Bellfonds

Yes, be leery. Miracle cures appear every year or so and disappear at the same rate.

However there is a core of good practice in a few programs, and those ones last.

Brain/vision/coordination exercises in general are a good idea — the brain responds to workouts just as the muscles do. But you can also exercise mistakenly or go too far, so be careful and use judgement. And anything that costs a lot of money and promises instant results is to be distrusted. (Things gthat cost a lot of money but also involve a lot of real work, such as LindaMood Bell, are a different category and often good.)

I show the segment too. While it looked good, I’d spend my money on the tried and true LMB/Wilson/Orton Gillingham program.s

Isnt’ that the same as Earobics?? Isn’t that what it is designed to do??

K.

And, miracle cures are turning a huge profit for less than scrupulous private practitioners who have not qualms taking parents’ money.

As a private practitioner who tries to be honest and to do the best I can for the lowest price I can charge for a living, I ask that you be careful in not lumping everyone into the same category!

I am not really sure. I don’t know too much about Earobics. I will research it further. I was just curious if anyone else had use Bellfonds.Thank you for your response.

Laurie

That is the website for Earobics. http://www.cogcon.com/products/

K.

I think that the “less than scrupulous” leaves you out. Just from what I’ve heard on this BB I can tell you are a dedicated professional.

Thank you for the website. The difference between the two is that the Bellefonds Method is a series of “exercises” for the brain that supposedly will increase cognitive ability and retains deficit cognitive areas. From the information that you gave about Earobics I feel that they are somewhat different in their approaches. However, again, I thank you for referring me the Earobics site.

Laurie

Dedicated, yes. To be professional I’m going to *have* to get some more clients in my new area … but thanks for the support!

My impression — and this is *not* formal knowledge, just gleanings from part of one TV show and talk on this website — Earobics is more language and logic and memory, and Bellfonds is more visual and coordination. Both could be useful.

My post was not intended to condemn all private practitioners. We have at least two places nearby that are run as clinics for disabled students. Private and very expensive. The clinicians are hooked in with all the $$$$$ therapies and actively encourage parents to enroll their child and then sue the school district to pay, even when the child’s profile is not suggestive of that particular therapy. One parent just filed against us at the urging of one of these delightful clinics.

Former teachers who tutor and often from their homes or traveling tutors are usually on the up and up. These are the folks I recommend to parents who seek extra help.

Fancy clinics in office suites usually hire and train untrained personnel to work with children. They train them, pay them $12-$15 per hour and charge parents $40-$90 per hour. I don’t think this is ethical behavior.

Please again, reread my post: “miracle cures are turning a huge profit for less than scrupulous private practitioners who have no qualms taking parents’ money.”

I can’t find the place where this says “all private practitioners”, “most private practitioners” or even “many private practitioners.” It was intended to mean just what it said, “less than scrupulous private practitioners” (read: the less than ethical private practitioners who rent fancy offices and get wealthy promoting programs few need and most don’t benefit from).

Please read my other post from this a.m., it better defines what these unscrupulous people do.

And, if you have even contacted the PACE people, they really pitch how much money you can make being a provider of their program. They tell you about a 21 year old who paid the $$$$, signed on and pays noncredentialed part time helpers to actually administer the program. This is, in my mind, unscrupulous.

If you are a credentialed special ed. teacher who takes private clients and works hard to teach them, I am NOT referring to you.

I didn’t want to start an argument on this point!

Unfortunately some people don’t read details and might have taken the previous post as a condemnation of private practitioners in general, ignoring the adjectives, so I wanted to make a distinction. That’s all.

I’ve also heard of doctors who diagnosis particular disabilities who refer you to someone who (conincidentally) just happens to specialize in that area. Geez, I’m so grateful for my just plain honest tutor who tells me the truth whether I like it or not.

The private practitioners on this board are nothing less than exemplary. That being said I have been burned by the charge all you can teaching chains etc. I guess I am a control freak. I now don’t even hire a tutor. I am a do it yourselfer through and through. I wouldn’t have been able to do all that I do without the help and support of all the teachers, parents and other professionals on this board and for that I give a big THANK YOU to all. We will be doing interactive metronome through a private OT because I can’t do that and think the studies on it are pretty compelling. Also Occupational therapy at school has been a godsend.
I just received another book that I read about on this board. It is really great. The best so far. (I have bought and read no less than 5 books on the subject.) It is called Developing Your Child For Success by Kenneth Lane. I had to buy iit used from amazon.
This book is for someone who really wants to help a child with visual perceptual issues, sequencing issues, motor issues, simultaneous processing issues and general sensory integration work. This book never mentions sensory integration but I know it covers this area due to my experience with my son’s OT and the various reading I have done. It contains many activities that are done by my son’s OT plus many more that seem even more intensive. It uses a metronome to improve timing with many of the activities. Although I haven’t checked his references, he sites ample research.
I found that he really nailed the need for therapy to be included as a part of every remediation plan.
He discusses the brains need to have lower brain function become more automatic so that the higher brain is not strained to perform the work of the lower brain. Then the higher brain can get on with thinking. (I am paraphasing)

“The more intentional or coordinated motor activities can be reproduced automatically in a satisfactory way, the greater the possibility for learning. This it the principle of “Corporal Potentiality.” If the brain can leave the more basic primitive functions to be handled by the lower brain areas and not have to have the higher brain areas help out, then the higher brain areas can use all their energy for their functions and learning is possible.

There are so many activities it seems a little overwhelming. I definitely intend to do most of them. Thanks to whoever recommended this book.

Not a problem, we all tend to read through posts rather quickly at times. I do.

I agree that some learning centers/clinics seem like express lanes for LD therapies. After 20 yrs working in SpEd in the public schools, I chose to leave due to the increasingly watered-down way in which services were provided to students with learning disabilities. With the support and sacrifice of my family, I opened my own office. I work alone specifically to avoid those kinds of quality control issues you mentioned. I’ve oberved that while directors of learning centers often have graduate degrees, they tend to hire inexperienced employees and simply give them a few hours of training before having them work with LD children.
Or they sell computer software and other products that take the focus away from remediating the child’s learning issues.

I consult, work individually with kids, and sometimes represent them and their parents at IEP meetings. Parents often feel their concerns have been trivialized or ignored before they receive support. I’m proud that I have been able to help parents obtain testing from their school districts (sometimes after they’ve requested it for 2 yrs or more), accommodations or special education services.

I work from an office (not big, a little fancy) in order to provide a quiet, private place where the focus is on learning and nothing else. I spent a lot of time making the office feel homelike and wanted it to be especially comfortable and respectful for the adults I work with. In my office, parents can yell, cry, whatever. Sometimes we cry together.

I put in much longer hours than I did as a school employee (even though I was never one who ran for the parking lot before the echo of the last bell), but my rewards are infinite. I charge fees that my age, experience and (most of all) results merit. I give 110% to the families I work with and their happiness and gratitute are very rewarding. I’m still surprised when people (usually school personnel or tutors) question the sincerity of those who don’t work in school or home settings. I realize they don’t know about those times I’ve been at my office until 10 p.m., spent countless hours speaking on the phone at no charge with someone in crisis, or worked late into the night to finish a report — and was still there to represent another family the next morning at a 7:30 IEP mtng.

No, I don’t make a lot of money doing this. I don’t take a cut of employees’ pay like at a learning center because I work alone. Expenses, fees, overhead, insurance and Uncle Sam all take their share. In fact, I’d be more financially secure if I’d stayed in “the system.” But, every day, I know I’m making a difference. I’m proud to be walking the walk with my clients and their parents.