FAQ
What is Educational Therapy?
Educational Therapy offers children and adults with learning challenges and/or learning disabilities a wide range of intensive, individualized interventions designed to remediate learning problems. Combining a knowledge of how learning takes place in the brain with knowledge of specialized teaching methods, Educational Therapy demystifies learning problems. Clients increase awareness of their learning strengths in order to use those strengths to best advantage overcoming or compensating for areas of weakness. Educational therapists create and implement a treatment plan that utilizes information from a variety of sources including the client’s social, emotional, psychoeducational, and neuropsychological context. Educational Therapy empowers children and adults with learning challenges to learn and develop optimally. The mission of SISIUTL is to empower individuals to learn in a way that works for you!
Educational therapy is a process that combines an understanding of how learning takes place in the brain with knowledge of specialized teaching methods. Through skilled assessment, case management, and alternative teaching methods, educational therapy empowers children and adults with learning disabilities and other learning challenges to learn and develop optimally. The main goal and purpose of educational therapy is to optimize learning and school adjustment, with recognition that emotional, behavioral, and learning problems are intertwined. The Association of Educational Therapists has defined the role of the Educational Therapist as follows: An Educational Therapist works in the educational domain with persons who exhibit learning disabilities and learning problems. An Educational Therapist is skilled in:
- Formal and informal educational assessment;
- Synthesis of information from other specialists, and from parents;
- Development and implementation of appropriate remedial programs for school-related learning and behavior problems;
- Strategies for addressing social and emotional aspects of learning problems;
- Formation of supportive relationships with the individual and with those involved in his or her educational development;
- Facilitation of communication between the individual, the family, the school, and involved professionals.
Have there been any famous people with learning differences?
There have been more famous people with learning differences then we could possibly count on this web site - we couldn't possibly mention them all. We can offer this short list, however:
- Thomas Edison
- Great inventor—was at the bottom of his class and had serious memory problems
- Harvey Cushing
- Einstein
- Math genius --considered backward by his teachers and failed math
- A. Rodin
- Famous sculptor --his father said,”I have an idiot for a son” At age 67 he received an honorary degree from Oxford
- George S. Patton IV
- He was kept home and read to. His excellent memory got him through West Point and he became a General in WWII
- Woodrow Wilson
- Learned to read when he was 11 years old—poor student in school who became the 27th president
- Lowell, the poet
- “Spelling is the invention of the devil.”
- William James
- “I must trace the letter in my mind or I can’t recall it.”
- Hans Christian Anderson
- Told stories because he could not read.
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Was able to write in mirror image
- Gov. Rockefeller
- “As a boy I saw all the words backwards and today I can’t spell.”
- General Westmoreland
- F. Scott Fitzgerald Writer
- John Lennon
- John Kennedy
- At age 12 he was a slow reader.
- Robert Kennedy
- A poor student, he had cramped writing and his difficulty speaking persisted throughout his life.
- John-John Kennedy
- He was transferred to Collegiate instead of repeating second grade.
- Prince Charles
- General Eisenhower
- Winston Churchill
- Had reading problems and frequently misbehaved
- Bruce Jenner
- Excelled in sports and had serious learning problems. Olympic Gold Medalist.
- Cher
- Tom Cruise
- King Carl Gustav of Sweden
- Pablo Picasso
- Famous artist who got into trouble for drawing in school. He had a hard time concentrating.
- Donald Winkler
- CEO of Ford Motor Credit Co., Formerly CEO of Banc One, Uses his dyslexia to think outside the box