What is an educational therapist?
Educational therapists are specialists with a minimum of a 4-year degree and additional training and licensing in Educational Therapy. These professionals have significant training to be able to provide Educational Therapy to students with a wide array of issues such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, visual-spatial, processing speed, short and long-term memory issues, ADD, ADHD, ASD Level 1, and other issues on an individual basis.
Educational therapists are licensed through the National Institute for Learning Development (NILD) or other licensing agencies.
What is educational therapy?
Educational Therapy is not tutoring or an academic class; it is one-on-one skills training to help your student learn how to learn. Educational Therapists use mediation to help your child make academic gains in areas related to how your child thinks, such as processing speed, comprehension, memory, directionality, visual-spatial, fluid reasoning, and executive functioning. Specific academic areas such as reading, phonics, math, and writing are targeted through techniques chosen specifically for the individual child’s strengths and weaknesses.
Educational Therapy is tailored to the specific educational needs of your child and involves a commitment of a full academic year. An Educational Therapist will work with your child twice weekly for 80 minutes each session or three times weekly for 55 minutes each session. Based on end-of-year progress assessments, Educational Therapy may be recommended for one or more years. Our Educational Therapists are experts at finding what works for your child and fine-tuning their strategies based on your child's unique needs. Every child's educational therapy program will look a little different--it's custom-built just for them!
Educational Therapy is a partnership between the Educational Therapist and the parents. Educational therapists work to develop and implement a program to help a student reach their full potential. Parents must commit to supporting those efforts by supervising short daily homework assignments.
Therapists help a student by:
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Working with the student in academic settings on the issues keeping them from excelling
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Engaging the student with a specific focus on and attunement to the student's academic needs
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Working through challenging problems with unique techniques, patience, and encouragement
Parents assist their child’s journey to independent thinking and learning by:
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Providing daily structure and accountability
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Supervising homework
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Maintaining regular contact with the Educational Therapist to increase understanding of the learning process and collaborate in providing an effective program for their child
Should my child enroll in individual educational therapy sessions?
We encourage anyone with concerns about their student's ability to learn and engage in the classroom to reach out to see if their child could benefit from individual Educational Therapy. A great variety of academic concerns, such as Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia, ADHD, ADD, and ASD level 1 can be addressed in individual sessions. Eligibility for individual Educational Therapy sessions is determined based on a thorough evaluation of the student's educational and academic needs.
PATHS professionals conduct initial entrance testing using the WISC-V and Woodcock-Johnson IV Achievement tests to create a baseline of student achievement and highlight specific areas of need for the Educational Therapist to target. The testing costs are $275 for the WISC-V and $175 for the Woodcock-Johnson IV Achievement test. Previous testing may be accepted if current (within one year for the Woodcock-Johnson IV Achievement test and within three years for the WISC-V). At the end of the year, the Woodcock-Johnson IV Achievement test is repeated to document progress and make recommendations for the upcoming year.
To arrange Educational Therapy entrance testing, please click here to submit a request or contact Dr. Kristen Goldbach, Director of Therapeutic Services, at kgoldbach@pathsofhr.org for more information
We have testing data already. Can you use what we have?
We would like to see any appropriate testing. We may accept Woodcock-Johnson IV Achievement, WISC-V, and Kaufman tests completed recently. Testing results are used to create a program specifically tailored to your child's needs. The more current the testing, the more carefully crafted your child’s sessions will be. The goal is to meet your child's current level and help them progress to a more competent and confident learner.
What testing services do you offer?
The following tests are offered at PATHS of Hampton Roads:
- Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V). Age range: 6.0–16.11 years
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V), is an individually administered intelligence test. It contains multiple subtests that tap into several aspects of intelligence, such as verbal comprehension, visual-spatial, fluid reasoning, working memory, processing speed, and full-scale IQ. The test is used for children with learning disabilities through high giftedness and looks for patterns of strengths and weaknesses. Students are tested individually with the WISC-V; the cost is $275 and takes approximately 3 hours. The results are valid for three years.
- IV Achievement Test. Age range: 6.0-college+
The Woodcock-Johnson Achievement IV is an assessment of multiple academic skills and knowledge. It offers Percentile Ranks, Age Equivalent, and Grade Equivalent scores in the following areas: broad achievement, broad reading, basic reading skills, reading comprehension, reading fluency, reading rate, broad mathematics, math calculation skills, math problem-solving, broad written language, basic writing skills, written expression, academic skills, academic applications, academic fluency, academic knowledge (science, social studies, and humanities), phoneme-grapheme knowledge and reading vocabulary.
PATHS offers all three parallel forms of the Woodcock-Johnson IV Achievement test. The WJ can be repeated annually and conducted yearly for educational therapy students. Students are tested individually with the Woodcock-Johnson; the cost is $175 and takes approximately 3 hours. The WJ can be used for state and local compliance for end-of-year testing.
To arrange Educational Therapy entrance testing, please click here to submit a request or contact Dr. Kristen Goldbach, Director of Therapeutic Services, at kgoldbach@pathsofhr.org for more information.
