OT-has anyone here turned LD programs into a business and be

Hi Marycas,
I did a five week intensive, from 8:00-6:00 four days a week, around VA. I also teach school and I tutor after school. In about two years, when the SOLs are used for graduation, I plan to open my own offices and resign from teaching. There is a lot of work out there for tutoring, but I think that you have to know and use a lot more programs than one. I use about 15-20 programs in my business and they don’t include Pace. I am just not sold on it yet. If I someday need it, then I will buy into it, but not until then. You can make it in business remediating and since the schools continue not doing it, someone has to.

Shay, just curious. Is PACE affiliated with this new Brain Gym? I just talked with someone on it and they did some exercises with my daughter. It looked like re-packaged NACD. Any thoughts?

I know that my son’s interactive metronome instructor used to be a computer programmer.

She works with the Occupational therapist. The therapist coaches her on what types of things my son needs. They seem to have a good relationship.
This IM instructor now trains others. I think once she does she gets a part of what they take in. At least that was the impression I got.

You can go to the website and ask them to send you something. I think the best way to do it is to find someone who is a designated trainer and see if they will work with you.

It has some excellent common sense information about starting your own business. There is information about marketing yourself, writing a business plan etc.There are also free resources in your community that I would gladly help you find.

Be very wary of the message boards as there are about 1000 scams on there. I see some people trying to charge for that which you can get for free.

I have looked at all three programs and it may be, seems to be about the same. I am still skeptical about pace, fast forward, brain gym etc. I need to see more positive data before I recommend any of them to parents, cost is too high. I use PG and then go from there. I haven’t had to use those programs mentioned above so I don’t know if I would be trained in them. If I see more positive data for any of them, I would consider being trained. If I see that PG doesn’t work like it should, I recommend vision therapy. I know that vision therapy doesn’t work with every child, but I am convinced that it is real and not bogus. I have recommended two clients, one did the vision therapy with little success the other hasn’t as far as I know. I am going to see if Irlen overlays would help these kids. I have an order in but they are back ordered. I will let you know how it goes.Leah wrote:
>
> Shay, just curious. Is PACE affiliated with this new Brain
> Gym? I just talked with someone on it and they did some
> exercises with my daughter. It looked like re-packaged
> NACD. Any thoughts?

Shay, Seeing Stars can also be the missing link for the kids with visual problems.

PG did not work for my son. I continued with vision therapy with little success. Seeing Stars helped my son to hold the letters in his head.

We did a computerized program for visual perception. Three letters would come on the screen and my son would only remember 2. It really frustrated him. The computer program did not help him improve.

After an intensive at LMB clinic, he can hold entire words in his head. It is truly lifechanging for him.

Hi Shay,

I’m just curious what is is about PACE that doesn’t interest you? I really like the philosophy (similar to Audiblox) to develop the underlying cognitive skills and the rest (reading, spelling, writing) could come more easily. It just seems to make a lot of sense. Do any of the programs you use have a similar philosophy.

What are your thoughts on this?

Hi Little Lulu,

I haven’t needed to use them. I have spoken to those people who have used them and they have mixed feelings about them, and the cost of Fast Forward and Pace in particular. I have the same result with PG, V/V and Step Up to Writing and Inspiration. My 11th graders were all reading on grade level, writing research papers and doing well on standarized tests, so their comprehension was good. I guess if I come across a need, I would consider Pace and Fast Forward, but not now. I have had students with visual memory problems that have been helped with V/V and On Cloud Nine. I have also had children with CAPD and visual memory problems that I taught how to read with PG. I think that it is the knowledge of the presenter with PG that makes the difference. I teach PG differently depending on the age of the student and the problems that are presented including processing problems. I have been using PG for the past five years, when there was only the book, Reading Reflex. I am always looking for conservative remediation techniques for the parents to begin with, if all fails, I will recommend something more expensive and time consuming such as PACE and Fast Forward. But haven’t needed to, yet. I hope that that answers your questions.

Shay — I have even more questions about Irlen than you have about PACE. PACE at least has some sort of teaching program for the money and I have read reports on this board from people that were helped. Irlen, on the other hand, has all the odours of snake oil about it. I wouldn’t mind light-tinted glasses to reduce glare, but dark-tinted can cause more problems than they solve (check with your eye doctor and/or vision therapist — real eye damage possible). And the other claims of Irlen, like instantly curing dyslexia, are just too much.

I’ve been private tutoring and mixing it with other part-time teaching jobs for many years now. I am presently dedicating more time to it and trying to build up my business.

I don’t know about earning 20K. That would take an absolutely full-time schedule plus marketing etc., if you keep your prices low, or pricing yourself for the rich. I think it should be possible over the long term, but it takes time to build up a clientele, and your best advertising is word of mouth.

You should keep looking at part-time and non-traditional teaching jobs to supplement the tutoring — for example I am now teaching ESL to recent immigrants, mostly adults, mostly Chinese but a couple of new Haitians and Algerians (fun classes!); last year I pulled in quite a lot of money teaching driver’s safety classes; previously I did a lot of teaching basic college algebra, especially evening and summer classes when a lot of fill-in teachers are needed. Put your resume on the Web, and apply to every teaching opportunity you see that you think you could do well, and use this as a backup while you build up the individual consulting business.

Also follow Shay’s advice and offer more than one program in your consulting business; advertise any subject or program you think you can teach well.

I wrote up a list of do’s and don’ts for someone who was interested in starting a private practice; email me and I’ll send a copy.

Hi Victoria,

I am very curious about the overlays and have been for a long time. Again, I said curious. I have an order in, doesn’t cost much and I do know that some kids do have trouble with white paper and black print. I have had some kids that vision therapy hasn’t worked and neither has PG to the extent that I want it to. The overlays won’t cost my clients anything because I have them and I will just try them and see if it helps. PACE costs so much money not only for the parents but for the person to learn. I have heard of ways to get the training for less, will try that. I just am curious about both PACE and the overlays. My curiosity level hasn’t changed since I was five!