Dear Friend,

 If you have come to this website seeking help for someone you love who has learning difficulties, get a cup of tea or coffee and relax for a little while. You deserve it. As a mother who knows well the trials and disappointments of the weary search for help, as the home school teacher of a struggling learner, and as an experienced Educational Therapist, I understand the impact of learning difficulties on your child, your family, and yourself.  You have found a friend.

You and I have something else in common. We both want your child to be confident, competent, and independent in learning and in life. And we know in our hearts that your child has a lot to offer. If low test scores, poor grades, social struggles or negative labels have seemingly defined your child up until now, they don’t have the last word. Your child already possesses many gifts. Let’s help your student build on those, strengthen the more vulnerable cognitive functions, and dismantle the barriers that have prevented your child from experiencing success and joy in learning and in life.

I am a Professionally Certified Educational Therapist trained by NILD (National Institute for Learning Development).  NILD Educational Therapy is different from tutoring or special education, both of which are compensatory in nature. NILD Educational Therapy works to stimulate cognitive functioning on a deep level so that the student’s innate learning ability emerges. NILD Educational Therapy is appropriate for beginning readers through adults. Our goal is to strengthen weak or undeveloped cognitive skills so that your student can become an independent learner, applying these skills to any situation that they encounter throughout life without special assistance. I work with public, private, and home school students on a one-to-one basis, using mediated learning and the techniques of the National Institute for Learning Development (NILD) in a therapy program designed for each student’s needs.

NILD Educational Therapy is not a quick fix, but requires 3-5 school years to teach a person with learning difficulties to be an independent learner in any school or workplace environment. Many programs advertise faster results, but those results are the exception, not the rule. NILD therapy requires a commitment, but a lifetime of competence, confidence, and independence is worth it. Students sometimes "graduate" from the program in a shorter amount of time, or occasionally longer.

NILD Educational Therapy consists of mediated learning by a trained educational therapist who implements a variety of techniques suited to the individual learner. The goal is to strengthen the areas of deficit through intensive, systematic, individualized instruction and interactive dialogue. In therapy sessions, the student learns to think about their own learning (metacognition). The focus is not just on "what to learn" (content), but "HOW to learn"-- a lifelong skill. Whether the student has difficulty with language processing, visual or auditory perception or processing, working or long-term memory, attention, visual-motor integration, or cognition, NILD's techniques engage the whole person to enhance  thinking skills.

 NILD Educational Therapy can be used for all learners across the lifespan. While there are "windows" when the opportunity to acquire certain abilities is optimal, current brain research shows that, with intervention that is appropriate and sufficiently intense, the brain can make thousands of new synapses; age is not a barrier. Intelligence is not fixed, but modifiable.

I also offer the Search & Teach program for kindergarteners and first graders. Search & Teach was developed to help young students avoid the frustration of learning failure by strengthening the early learning skills necessary for reading, writing, and spelling. SEARCH is an individual test used to identify 5 and 6-year-olds who are vulnerable to learning difficulty. TEACH is a program of 55 learning activities which target the needs revealed by the SEARCH screening. More information is available by clicking on the sidebar.

My home office in Greenfield, MA is nothing fancy. It’s a little room just past the chicken coop! I don’t use a lot of bells and whistles. That’s not what you are paying for. Your therapy tuition does not pay for a staff, a sleek expensive office, fancy equipment, a costly advertising campaign, or the latest fad techniques. You work hard for your money. What your tuition does pay for is intensive private therapy sessions with a trained Educational Therapist; substantial planning time outside of each session for your child; time-tested interventions developed by a respected organization with a reputation for excellence and integrity; and ongoing education so that I can continue to become a better therapist for your student. I look forward to talking with you personally about how NILD Educational Therapy or Search & Teach can benefit your student. I am also available to present at your school, home school group, parent support group, or other organization. In the meantime, please see the sidebar for links to interesting and helpful information. And, welcome!