Would you like to find out the real problems
that are causing your child to struggle in school?
Worried, frustrated, embarrassed, upset and worn-out… are some of the feelings I had as I struggled to help my daughters find success in school. I needed help.
If you’d like some help, too, finding the real problems that are causing your child to struggle in school and correcting them quickly, consider visiting me at my office for an assessment or joining my Hardy Brain Training program, where we meet with you and your child via Skype. With this program, we can work with you successfully wherever you live. Click here for details about the Hardy Brain Training home training program.
I have helped hundreds of families who:
- Can’t figure out why their bright children aren’t reaching their potential.
- Are confused about what will really help.
- Have finally realized the school doesn’t have the solution.
- Have no idea of where to begin, but know they must do something now that will help their child feel more confident and successful at school.
My assessments aren’t like anything you’ve tried before.
I don’t know of anyone who does assessments like mine.
My assessments pinpoint the hidden processing skills that are the actual causes of attention and learning problems. After the causes are clear, I design easy programs to quickly correct the weaknesses that are holding children back from success at school. I want your child to start succeeding and feel more confident in school now. I want that confidence to last into the years after school, when the self-esteem and self-confidence we develop today will create success all through life.
Your child may do poorly in reading or can’t pay attention or gets lost during the lesson in class or is disorganized or forgets to write down the homework assignments, or can’t remember to turn in homework or takes all night to do 20 minutes of homework… The real reason for problems like these usually isn’t low intelligence or poor motivation. Learning and attention problems are usually caused by weak processing skills in the brain.
How Did I Develop My Assessments?
As you may know, this journey began with personal learning challenges as a child myself and, years later, with a determination to find the answers to helping my own children become successful in school when everything I had tried to help them hadn’t worked…and, as my fears and frustration grew, I tried technique after technique, program after program until I finally figured out that there were actually several small processing weaknesses that were causing big difficulties for them. Using just one program wasn’t enough to correct their problems.
When I was frantic to help my kids, every professional I met with had only one particular specialty. The eye doctor assured me glasses were the one thing my daughter needed to become successful – but that wasn’t the answer. The tutoring center with the patented system that guaranteed a year of growth in three months was sure their program was the answer – and it didn’t work because it didn’t correct the processing weaknesses that were at the root of the problem.
I found that each specialist was too narrow in their approach. My daughters, like most of the students I have worked with, had a few different processing weaknesses. It was this combination of weaknesses that was holding them back from being successful. No one was looking at the whole picture.
I began looking at the students I worked with in therapy, hospital and school settings in a new way. I started looking at all of the possible processing weaknesses and started adding some of the techniques I was discovering to improve processing skills with these students.
For a few years I was seeing hundreds of elementary and middle-school children a week in my perceptual-motor programs, testing my techniques, talking to their teachers and parents and examining the things we were all doing together to correct the problems we found.
Looking back now, I can see how passionate I was about figuring out a system, once-and-for-all, that I could use to uncover the real problems for every struggling student I worked with!
And, believe me, no two kids are identical – even the twins I have worked with have had different brain processing weaknesses.
But, in spite of the differences among children, I discovered that there are specific brain processing skills every child needs in order to be successful in school, AND, every one of these skills needs to be strong for your child to have an easy time paying attention, learning, completing work, and being a successful student.
The reason parents, teachers, tutors and even therapists fail, in spite of their best efforts to help, is because they overlook the processing skills the brain uses to pay attention and learn.
When I had this “aha” moment, I realized we must assess all of the possible brain processing skills to determine which of them are weak. Then we will truly know what to do to help. I changed the way I thought about the problem. And, I changed the way I started assessing the children I was working with. I started testing to be certain all of the important brain processing skills were strong.
To make a model to explain this, I laid the different skills out in the shape of a school building:
- I put the most critical processing skills in the foundation of the building.
- The walls consisted of skills needed in the classroom like attention, memory, ability to complete work, etc.
- The academic skills are in the roof. This is where instruction happens.
- The bell on the top is self-confidence and self-esteem.
Crumbling bricks in the foundation or broken walls will make it difficult (or impossible) to do the academic work in the roof easily and successfully. When this happens, self-confidence and self-esteem are damaged, making it more and more difficult to become successful as each year goes by.
My assessments look at these processing skills and find out which ones are weak.
My program recommendations quickly improve the weaknesses.
My Oldest Daughter’s Story
My oldest daughter’s academic problems first became apparent in kindergarten when she couldn’t sit up “straight and tall” all day. Her attention wandered. Her teacher told me she was at the very bottom of the class. One teacher told me she was not participating in class. Another teacher blamed me for my daughter’s struggles and criticized the job I was doing as a parent (to my face!).
But, I knew my daughter was bright. I knew she had potential. I also knew that if she was going to succeed I would have be the one to discover how to help her.
I started to look at every processing skill and assess her to see which ones were weak. I concentrated on developing the weak ones. We didn’t spend a lot of time on homework for awhile. We just worked on creating strong processing skills. And, after awhile, she was doing her homework independently. She was getting good grades. She participated more in class. She was noticeably less stressed and started to be happy again.
When she graduated from eighth grade, her smile was so big as I looked at her up on the stage. She was called up to be recognized as one of five students with straight As in the eighth grade class. Seeing her look so proud and happy made me glad that I had intervened to help her.
Years later, when I read the acceptance letter from MIT offering her a full scholarship, an apartment and a large stipend to study at MIT, I knew she had unlocked the potential that had been unrecognized in kindergarten and elementary school, the desire to do well that had blossomed for her in eighth grade and the confidence that would help her succeed for the rest of her life. I could finally relax.
It got even better…
When she was 25, I visited her at NASA Mission Operations where she was planning the commands for a NASA spacecraft. She was so excited and happy. I rejoiced when I saw her computer sitting at the operations table. (After the lump in my throat went away and I was sure I wasn’t going to cry, I rejoiced for her again!)
That day changed me.
I realized I needed to show more parents how to help their struggling children grow successfully into their unrecognized potential.
If your child is struggling, there are different ways I can help.
1. The Hardy Brain Training Program: Designed for you to use at home...
Step 1: Improves the millisecond brain timing to improve attention and thinking speed. With the help of weekly one-on-one coaching your child will use a specialized brain synchronization program that strengthens the brain millisecond timing for improved attention, thinking speed, and decision-making speed.
Step 2: Introduces all of the critical skills and shows you how to observe and evaluate your child to discover which skills are weak. This is an on-line course, with 16 videos that introduce important skills, show you how to evaluate the skills and give you easy activities you can do right away to help. I have included resources and programs sections in every video to let you know about outstanding programs that will help your child when you really need to work in-depth on a particular skill.
Step 3: Six weekly live teleconferences walk you through the program, give you support, and answer your questions as you help your child make rapid gains that will last a lifetime.
Find out more about this program here.
2. “In-person” Assessments at my office in Camarillo, CA.
We are located 55 miles north of Los Angeles along Highway 101. Here are the details of the “in-person” assessments to help you decide if one of these will help you.
Who Comes for an Assessment?
Usually, parents come to me after they have tried everything they can think of to help their child. They usually decide to come in because they have seen a niece or nephew, a neighbor child or a classmate of their child’s make noticeable, rapid progress and they have asked the child’s parent or teacher what they are doing that has made such a difference so quickly. Teachers who have had one of my students in their class who has made remarkable progress often recommend my programs. We get recommendations from occupational therapists, special education teachers and therapists.
When Should We Start?
There is no ideal time to start. But, one thing is certain. The later we start, the more behind your child will be and the further we’ll have to go to get caught up.
In spite of this, it’s never too late. I’ve taken unmotivated, failing, frustrated, hopeless high school students from Ds and Fs to As and Bs in one semester who went on to graduate and become successful.
Many students come to me in the summer and return to school in fall ready and able to be successful.
A lot of students start in winter or spring, part way another difficult school year where they are behind the other students in their class, getting poor grades, unhappy, and acting out (or acting “in” with sadness and lack of confidence).
Some parents bring their children to see me in fall when they become aware that “this year isn’t any different and it isn’t working out like we had hoped.”
Whenever you decide to come, we’ll get started right away to give your child the help that will create success quickly.
Why is it Quick and Easy? (After all we’ve been through, isn’t that just impossible to believe!)
First, the assessment is fun and different. Chances are good that your child has never done anything like it before. We’ll be testing processing skills and communicating in a very positive way with your child about the discoveries we are making as we go along. Children and teens are usually relieved at how simple their problems are and can see how easily they can be changed. Usually they leave the assessment feeling a great sense of relief and motivation to proceed with the training. Parents leave with a new understanding and empathy for what their child has been coping with. It’s interesting how many times parents and children leave the office smiling with their arms around each other after the assessment.
Second, the training plan I design will be easy for your child to do because we use the brain’s natural way of developing to create more efficient processing. We “join in” the brain’s active processing and help it work better. When we give the brain input, it does what it does naturally – it tries to process that input. The simple activities I use jump-start the brain’s natural mechanisms to make processing easier so the brain puts them into action quickly and easily.
The result of improved processing is often seen as easier learning, improved attention, more appropriate behavior, faster processing speed, improved decision making speed, better reading and math skills, self-confidence, happier attitude toward learning, ability to work more independently, better athletic skills, smoother communication and less frustration.
Parents look forward to the results of their child’s improvement. After all you have tried, you will have finally gotten to the bottom of the problems and have a plan for resolving them. There can be happier evenings at home, more time to share fun activities with your children rather than stressing over poor school performance, and the joy of experiencing your child’s successful journey into life.
How Does The Assessment Work?
When you come to my office, the goal for the assessment is to determine which programs we will use to help your child. I will use the results of the assessment to make a “Success Map” that will outline each of the steps we will need to take.
The first step in the assessment is to pinpoint the exact processing weaknesses. I will need to know the exact problem so our efforts to help will work well.
You have two choices: We can do a full assessment or we can do “mini-assessments” where we focus on the areas that you know are weak and want to correct immediately.
Full Assessment:
The full assessment will take two 4-hour days. We will do all of the testing the first day and on the second day we will meet to go over the results together and get your child started on the programs we have put into the Success Map.
The full assessment includes all of the following mini-assessments:
Mini-Assessments:
If you prefer to start with mini-assessments, we begin with Mini-Assessment 1:
Millisecond Timing and add any others you’d like to do:
Mini-assessment 1: Millisecond Timing
(This assessment is included free with the Hardy Brain Training Program)
This assessment helps children and teens who are struggling with attention, focus, organization, starting and finishing tasks, working independently, reading, math, coordination, communication, impulsivity and frustration.
I’ll use fourteen activities to measure your child’s millisecond timing. We’ll look at these results based on norms for your child’s age. If we find weaknesses, I’ll use this information to tailor the steps in the Rising Star Home Metronome Training Program for immediate help.
I’ll teach you and your child how to use the Hardy Brain Training Program to make rapid improvement in attention, focus, learning speed and academics. We also get about a year-and-a-half growth in reading and math without tutoring. There will be improvement in processing speed that helps make completing school work and home work faster and easier. Decision-making speed, ability to work independently, coordination, communication and frustration levels usually improve quickly as well.
Go here to get all of the information about this amazing program.
Mini-assessment 2: Hidden Reading Skills
Using state-of-the-art sensing goggles, we will record your child’s eye movements while reading to determine how smoothly the eyes are able to move from left to right. This test must be done in the office.
We’ll measure fixations (the number of times the eyes stop), regressions (the number of times the eyes jump back rather than moving forward), the eyes ability to move smoothly down to the next line of print, reading speed and overall grade level performance.
We will test with color overlays to determine if the visual cortex can become better engaged in reading by adding color to the text. This is helpful for many dyslexic children.
We’ll test auditory conceptualization to measure your child’s ability to know how sounds work within words. This is critical for phonemic awareness and reading success.
When we are finished, we will put your child’s eye movement recording up on the computer screen so you can observe exactly how your child’s eyes moved across the page of text. I have had parents cry as they look at the screen and see their child’s eyes jerking back and forth rather than moving smoothly from left to right over each letter. So far, 100% of the children I have tested, who have reading problems, have had at least one of these difficulties with moving their eyes smoothly.
Mini-Assessment 3: Perceptual-Motor Skills and Brain Dominance
We’ll check for the disappearance of the midline, hemispheric specialization, fine motor skills, tactile system, eye-hand coordination, motor-planning and sequencing development, the vestibular system, proprioception, and processing preference. We’ll do an auditory processing screening to let us know if you’ll need to have a full auditory processing test done at an audiologist’s office.
These skills are the “hidden” skills that can be holding your child back without anyone pointing them out as the cause of the problem. They can interfere with attention, ability to sit for long periods of time, ability to hold the pencil correctly and accomplish written assignments, coordination, athletic skill, starting and completing homework, organization, rigid clothing or food preferences, difficulty with reading and comprehension, problems looking at you when you are talking, and difficulty following directions.
Mini-Assessment 4: Temperament Type and Learning Style
Parents love this assessment. It validates the saying “all children are different” and helps parents understand how their children can be so different from one another (and from their parents!). This assessment will give you an understanding of why your child does certain things that puzzle you like taking all day to do things, why there are five projects started but none completed, why some children go off to play alone when a friend if over or why your child wants to “go, go, go” and “talk, talk, talk” all the time. We look at the “normal” way your child acts based on four different scales that measure how your child gets energy, how your child takes in information, makes decisions and organizes life. You’ll get the “inside view” of how to motivate and discipline effectively along with tips and tricks for using your child’s natural temperament style to make life easier. We’ll also look at the ways your child learns best so you can make learning easier and more fun as well.
Mini-Assessment 5: Academics
We’ll test reading, math and writing to let you know your child’s grade level equivalent. If you’d like some programs to help, once we complete the testing, we’ll have some recommendations of different kinds of programs that will be great to use with your child to improve the academics.
These Assessments Aren’t for Everyone
1. The cost of the assessment and training programs is high. Some of the tools you will be using use are expensive. The care I put into thinking about your child’s unique problems and designing plans to help is a great pleasure to me, but it is time-consuming, which adds to the cost.
2. You will need to be an active part of the training. To accomplish our goals, you will need to be able to help your child with the activities that we will be using. (Or have someone else help with them). The activities are easy to do, but they can take up to forty minutes four days a week. Most children are finished in six to eight weeks, but some of the programs can take up to sixteen weeks. The good news is that the brain is designed to grow and change, and, as it does this, the processing changes too. We will be using the brain’s natural built-in capacities to create stronger processing – and, the changes will happen quickly.
3. Children with serious health issues such as seizure disorders, heart problems or other limitations that would make it difficult to do activities like clapping hands and tapping feet will need to consult with their doctor to see if my programs will be of benefit.
I’d enjoy the opportunity to help you and your child. Whether you choose to do the Hardy Brain Training home coaching program where I guide you through the sixteen video evaluation process on-line, or you decide to come to my office to try some of the mini-assessments or you want to come in for two days for a full assessment, I am committed to helping you create the success you have been dreaming of for your precious child. Every child deserves to feel successful and fulfill their potential.
And, as parents, we want to stop worrying and have confidence that our children will be able to go into life with the skills to be happy and successful. I love to be part of creating that success.
The Next Step
If these solutions seem like a good fit, the next step is to call or email me at 805-389-8144 or sherrie@hardybraintraining.com to set up a free telephone consultation. I’ll ask you developmental questions about your child’s progress to determine if I can help. You can ask me questions and I’ll explain my programs.
It will be my pleasure to help your child feel self-confident and successful so life can be full of possibilities.
To your success,
~Sherrie
