If you have a smart struggling child in third grade or an earlier grade, the three keys to Get It Right for your child are to recognize that:
- You want to reject the status quo. Too often parents are told to wait. The evidence is compelling. Almost 90% of the students with a word identification in 1st grade will be poor readers in 4th grade. 74% of the students with a reading disability (dyslexia) in 3rd grade will still have a reading disability (dyslexia) in 12th grade.
- Recognize there is an opportunity to:
- Increase your child’s reading fluency and reading comprehension by a significant amount within months
- Increase your child’s self-esteem, while lowering their anxiety
- As a parent, your role in rejecting the status quo, recognizing the opportunity and in partnering with the right professionals is mission critical
If you would like to have a conversation on these or other matters,
call us at 561-361-7495.
Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension Impact Most of Our Students
What is even more surprising is how many smart and even gifted students:
- Have reading comprehension levels well below what you would expect
- Read slowly and too often avoid reading
- Fail to make significant progress despite massive investments of time, money and effort
‘The good news is that with the right program these students, with the right help, can often:
- Improve their reading comprehension 2 and even 3 grade levels within 4 to 6 months
- Improve their reading fluency
- Make reading fun
The three keys to their success are:
- Parents choosing to make the difference
- Finding the right professionals who teach the way your child learns best, will identify and address their challenges and know how to engage and motivate your child
- Following through
Get It Right – 3 Examples of How Parents Made The Difference
Sarah was a third grader who was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD. A phonics-based program and ADHD medication were recommended. Mom called a friend who said, “Your friend sounds like a friend of mine’s child. Call her.
The conversation started with the other mom asking a few questions:
- Does your child have an excellent memory for what she sees and experiences?
- Does your child learn best when she sees and experiences information?
- Is your child a lot smarter than present results would indicate?
The answer was yes to all of these points. The hour-long conversation resulted in the mom calling us. She wanted to know more about how we addressed reading fluency and reading comprehension. She also wanted to know how we addressed attention and anxiety, without medication. We described our clay-based approach to learning and how we use the Interactive Metronome ® to improve attention and how we reduce anxiety. With our help and the parents’ help, the young lady went from the worst reader in her third-grade class to the best reader in her 4th grade class, with much lower anxiety, and better attention. She also became the most avid reader in her class.
Maya was a great kid. Despite two years of dyslexia treatments her reading comprehension was still at the kindergarten level. She had also not read a chapter book on her own. In the initial conversation, it became clear that Maya was a bright right brain learner, who learned best when she saw and experienced information. With our help Maya improved her comprehension 2 grade levels in 4 months and 3 grade levels in 7 months. She also read 23 chapter books on her own. Maya also started to excel in dance, as she leveraged her improved working memory and attention skills.
How 3D Learner Got Started
Our daughter faced a real challenge with her reading comprehension being 3 years below grade level and her grade point average at 2.7 was below her potential. When we were told she was not college material, because of her reading comprehension, her mother, Mira Halpert, became a Mom on a Mission”. Mira, who has her Masters in Education from the University of Michigan, discovered our daughter was a right brain learner – who learned best when she saw and experienced information, Mira developed what became known as the 3D Learner Program that helped our daughter to:
- Improve her reading comprehension 4.2 grade levels in 7 months
- Increase her Grade Point Average from a 2.7 to a 4.4
- Later earn her doctorate in education
Note, our second student was our third-grade son, who was able to improve his reading comprehension from the 31st to the 74h percentile.
The 3D Learner Difference — A Strength Based Focus
The first key difference in what we do is to leverage a student’s strengths and interests. They are often right brain learners — who learn best when they see and experience information. They often, but not always have executive function and/or visual processing issues. Dyslexia is present in a number of cases.
3D Learner focuses first and foremost on our student’s strengths and interests, and we do identify and address their challenges, while boosting their confidence.
