Learning Insights--Rick Mason: Assessment + Consultation for Struggling Learners
I'm Rick Mason, MA, an Educational Therapist and Reading Specialist. I specialize in helping families to understand and succesfully address their child's frustrations with learning, whether that shows up in reading, math, spelling, or more generally. I use in-depth assessment to understand where a student's learning is breaking down; I identify the foundational skills, abilities, understandings, and information they are missing, which are preventing them from learning with their class. I combine state-of-the-art assessment tools and input from parents and teachers, with my more than three decades of professional experience, to develop insight into a how a student is learning, why they are struggling in particular areas, and what they need to get moving toward experiencing much more success.
Reading Assessments and Dyslexia Screenings are based on the Feifer Assessment of Reading (FAR), a highly regarded, normed, and statistically reliable assessment of up to 15 abiities and skills that underlie successful reading. The FAR is a sophisticated tool that is noted for identifying specific areas of need and indicating the different sub-types of dyslexia, which helps us know just how to go about remediating your child's reading difficullty.
Math Assessments identify gaps in foundational skills and concepts. I look deeper than just right or wrong answers by analyzing how your child is reasoning with numbers and how language, memory, attention, or inefficient strategies may be impacting your child’s learning and practice of math. Using these insights, I provide you with a clear plan to strengthen their understanding, performance, and confidence in math.
Cognitive Abilities Screenings help us understanding how your child thinks and learns. I use MindPrint Learning*, a highly-regarded, reliable, and standardized battery of cognitive assessments. They measure your child’s reasoning abilities, memory, working memory, attention, and their efficiency at taking-in and reacting to information.
The information generated from cognitive screening helps us understand why a student is struggling in certain areas while stronger in others. It points us to the best ways for the student to learn. It helps parents and the student start an important process of understanding the child as a unique learner. This helps a child move from questioning...maybe I'm not so smart...to a more sophisticated and realistic understanding that, like all of us, we have a complex mix of stronger and weaker cognitive abilities that make up our learning profile. This lets us start moving in a more positive direction: how can I use my stronger abilities to support my realtively weaker ones?
MindPrint Learning was developed at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine through a grant from the National Institutes of Health. Mindprint’s highly reliable scoring / interpretation / norms are based on statistical analysis of the results from over 10,000 individuals who piloted the test before it was published, and updated based on the thousands of results submitted from practitioners like me.
Planning and Guidance are both written and in-person. We walk through the assessment process to discuss what the test scores, and the other information I gathered, show us about the academic skills and knowledge your child is struggling with. We discuss the learning challenges behind any academic struggles. My recommendations outline your way forward with the best instructional methods and personnel to help your unique learner achieve lasting success. I'm also glad to meet with teachers or tutors who are working directly with your student.
My Fees are based on typical hourly rates for educational therapy lessons in our area, far more affordable than such extensive educational assessment typically costs.
For more information or to get started go to: https://www.LEARNING-INSIGHTS.COM