than any student I have had in 27 years of teaching”.
- A rising 5th grader from Texas who improved her reading comprehension by 4 grade levels in 6 months, while doubling her reading speed and cutting homework time in half.
- A 7th grader from the State of Washington improved his reading comprehension by 3 grade levels in 5 months and made great strides in all his subjects.
- A student from St Petersburg, FL, went from being a C- student to an A student and her ulcer disappeared.
If you have a neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner and want to discuss the options, call us at 561-361-7495 or click here to schedule a Let’s Discuss Creating a Pathway to Success for Your Child.
There is a May 31st deadline for both the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Unique Abilities (FES – UA) and the Personalized Education Program Several key points:
- The initial deadline to enroll for these programs for the 2024 – 25 school year is May 31st. While that may change, we strongly recommend parents enroll your child ASAP.
- A number of parents signed up for the Personalized Education Program last year and later realized their child could qualify for the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Unique Abilities — that may be worth $2000 more per year for a student with mild disabilities and much more for students with more complex disabilities. REMEMBER: they can only use one- even if 2 are awarded. Note, these scholarships are only for students in private school or being homeschooled. Public and charter school students are not eligible.
- We encourage parents to get the required documentation for the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Unique Abilities, also known as FES – UA ASAP, preferably before May 31st. Here is a link to more information on the FES- UA.
- If your child is going back to public school in the fall, they will lose whatever is in their account that has not been spent on the day they start school. If your child needs help before reentering public school, consider a summer program.
3D Learner Is a Provider for both the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Unique Abilities (FES – UA) and the Personalized Education Program
Our focus is on the visual learner, kinesthetic learner or neurodivergent learner, who learns best when he or she sees and experiences information. We also identify and address dyslexia, ADHD, visual processing issues and executive function challenges.
We are Dyslexia certified trained for the UFLI ® Program — the University of Florida’s Reading Intervention that incorporates a Core Assessment, and an engaging and effective dyslexia treatment. This is an Orton-Gillingham based program.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss how we can help your child and you, call 3D Learner at 561-361-7395 or click here to schedule a Conversation on How the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Unique Abilities or the Personalized Education program can help your child.
7 ways 3D Learner is different than any other provider:
1. Our hands-on program is designed to help the right brain learner, kinesthetic learner or neurodivergent learner who learns best when he or she sees and experiences information.
2. We address both reading fluency and reading comprehension. We have had students make 2, 3 and even 4-year gains in their reading comprehension in 4 to 6 months. While we are a hands-on program, we also address phonemic awareness and reading fluency with the University of Florida’s UFLI Program ®.
3. We identify and address executive function, visual processing and related issues.
4. We strive to ignite a love for learning, while boosting self-esteem
5. We help parents to be even more effective coaches for their child.
6. We tailor our program to meet the individual child’s needs. We can also address math and writing issues.
7. Our assessment, that can be done live or online, will show a parent:
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- How your child learns best
- Their learning strengths and challenges
- Whether there is an executive function or visual processing issue
- The child’s present level of performance for both reading fluency and reading comprehension
If you have any questions or would like to discuss how we can help your child and you, call 3D Learner at 561-361-7495 or click here to schedule a Conversation on How the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Unique Abilities can help your child
Homeschool successes with 3D Learner. We have helped:
If you have any questions or would like to discuss how we can help your child and you, call 3D Learner at 561-361-7495 or click here to schedule a Conversation on How The Florida Empowerment Scholarship for Unique Abilities can help your child.
Both the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES- UA) and the Personalized Education Program vouchers are designed to help private school and homeschool students.
Private school parents can often use the vouchers towards tuition or to improve their child’s academic skills.
Homeschool parents often use the vouchers to improve their child’s academic performance.
Note, many private schools and homeschool students are what we call neurodivergent right brain learners.
At 3D Learner, we help the neurodivergent right brain learner to improve their academic, executive function and related skills.
We define neurodivergent right brain learners as students who:
- Learn differently – sometimes called neurodivergent, visual, kinesthetic or right brain learners. These students learn best when they see and experience information.
- May have dyslexia, dyscalculia or a learning disability,
- May have ADHD.
- May be on the autism spectrum – especially intelligent students with Aspergers.
- Are often smart enough to succeed but lack some key skills.
In this blog post we will discuss three other ways to leverage both the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES- UA) and the Personalized Education Program vouchers.
1- Some homeschool parents want their child to enter private or public schools in the fall. The challenge is their child may be struggling with reading comprehension, math, attention, executive function and/or anxiety challenges. 3D Learner addresses all these issues and more. The May – August time frame is an excellent time to close the gap.
2- A few parents realize their child is too far behind and use the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES- UA) and the Personalized Education Program vouchers to close significant gaps utilizing a gap year. This has helped three students to make much more significant gains this year, than they would have made with traditional schooling.
3- Some states offer significant scholarships for students who meet the GPA (Grade Point Average) or SAT – ACT requirements. The Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES- UA) and the Personalized Education Program vouchers can be used to significantly improve SAT – ACT scores. This allows students to both earn a scholarship that may be worth $20,000 to $29,000 over four years and to get into better colleges or universities. You can read more about this on our blog post in the Bright Futures Scholarship.
If you would like to discuss how we might help your neurotypical, neurodivergent and right brain learners leveraging the Family Empowerment Scholarship or Personalized Education Program vouchers, call 3D Learner at 561-361-7495 or book a time on our schedule at Let’s discuss the Florida Empowerment Scholarship – Unique Abilities or Personalized Education Program vouchers.
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The purpose of this blog post is to alert parents of neurodivergent learners who might not yet have the GPA or SAT – ACT Scores for the Bright Futures Scholarship there may be a chance for your child to still earn the scholarship.
Note, the Bright Futures Scholarship is designed to keep our best and brightest kids in the state university system and to make college affordable for high performing students. The awards are worth approximately $20,000 to $29.000, depending on a student’s GPA.SAT – ACT scores and the tuition at the school they attend.
The Bright Futures Scholarship has two different award levels:
1- The Florida Medallion Scholarship – that requires a 3.0 GPA and a 1210 on the SATs or a 25 on the ACT and 75 volunteer or 100 work hours. This award is worth about $20,000 over 4 years — specifically 75% of the student’s tuition, so the value may vary by school.
2- The Florida Academic Scholarship – that requires a 3.5 GPA and a 1340 on the SATs or a 29 on the ACTs plus either 100 volunteer or 100 work hours.
Reading Comprehension, Reading Speed, Vocabulary and Test Anxiety Are 4 Key Issues we address. Call us at 561-361-7495 to discuss how we assess for these 4 items and how we might be able to help your child earn a Bright Futures Scholarship
3D Learner has helped two groups of students:
- The more traditional learner, who often has the GPA and test scores to qualify for the Florida Medallion Scholarship or the Florida Academic Scholarship. With the increased GPA and SAT – ACT scores, some students have been able to qualify for top universities elsewhere — where they would probably not have qualified without the increased GPA and SAT – ACT scores we helped them get.
- The neurodivergent right brain learner, who may need higher GPA and/or SAT and ACT scores to qualify for the Florida Medallion Scholarship or the Florida Academic Scholarship.
3D Learner helps students in 7 different ways to earn the Florida Medallion Scholarship and the Florida Academic Scholarships:
- We provide an assessment that looks at the present level of performance for reading speed, reading comprehension, vocabulary and executive function.
- We work with the student to set Goals. Since reading comprehension, reading speed, GPAs and SAT and ACT scores are measurable and there are defined targets, this focuses the student’s mind and ours.
- Even students with excellent GPAs often have a reading comprehension level that is below grade level. We have helped these students to improve their reading comprehension 2, 3 and even 4 grade levels.
- We improve reading speed. One student was reading at 125 words per minute and was unable to finish the test or to get test accommodations. We helped him to improve his reading speed to 300 words per minute, while improving his reading comprehension 2 grade levels. This allowed him to finish the test and improve his SAT test scores by 270 points.
- We help students improve their GPAs. This can allow them to qualify for the scholarship, get into better schools and be more successful in college.
- We lower their anxiety. Using both the Safe and Sound Protocol ® and HeartMath ®, our students are able to be much calmer than they would otherwise be.
- We improve their self-esteem and confidence, often by seeing their practice test scores continuously rise.
One student did the math and realized he would have to work over 2000 hours in college to pay for the same amount the scholarship was worth. He created a $20000 check made out to him and put it over his desk. It resulted in a student who was not yet motivated to become highly motivated., We helped him to increase his GPA his last two semesters to a 3.75 and his SAT scores high enough to earn the Florida Medalion Scholarship.
Note, the hard-working student with a high GPA and low-test scores is often the easiest to help. They just need to improve their reading speed, reading comprehension, and math skills, while lowering their anxiety. They often get tricked by the wording on the test and really benefit from our vocabulary building, efforts to improve their math, reading speed and reading comprehension levels; and they become much more confident as we teach them test taking skills.
Neurodivergent Right Brain Learners Often Have Significant Upside Potential
The neurodivergent right brain learner may need more foundation skills.
Who is a neurodivergent right brain learner?
We define neurodivergent right brain learners as students who:
- Learn differently – sometimes called neurodivergent, visual kinesthetic or right brain learners. These students learn best when they see and experience information
- May have dyslexia, dyscalculia or a learning disability
- May have ADHD
- May be on the autism spectrum – especially intelligent students with Aspergers
- Are often smart enough to achieve the Bright Futures Scholarship, but lack some key skills
The neurodivergent right brain learner may appear to be unmotivated, but in many cases money and getting into the right college are motivating.
Our Experience with Neurodivergent Right Brain Learners and the Bright Futures Scholarship
Our initial assessment often uncovers foundational skill gaps that may hamper them in school, on the SAT or ACT, in college and beyond. These might include:
- ADHD issues, where they lose focus when testing.
- Processing speed issues, where they read tortuously slowly.
- Working memory issues where they just do not remember things.
- Language and vocabulary issues. Both the SAT and ACT are written in a tricky way that often confuses the student who does not understand high frequency words (e.g. except, but, greater than, always etc.).
- Math skills, especially with respect to algebra – that is the focus of the SAT and ACT math sections. Combine this with the tricky questions and good students often get scores closer to 500 on the SAT when they should be getting 600 to 650.
- Test anxiety — when one has the other challenges, anxiety often follows.
- Belief in themselves. When a student has always struggled on standardized tests, they often do even worse on the SAT and ACT.
The good news is that with practice, they can often do far better.
If you would like to discuss how we might help your neurotypical, neurodivergent and right brain learners earn a Bright Futures Scholarship or improve their GPA and SAT – ACT scores call 3D Learner at 561-361-7495 or book a time on our schedule at Let’s discuss the Bright Futures Scholarship.
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