Program:
Remediation of Learning Difficulties
- Budget:
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- Category:
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Education
- Population Served:
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Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
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Adults
Program Description:
Because Restored Hope clinicians have been certified in numerous brain-based therapies, a treatment plan can be individualized to address each client’s needs. We use programs including Fast ForWord, Processing and Cognitive Enhancement (PACE) and Master the Code, Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing (LIPS), Talkies, Seeing Stars, Visualizing and Verbalizing, On Cloud Nine, Interactive Metronome, Play Attention, Irlen Syndrome interventions, and Brain Fitness. These programs are used to eliminate symptoms associated with dyslexia; reading, comprehension, and spelling deficiencies; memory; language and auditory processing dysfunctions; ADD/ADHD; visual perceptual difficulties; balance, coordination and rhythm; and more. Some clients need one program—others need several programs. Most programs can be completed in 1-4 months. When applied correctly, they often eliminate the underlying causes of learning difficulties.
Program Long-Term Success:
Restored Hope seeks to eliminate learning disabilities through the carefully targeted use of brain-based intervention programs.
Program Short-Term Success:
Learning disabilities affect students in two ways. For some, disabilities are so severe that they are unable to acquire the academic skills they need to succeed. Others are able to pick up those skills, but disabilities prevent them from applying the skills successfully. In either case, the changes that our programs bring can be dramatic. We have seen early elementary children move from being nonreaders to reading with their peers. We have seen children with “gifted” IQ’s cut their homework time in half, or move from doing average work to getting grades that truly reflect their giftedness. We have seen children with auditory processing disorders move from being non-communicative to interacting normally with family and peers. We have seen dramatic changes in attention, reading fluency and comprehension, effort and work habits, neatness, and mathematics performance. Results vary, but such results have become the expectation rather than the exception at Restored Hope.
Program Success Monitored by:
Some programs record data in a form which can be read and compared with previous data, making progress clear to the reader. Other programs have defined levels or activities that must be mastered before moving to the next level; mastery at each level can be clearly shown. We have individual program data which shows progress achieved and will post-test to collect conclusive data to support whether remediation goals have been met. Improved academic achievement and changes in behavior and attitude, as observed by parents and classroom teachers, are also used to indicate success.
Program Success Examples:
Katie was failing one high-school class, and was struggling with hours of nightly homework in others. She read and reread her textbooks, but couldn’t understand what they meant. She told her dad that “the words just didn’t have any meaning.” She wanted to drop out of school. Testing showed that Katie could read college-level text, but comprehended at a 2nd grade level. After 8 months in the Visualizing and Verbalizing program, Katie’s comprehension skills rose from 2nd grade to 8th grade. She went on to graduate from high school, and is currently enrolled in a nearby state university, making the Dean’s List. Robert had attention and self-control issues, and his balance and coordination were so poor that at the age of 11 he had never learned to ride a bike. After a month of Interactive Metronome, he was able to ride a bike for the first time, and after two months his medication for ADHD was reduced to 25% of the original dose. Additional therapies improved his reading and spelling.
Program:
Learning Disabilities Testing and Diagnosis
- Budget:
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- Category:
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Education
- Population Served:
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Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
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Adults
Program Description:
Restored Hope begins with an extensive testing regimen to discover the root causes of each individual’s learning disabilities. We spend 7-8 hours testing each client using primarily nationally-recognized, normed diagnostic tests which have been designed to see how the brain receives, processes, stores, and retrieves information. Based on test results and a careful consideration of symptoms, causes are identified. The test results, diagnosis, and treatment plan are carefully explained to parents—a process which usually takes approximately 3 hours.
Program Long-Term Success:
Our goal is to identify the underlying causes of learning difficulties for each individual who is tested, providing specific reasons for the symptoms that the individual has struggled with, and providing specific suggestions for interventions to correct those difficulties.
Program Short-Term Success:
Parents, especially mothers, are very perceptive about their child’s learning problems. They know when a child is not working up to his or her potential even when they don’t know the reasons, and become very frustrated with a perceived lack of help from those to whom they have entrusted their child’s learning experiences. Therefore, parents are very excited when they find out there are identifiable causes for learning difficulties and become even more excited when they learn that these underlying causes can be corrected. In addition, children are frequently also very excited when they realize that their difficulties in school are not due to their being “stupid” or “lazy.”
Program Success Monitored by:
The purpose of testing is to diagnose the underlying causes of learning disabilities. We know that we are doing our job correctly when the concrete results of diagnostic tests explain the symptoms that have been observed and that standardized educational tests have indicated. It is very common, in the post-testing conference, to hear comments such as, “Now I understand why…” and “That explains why my child…” Parents clearly recognize the implications of particular conditions for a child’s learning, when those conditions have been carefully explained to them. The ultimate success of testing, however, is seen when remediation (based on a diagnosis arrived at through careful testing) removes the disability. The success of remediation can be seen both in the removal of symptoms and in the results of post-testing.
Program Success Examples:
We have tested hundreds of children from 16 states including Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas. In very few, if any, instances have we have been unable to determine the reasons for the disability.
Program:
Informational Services
- Budget:
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- Category:
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- Population Served:
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Adults
Program Description:
Restored Hope wants the public to be informed about advances in treating learning difficulties. We offer half-day seminars for a nominal fee to cover lunch and informational material. The seminars explain how the brain receives, processes, stores, and retrieves information, what kind of underlying dysfunctions cause learning disabilities, how to test for these dysfunctions, and what can be done to correct the underlying causes of learning disabilities. We present informational classes through the local public library system, and offer free public speaking to interested groups. All testing is followed by a lengthy conference to ensure that parents understand what their child is struggling with, and what can be done to overcome those difficulties. We provide consultations free of charge, both to parents and to representatives of schools and organizations. We publish a quarterly informational newsletter.
Program Long-Term Success:
Our goal is to inform individuals affected by learning difficulties, parents, school administrators, teachers, and other professionals about the latest developments in neuroscience research, how this research relates to education, and how neuroscience principles and developments are used to remediate learning disabilities.
Program Short-Term Success:
A general perception exists that because the brain is “hard-wired,” little can be done for individuals with learning disabilities other than to accommodate them in the classroom or help them compensate in other ways. Those who have lived with learning disabilities--affected individuals, parents and family members, teachers, and other professionals--have firsthand experience with the frustration, pain, hopelessness, and low self-esteem that accompanies that perception. The understanding that the brain can actually be changed is liberating to them. When it is shown that reliable programs and methods exist NOW to retrain the brain and eliminate the underlying causes of learning difficulties at any age, the excitement is electric! They can’t wait to get started! We are committed to changing the perception that learning disabilities are not correctable, and in doing so we truly do live up to our name—we restore hope to those who have given up on finding solutions for learning difficulties
Program Success Monitored by:
We ask participants to fill out evaluation forms after group presentations. We also measure success by follow-up contacts by individuals after informational presentations.
Program Success Examples:
It is very rewarding to watch the responses on parents’ faces during an information presentation. At the beginning of the presentation, faces are usually non-committal, or even clearly skeptical. As the presentation continues, the folded arms give way to leaning forward in the seats and a sparkle in the eyes, as skepticism gives way to interest and then excitement. The question time afterward is always fully utilized, with many individuals remaining afterwards to ask additional questions. We have even had to move outside of the presentation room to answer questions to allow the next presenter to set up. Follow-up is invariably positive. After our last homeschool conference presentation, in St. Louis, almost a dozen families were willing to drive all the way across the state to have their children tested. These examples clearly show how the simple presentation of factual information in an understandable way meets the needs of those urgently seeking solutions for learning difficulties.
Program:
Elementary School
- Budget:
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- Category:
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- Population Served:
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Program Description:
<div>Restored Hope Academy provides a "lifeline for learning". With small class sizes (teacher-student ratio of 1 to 8) and reasonable tuition fees, it is a viable alternative for parents seeking help for their child with learning disabilities. The Academy is a special place where skilled teachers and trained clinicians work hand-in-hand to address learning needs. Enrollment is limited to children with diagnosed learning disabilities in grades 1 through 6. Because enrollment is limited, students with learning needs need not feel "different" from their peers. Classroom instruction is highly individualized using specialized curriculum when appropriate. Every student works regularly with clinicians from Remedial Services to ensure that learning difficulties are corrected rather than just compensated for. Our ultimate goal is to successfully integrate students back into a standard classroom setting.</div>
Program Long-Term Success:
Program Short-Term Success:
Program Success Monitored by:
Program Success Examples: