Fix Learning Skills Workshop #2

I believe we share the same goal:

To FIX learning problems for students and their families
And to change the world starting in our community

As you may remember, last September began a major new and bold chapter in meeting that goal.

And you probably spent some time deciding whether or not to attend our first training. The workshop was such a huge success. Now there are people from Hawaii to NY putting into practice all the new systems that they learned which allow them to be even more effective with students.

At the same time, those businesses are developing, growing, re-organizing, and serving more students each and every day.

It all starts with a unique approach - The continuum approach to solving learning problems is the opposite of how most of us have built our businesses...by getting one new program at a time.

No program solves all the possible learning problems.

And so we have built a system that integrates many different programs, understandings, and techniques into a unified overview that will work with any single or combination of learning issues.

The biggest benefit to the Fix Learning Skills system is that it allows us to find the right starting point for any student and then take them seamlessly through a protocol that makes the changes they need in the shortest possible time.

As promised, it's time for the second workshop covering areas on the continuum not yet addressed.

Why should you even think about attending? Here are 7 major reasons why you'll want to be there:

1. Auditory Stimulation and Training (AST) Comprehension - Comprehension has many layers. Most comprehension programs deal with specific skills such as finding the main idea, sequencing events, and making inferences.

Some comprehension programs help students on the more foundational level by teaching them to turn language into mental images as they hear or read it.

These are important pieces of the comprehension puzzle, but not nearly the whole picture . Most comprehension programs start too high or don't extend high enough .

In order to comprehend well, a learner must:

• Get clear, complete, and accurate input. This requires good listening and reading skills.
• Process the flow and rhythm of the language. This requires auditory memory and discrimination and reading fluency
• Hold onto the information long enough to process it.
• Discriminate between similar sounding words.
• Notice and understand grammatical pieces of the language.
• Process word order and the sequence of words and ideas.
• Turn oral or written language into accurate mental images as the language comes in.
• "See" how all of the images fit to make a whole or gestalt.
• Pay attention to detail.
• See relationships and make connections.
• Understand vocabulary as well as know how to think about vocabulary they don't know.
• Understand the key elements that work together to create a story or scenario.
• Understand exactly what questions are asking and what kind of response is expected.
• Be able to think both with concrete and inferential information.
• Use logical reasoning to understand and solve problems.
• Apply logical thinking to test taking.

 In other words, it's about developing and
then integrating a "ton" of smaller skills

AST-Comprehension includes all of these critical components to comprehension starting with stimulating and improving auditory processing and receptive language to self-guided logical reasoning.

AST-Comprehension is a 20 week program with 60 directed audio-vocal training lessons that specifically address the auditory skills needed for good listening and processing of auditory information.

Critical underlying skills for comprehension are embedded into the lessons. These include:

1. Getting a clear message: (accurate discrimination of sounds and syllables; auditory memory; "hearing" the flow and intonation of the language; attention to detail).
2. Visualizing while listening or reading. (People who comprehend well "make a movie" in their head as they read or listen. It is not possible to remember every word that is heard or read, but if the language is stored as images, the content and meaning can be retained and remembered easily).
3. Understanding the gestalt , or whole idea of material heard or read and seeing how the details fit into the big picture.
4. Understanding the story grammar , or the key content elements in material that is read or heard. This encompasses the who, what, when, where, main idea, problem, and resolution.
5. Analyzing and answering questions: Learning to visualize and analyze various types of comprehension questions and to understand and answer exactly what the author is asking.
6. Verbal problem solving: Applying visualizing and analyzing skills to verbal problem solving in order to understand vocabulary, relationships, and subtleties.
7. Applying verbal reasoning to analyzing questions and answers for smart test-taking.

Skills for expressive language and verbal and reading fluency are integrated into each AST-Comprehension Lesson.

Who is it for?
This program is for students who are showing auditory and/or language processing delays that impact their listening and/or reading comprehension. Poor reading skills are not the primary cause of their poor comprehension.

These students may have difficulty expressing themselves clearly and completely.

AST-Comprehension is not for students who have very limited verbal language. It is appropriate for students of school age through adult with minor to significant comprehension problems.

In a nutshell - The learner will be taught to create and connect clear, complete mental images of what he reads through a series of sequenced activities. This improves attention to detail, understanding of the speaker or author's intent, ability to analyze verbal material, and retention of information.

Improved listening comprehension and mental imagery also helps the learner to understand and self-monitor social situations.

AST-Comprehension improves listening stamina, listening and reading comprehension, oral and written expression, and reasoning and problems solving skills.

2. BrainSpark - People who work with students with learning challenges know that using a multisensory approach to teaching them will reduce their anxiety about learning and enhance their success.

Why is this?

Humans begin learning, even before birth using auditory, visual, and kinesthetic modalities. Each person develops his own unique learning style, usually with a preference towards one or two of the modalities.

However, to be a powerful learner, working
to potential, or at the top of your game, all
three modalities must be working efficiently together.

Students with learning challenges often have only one modality that works well for them for learning. By using a multisensory approach, we have a better chance of providing students with information in a way they can more easily access it.

But the bottom line is that a great deal of instruction passes them by, leaving confusion and frustration.

Brain Spark teases out unused or underused abilities and shows the brain how to use them to improve learning and enhance the brain's working memory . It is a tremendous tool for students struggling in school as well as students who want to enhance their academic performance and become more competitive in the academic world. The principles behind Brain spark have also been found to be helpful for victims of stroke and brain injuries as well as seniors desiring a more healthy and flexible cerebral function.

Brain Spark is an approximately 15 week program that focuses on developing kinesthetic, visual, and auditory skills; visual-auditory integration; and problem solving.

How is it like PACE or other processing skills program?

• Attacks a wide number of processing skills through numerous procedures and levels
• Improves auditory and visual processing, processing speed, mental flexibility, working memory, attention, and internal timing.
• Uses the metronome to bring skills to an automatic level and improve timing and attention.

How is it different from PACE or other processing skills programs?

• Has 10 procedures that specifically address critical skills for kinesthetic processing : laterality, bilateral integration (using both sides of the body separately and together - left/right, top/bottom), synchrony between right and left, body awareness and body space orientation, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, crossing the midline, directionality, eye-body coordination, balance.

These skills provide a critical foundation for attention and body awareness and control, coordination, and visual processing.

• Spans a wider range of abilities . After using both Brain Spark and PACE, our opinion is that PACE works with higher level students who need to enhance skills in mental processing speed, flexibility, attention, working memory, and reasoning.

Brain Spark gets down into the nitty-gritty of learning - working more specifically with memory training and lower (as well as higher) level visual and motor skills development. It also stretches to the higher levels with specific training in phonemic awareness, visual and verbal inner language, and reasoning, though not as big an emphasis on reasoning as PACE.

• More activities / more variety
• Specific activities for remediation of b/d/p/q reversals
• Specific activities for improving rapid naming
• Variety of activities that enhance basic math skills and understanding of value.
• Much more thorough in developing auditory memory and inner language - skills absolutely critical to learning in a classroom, executive function, and functioning socially in the world.
• More procedures that deal specifically with memory training. Auditory memory training is particularly lacking in many processing skills programs.
• Phonemic awareness training (which PACE is also excellent at but many other programs lack).
• More flexibility in how the program can be implemented. Ideally 3X/week in the clinic with 3 hours of home practice, but home practice can be reduced to 30 minutes 3X/week. This program can also be implemented with as little as one session/week with parent and child (such as in a home schooling situation) as long as parent is committed and able to do the training with the child.  

Who do I use it for?

• Kids who need processing skills but who are not ready for PACE (younger or with some lower level delays)
• Students who need specific memory training... especially auditory.
• Students who need specific development of inner language in addition to other processing skills
• Students who need some work at the core leaning, or neurodevelopmental learning skills level but higher processing skills are the bigger issue. This allows us to start at processing skills level instead of at Core Learning Skills (CLS) without completely ignoring those skills. These are students that would have to have parts of CLS before they could be successful with PACE, but could probably skip CLS and start Brain Spark right away because it has training at the kinesthetic level.
• Students for whom 12 weeks is not going to be enough - they're going to need more time and they will need more reinforcement in a greater variety of ways.
• Why do I need Brain Spark if I have PACE ? Especially if I have PACE and Core Learning Skills(CLS)?
• If you have PACE but don't yet have CLS, this program gives you an avenue to begin working on those critical lower level skills.
• ·  If you have PACE and CLS, you're covering your bases pretty well, but as you work with the continuum, you will find you are targeting student's issues and best starting point for solving them more specifically . You will want to have enough options in your programming to target needed areas just as specifically.
• ·  We want to provide families the most efficient and effective programming in terms of results, time, and finances. Having more than one option allows you to program very specifically for each student.

 

 

3. Samonas Sound Therapy - Samonas is woven throughout many of the programs that we use. It makes everything easier and faster. We have written articles and case studies over and over. You can find them on the Learning100 web site. It is an extremely critical building block.

4. Continuum Based Approach - When we finally understood this approach, it was profound! And we would have said we were already doing it.

But the more we base our work on the learning skills continuum, the more we understand about kids, about skills development, and most importantly, the better we get at helping students.

Working from the continuum base allows you to work with ANY learning issue that "walks in the door."

There are many "One Trick Pony" education businesses. There is an old saying, that applies here: "If the only tool you have is a hammer then the rest of the world looks like nails."

We want to train people in such a way that they really do have the understanding and the tools to help any student.

There are people out there trying to solve learning problems using less than effective tools for the skills that need to be fixed. For instance, so many times we all see ADD diagnosed when it is merely a symptom and not the real problem. We also see people starting students at the "wrong place" or wrong level.

Using the continuum approach will help insure the right tools and the right level.

Coming from a continuum mindset allows you to sell your services more effectively to parents. It's an approach that parents understand and are willing to buy into. It differentiates you from your competitors in a more concrete way because you approach the issues in a very different way.

And, understanding the learning skills continuum makes it easier to evaluate other individual programs and how much you may or may not need them.

5. Programs and systems that your least experienced employee can implement - Foundational to everything that we develop is this: we want other people, our employees, that are not as highly trained as Jill, to be able to work with students and make progress.

Everything you get is for you to train your staff and know that they can implement and get the results that students and parents are looking for.

6. Marketing materials - Most people in our business don't have the time, or won't spend the time, to regularly develop marketing materials. You get everything that we develop, ready for you to use.

BIG Myth - in more than 25 years working in this business, I can tell you the single greatest myth, biggest untruth, biggest lie that hurts people in our business. People have this belief that if they are just good enough, if they learn to work "miracles," somehow word will get out and they will continuously be flooded with business.

NO! It simply isn't true. At least in the "long haul."

If you want to run a business as a professional, you must market. And you must market continuously. Otherwise you end up on a pendulum with none, then too many, and back and forth.

And it means you never actually reach many students who want and need your services.

When you attend the workshop, you also become part of the network of businesses that has access to our marketing materials, techniques, and strategies.

7. Support

Weekly phone calls - Every Wednesday we have a one hour phone call where we answer your questions as well as give guidance and coaching for developing your business. These calls are recorded so you can go back and listen again. It's also handy just in case you miss a call.

We cover so many things on these calls to help you diagnose students, implement programs successfully, and build your business.

Private On-Line Forum - There is an area on the Learning100.com web site exclusively for people who have been through these workshops. You can ask questions, download information, and exchange ideas.

And your membership is free.

We have packed the week with usable, practical,
ready to implement strategies that will help YOU
help more students, more effectively.

Here are the workshop details:

When: Monday March 15 - Saturday March 20 (6 full days)

Where: Stowell Learning Center, Chino, CA

Cost: (Please read the details below) $6995.00

The cost includes some equipment. If you already have this equipment, you may deduct it from your tuition. It will bring down the tuition significantly. See the chart below.

What do I need to do to attend?

1. Go to http://www.learning100.com/products/item24.cfm and make your deposit.
2. Call Evelyn and figure out what equipment you can deduct and she will figure out your balance. She will also give you hotel information.

It's not for everyone! Many of you are very happy exactly where you are, doing what you are doing. We understand that. But this is also a bold leap forward to a more complete picture of both solving learning problems and building your business.

And, there is never going to be a better time.

Here are the most asked questions about the workshop:

How come it is so expensive?

We all want week long workshops for $200. But the real costs associated with putting on these kinds of workshops is so much higher.

The decision that we made going into this project was that we were not going to "cut corners," water anything down, or make compromises. If we are really going to fix learning skills, than we have to do what it takes to make that happen. What we charge is really what it costs to provide you with that absolute best system possible both for fixing learning skills and developing your business.

And the ongoing support and marketing is worth much more than what you pay.

I just was on a phone call with someone who is offering GREAT information in a 2 day workshop on "The Inner Secrets of Coaching."

The cost? $7500! It is outrageous! I'm sure it's good stuff. But only enough to fill 2 days?

We are out to give you MUCH more than what you pay for.

Do I have to come if I already have been trained in Samonas? Can I skip it and get a discount?

The short answer is No. Because Samonas is so integrated it is important to review, refresh, and refocus on the fundamentals.

I already have strategies for comprehension and I have a major processing skills program...is there any reason to attend?

It depends on if your business wants to grow beyond what you alone can do. Comprehension is a complex subject that is difficult to teach your less qualified employees. This is an all encompassing program with modules that are easy to train and have others implement.

Will you be offering it again?

Yes, but next time around is only for people who have taken the first workshop.

This is really an amazing journey and I know there are more questions. Please feel free to send questions to david@learning100.com .

But if you are ready to get started,

1 - Go to http://www.learning100.com/products/item24.cfm and make your deposit.

2 - Call Evelyn and figure out what equipment you can deduct and she will figure out your balance. She will also give you hotel information.

We're looking forward to seeing you in March.

To your increased success,

David Stowell