What An Educational Therapist Knows About Your Child

One of the most edifying things to experience as a parent is to have another person know, understand, and truly see your child. Sometimes that understanding person is a teacher, a tutor, a coach, a friend, or even a therapist. When children have a specific learning disability—like dyslexia—it is likely that some helpful adults will become part of their learning journey. When you work with someone like an educational therapist, this person becomes a helper, a leader, and an important influence in your child’s life. Through working together, they also get to know the kind of learner, reader, and person your child is. Read on to learn more about what an educational therapist knows about your child.

• A personal understanding of your child’s learning style: An educational therapist typically works one-on-one in sessions with a student. This can lead to an understanding of how this particular student learns best. Knowing this is essential for an educational therapist so that instruction and sessions can be tailored and personalized for the student. This helps to maximize effectiveness and potential. 
• A solid assessment of your student’s strengths and weaknesses: Assessments and testing are a key part of learning, and an educational therapist will meet students right at their level. It helps to not only become familiar with areas of struggle, but also areas of strength. Educational therapists may review teacher feedback in order to get valuable insights about students. An educational therapist can work with your student to build on strengths, which in turn, can boost confidence and motivation. 
• A handle on the social and emotional needs of your child: Whether parents are aware or not, learning difficulties can impact a student’s self-esteem as well as his or her social experiences. An educational therapist can collaborate with families to get to know the student they’re working with; this helps with awareness of a student’s emotional well-being, which can positively influence learning and progress. 
• An idea of your student’s learning goals: Working with an educational therapist for dyslexia will allow for some collaboration in establishing clear and achievable learning goals. Dyslexia therapy has been developed to enable students to achieve and maintain better word recognition, reading fluency, and reading comprehension — by first helping your child rebuild their language processing skills. That foundational approach, which is key to long-term success, is used by the Certified Academic Language Therapists (CALTs) at Dyslexia on Demand.
• A good grasp of what motivates your child: Sometimes the hardest thing instructors face with students is how to engage them. In one-on-one dyslexia therapy sessions, incorporating students’ interests into learning can make sessions more engaging. At Dyslexia on Demand, there are tried and true Orton-Gillingham based programs implemented for dyslexia therapy, and CALTs can also work to tailor sessions for each student. 
• A sense of your student’s ideal learning environment: Educational therapists work closely with students, and even when sessions are conducted online, having an understanding of a student’s typical learning environment can inform instruction. Therapists can help to design strategies that can be put into place effectively in your home setting for your student. 

Are you looking for dyslexia therapy for your child? Dyslexia on Demand offers dyslexia therapy in one-on-one or group therapy sessions. The most effective approach to helping your student with dyslexia is doing high frequency dyslexia therapy sessions four times per week. These sessions are done with Certified Academic Language Therapists (CALTs) who help to guide your child through a multisensory program of explicit, systematic instruction for reading and spelling. CALTs are the highest level of trained dyslexia professionals, and students work with one therapist consistently.