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Tired of seeing your child struggle in school?

Most learning and attention challenges
can be permanently corrected, but it
isn’t going to happen by doing
more of the same!

Dear Parent,

I always knew that I wanted to be a special education teacher.  In college, I was
taught that students with learning disabilities would always have them.  “That’s
how they are.  That’s how they will always be…they will have to learn how to deal
with it.” 

We didn’t learn how to “fix” the disabilities. We just learned how to accommodate
and modify.  For example, if they couldn’t read, we would read it to them.  If they
couldn’t write, we would write for them.  And so on.

When I taught at the elementary school level, I believed when my students went to
middle school their teachers would continue to work on fixing their weaknesses.  I
had no idea that where they were in their reading level when they left me in 5^th
grade was where they would still be when they graduated high school. It was
heartbreaking. 

My last year of teaching, I taught sixth grade.  I had 17 students with learning
disabilities that were reading between a Kindergarten and a 4^th grade level.  I had
45 minutes per day to teach them to read. 

The focus was on getting them prepared to pass the state test.  They were allowed
to have their tests read to them. No one really cared if they could read, just that
they could pass the test.  My students were bright and could pass the test as long
as it was read to them.

The weight of knowing I wasn’t going to be with them when they went to take their
driver’s test or fill out a job application was overwhelming.  Who cared if they could
pass the test if they didn’t have the critical skill of reading? I came home crying almost
every night.  There had to be something more that I could do. 

I began searching for ways to help my students, and found a website that talked about
how they were different than a typical tutoring center or school.  Their work was
based on how the brain processes information. With the right training, the brain can be
strengthened to get rid of whatever is actually causing a learning disability in the first place. 

This was so different than what I had ever heard before, but it made so much sense to me. 
For the first time, I felt a sense of hope that I would be able to help all of my students. 

I attended the training and was so excited to use these strategies with my students. 
I spoke to the administration and the special education supervisor and was told that
it wasn’t possible to use these strategies in the school.  It didn’t matter how effective
they were. (After all, while it’s not the schools’ fault, the way they measure success
is the number of students who pass the SOLs.) 

I was so frustrated!  My hands were tied. I had the knowledge, but I wasn’t able to use it. 

I couldn’t take it anymore so I opened our learning center in March 2003. There
was such a need for our specialized work that we grew quickly.  I stopped
teaching full time so I could focus on running the Learning Enhancement Centers. 

While I love working with the students, I found that by training my staff members,
the lives of more students might be changed.  We currently have two locations, one in
Fredericksburg and the other in Gainesville, Virginia. 

We have helped thousands of students since that time.  People call every day with
stories of their children’s struggles.  It’s the most exciting feeling to know that we
can offer hope to families like yours.

If you or someone you love struggles with learning, we understand your
pain and can help by:

• Strengthening attention
• Improving Reading or Math skills
• Developing efficient thinking skills
• Enhancing memory
• Increasing homework skills