Share your LearningRX experiences

[hehateme]

DS1 just turned 7 and he starts 2nd grade next week.
At the end of his first year his report card showed he was fine in most subjects except Math.
He needed additional help in Math.
His teacher told us that he was not a good listener, he had to repeat instructions to him over and over again, he had trouble staying on task.
He finished in the bottom 25% of his class.

We have been teaching him at home over the summer.
He recently went for an assessment at LearningRX.
My wife just met them today to understand the results.

Based on the results of the assessment they told her how he is. She was impressed with their description of how he learnings things.
They told her that he can do better if we pay them $8000 for a 4 month long 4 hours a week mind training.

I have no prior experience with LearningRX. There seems to be conflict of interest between the folks doing the assessment and telling us that our kid will do better if they pay them lots of money.
LearningRX did an amazing job of impressing my wife.

I was wondering what your experience has been like with LearningRX.
More than the high cost idea of going to school everyday, doing home work and then spending 1 hour at Learning RX is going to be tough for my son.
I want to find a way to help him do better in school but LearningRX seems too good to be true.

[niccig]

That's a lot of money to put into a program - is there any peer-review evidence based research proving it provides benefit. And I don't mean testimonials or research that was conducted by the people that created LearningRx. Also question if the skills taught at LearningRx generalize to the classroom. I'm a school SLP and what I do in the therapy room on campus doesn't always generalize to the classroom, so I got INTO the classroom and work with the student in the REAL setting where they are using the skills. And even then it can be a struggle - there's so many distraction in a school classroom and for some students these distractions prevent them from using strategies/skills they can use when it's a quiet 1:1 setting.

If you are concerned about your child's behavior and academics, I'd put money into testing to see if he has any learning disabilities. Some of what you describe could be attention issues. Ask the school if you can have a meeting to discuss your concerns and what the school can do to help. At my school, we have a team where students that are struggling are referred for by the teach - their academic progress, behavior are all discussed, modifications are suggested to the teacher and parent, then if no progress has been shown, we look at evaluating the child for special education services - this can be speech therapy, OT, resource room (extra help with math, reading by a special education teacher). I'd look at other options and try to work out what is going on BEFORE spending $8k.

If it turns out it's just math tutoring he needs, there's several tutoring centers to consider. My DS goes to Mathnasium - 2x per week and he's shown great improvement as they provide the extra practice he needs. I can teach him 6th grade math, but fighting him to do the extra practice wasn't worth it. He goes to tutoring, his math grades have improved and no fighting.

[vludmilla]

I would be very wary of spending 8k on that program. This area of cognitive/neuropsychology is not settled science. There are many well respected researchers that are skeptical of the claims made by companies like LearningRx (there are at least several other similar companies). I am a psychologist (clinical/school) and I would not spend 8k on this program. I would consider spending money on a good evaluation, if a consult with a psychologist indicated that it could yield useful information.

[AnnieW625]

Wow! That is a lot of money. What about Kumon? I have been very surprised at how well Dd2 has done with the program (she does reading, but they are known for their math program as well, and Dd1 just started Kumon for math this week) Kumon is $140 a month for one subject and you go twice a week for 30 minutes each time, and have daily homework in between. It is also a six month commitment, but way more affordable than a $2k a month program; and honestly I was a little hesitant to pay the Kumon tuition until I started researching other options like private tutors, which were more and saw that Kumon does work really well.

[BunnyBee]

Unless the person doing the testing was an actual ed psych or neuropsych, the testing is worthless. That much money screams scam. Get real testing done if you are concerned about a LD. From an independent psychologist who's not trying to scam you out of thousands of dollars. Hundreds of thousands thousands of dollars won't "cure" a LD or ADHD in a few months. Figure out what's happening and educate yourselves on how best to remediate any possible issues.

[PZMommy]

Unless the person doing the testing was an actual ed psych or neuropsych, the testing is worthless. That much money screams scam. Get real testing done if you are concerned about a LD. From an independent psychologist who's not trying to scam you out of thousands of dollars. Hundreds of thousands thousands of dollars won't "cure" a LD or ADHD in a few months. Figure out what's happening and educate yourselves on how best to remediate any possible issues.

This! I'm a teacher, and I think programs like kumon work great if the student just needs extra practice or a bit of extra help. If the student has an underlying learning disability then programs like kumon wont help very much. Learning disabilities need to be addressed by a professional first. Often times those services can be provided at school no charge, but you will need to have testing done either by the school or a doctor of your choice first.

I would start by asking his teacher to hold a student success team meeting (the name may vary by state). That would be a meeting with you, his teacher, and resource teacher, school psych. You can discuss your concerns and then the team will come up with a plan. They will try those strategies, and depending how those strategies work, they may move on to further testing. Sometimes in severe cases I've seen the team recommend testing at the first SST meeting, but usually they want to try other interventions first.

[inmypjs]

The main thing to know about Learning RX is that they are not a tutoring agency in the traditional way. They aren't going to do math, reading, etc. They are a cognitive skills training program. They claim to improve cognitive skills that enhance learning, such as working memory, processing speed and attention.

Working memory, both visual and auditory, can be improved with certain exercises. When it comes to processing speed, however, most psychologists regard that as fixed. I'm also not aware of any research which shows attention can be drastically improved by their exercises. The evals I have seen from Learning RX use their own internal measures of these skills, which they do a post test on too. The problem is these aren't standardized tests, like the WISC or the WAIS. They were made by Learning RX. Whenever a company develops and uses its own assessment for its own program, there is definitely the issue of 'teaching to the test' if that makes sense. For example, a friend of mine did Learning RX after a neuropsych revealed her son had very low processing speed. They did the program with fidelity, and the Learning RX post eval showed his processing speed improved by quite a few points. But she saw no real change at home or school.

That said, I know some people who have done Learning RX and felt it was incredibly helpful for their child. Others have spent thousands of dollars and regretted it. You have to figure out if the problems your child is having are due to a cognitive skills deficit. I would recommend a neuropsych eval before committing to Learning RX.