LearningRx

A friend told me about LearningRx recently. She had just had both her sons tested and her excitement and relief on sharing their results were palpable. She was so glad to finally be able to pinpoint exactly what their cognitive strengths and weaknesses and how those specifically explained the problems the boys were having in school. She even said that based on one of her son’s Cognitive Skills Profile, he was going to be admitted to a school for the gifted and talented. This is a boy who hates school and has had problems, so this was big news for her family. She is now doing the ThinkRx program with Learning Rx to help remedy the cognitive weaknesses that were discovered on the assessment.

After all that we have been through with Ronan (different public and private schools, homeschooling, assessments, tutors, vision therapy, repeating 1st grade, reading specialists….) I have doubts that there is anything that could make school easier and enjoyable for him, but clearly I am willing to help him anyway I can. There was a special price in May on these assessments, and after hearing about my friend’s experience I was (skeptically) curious, so we went to take the assessment. I figured it couldn’t hurt anything. The Occupational Therapist explained what they were testing and why, but I didn’t drop my skepticism or give much of my attention to it until after I saw the assessment summary. Then I sounded similar to my friend.

The test measures seven different cognitive skills: Long-term memory, visual processing, logic and reasoning, short-term memory, word attack, auditory processing, and executive processing speed. Ronan’s visual processing skills were exceedingly high (more like those of a 24 year old) and so was his logic and reasoning ability. These skills have enabled him to form and manipulate pictures in his mind, helping in skills like puzzles and math. The areas in which he fell below average were long-term memory and executive processing speed. For these skills he was about a year behind his peers, which is exactly where his reading ability is, not coincidentally. The academic implications for these deficits are that he has difficulty remembering things he has learned or read previously (if the subject is not associated with an interest or emotion), he takes longer to process information (mentally "keeping up"), and that he struggles to focus while filtering out distractions. When I read this I felt just like my friend – it made so much sense and I couldn’t help feeling grateful to finally understand the underlying problems that affect his academic life!

Given Ronan’s age and his areas of weakness, it was recommended that we begin a training program. LearningRx develops tailored programs to train and strengthen each of those seven cognitive skills that were tested, with a focus on those that are below average. Instead of tutoring, which they contend is largely ineffective because it re-delivers content and doesn’t get at the underlying cognitive causes of the academic problems, they instead pair up each student with a trainer for one-on-one cognitive training. It looks to the student like fun games and they enjoy trying to beat the clock to improve their own time and scores while simultaneously training cognitive skills needed for success in school. They even claim to help kids and adults with ADD/ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, and traumatic brain injuries.

After learning more about their programs, I have put my skepticism aside and enrolled Ronan in the ThinkRx program. This will be three months of one-on-one training at their site for three hours a week and three hours a week at home (they do have a five day a week option that is done solely at their site as well.) We started last week and Ronan has really enjoyed it so far. Every kid I saw there seemed to like being there as well and two of the parents I encountered separately gushed about their child’s experience there, which was comforting to say the least. I will be occasionally chronicling our experience with LearningRx as we continue with this program and how it affects Ronan’s year in 3rd Grade.