Reading is the key to all future success in school. Whether your child is a beginning reader struggling to learn how to read or can read the words fluently yet still does poorly on comprehension tests, we can help. We will design a custom program aimed at your child's area of difficulty, not a "canned" approach created for the fictional average student. All of our instruction is provided on a 1- on -1 basis—this means one student working with one teacher 100% of the time. Avoid the so called individualized programs (double talk for group lessons) at the large national tutoring centers. Let us work with your child's actual schoolwork so that your child can start to experience his or her full potential quickly.

Beginning Readers

Our staff has developed a unique approach to helping young people just starting out on the road to reading. It involves a combination of phonics and sight word recognition. This is not the whole language approach you may have heard about, where students use phonetics not phonics. Phonetics emphasizes spelling words the way they sound resulting in letters being omitted. This causes confusion and the inability of the student to decode new words when they are encountered in reading. This is like trying to build a house by first erecting the walls, and then trying to put in the foundation. It simply doesn’t work. A successful reading program must be built on a strong foundation—phonics. We assess your child’s needs in this area, and implement a program that will overcome any existing deficiencies. As the program progresses, your child will quickly see that the strange combinations of letters are really quite easy to understand. At the same time, it is important for your child to feel good about their abilities in school. We do this by introducing reading material from their actual schoolwork. We make sure that they don’t feel “different” from their friends because they can’t read the same material.

Accomplishing all this requires a unique multi-sensory approach.  As I said we provide a strong foundation in phonics and integrate your child’s actual schoolwork. The third element in our program is the integration of state of the art multimedia computer technology. This doesn’t mean that your child will be sitting in front of a computer doing practice. Our staff has carefully selected material that coordinates the student’s phonics lessons and word recognition skills with multimedia story programs that allow them to actually use their skills in an enjoyable way. Students are soon on their way to enjoying the rich world that only lifelong readers experience.

Let us help your child to reach his or her full potential!

Struggling Older Readers

There is nothing more frustrating for a bright child and his or her parents then to have grades suffer because of a reading comprehension problem. How many times has your child studied the material only to receive a test grade that does not reflect his or her true effort and ability? Or as parents, our first reaction might be that the student isn’t spending enough time studying. We then voice this feeling only to end up in a disagreement with them. Everyone loses.

Many times poor performance on tests in science, social studies or English is not the result of a lack of study time, but rather of not knowing how to study.  A dislike for reading is often the result.

Our staff can help both you and your child overcome this frustration. While some tutoring centers stress the need for motivation, it is hard to be motivated to do something that you feel is useless. As adults, how many of us would continue to do something that frustrates us. Kids are people too. All the outside motivation techniques in the world will not help unless the student experiences success from his or her efforts.  We have the answer to this dilemma.

Standardized Tests

Does your child feel anxious about taking standardized tests like the CAT or IOWA tests? Is there a difference between performance on these tests and the grades brought home on the report card? This can be due to unfamiliarity with how to approach this type of test. The reading that is done during this type of testing requires a different set of reading skills than schoolwork does. In school, if a student doesn't understand what he or she has read it is simply a matter of re-reading the material. On the standardized tests, however, the student doesn't have the luxury of time to achieve an understanding of the material being tested. They must locate the correct answers to unfamiliar material in a short period of time.

Our prep program will help your son or daughter demonstrate his or her true ability, thus removing the test anxiety.

S.A.T./P.S.A.T./High School Entrance Exam Prep

Our S.A.T., P.S.A.T. and high school entrance test programs will provide your child the opportunity to score high on these all important tests. To find out more about these programs click the following link— Test Prep