Frequently Asked Questions

I hope the website has addressed many of your concerns.  If not, perhaps your questions are answered below.  If none of these questions address your concern, please feel free to contact me. 

Clicking a highlighted question will take you to the relevant section within the website.

1. What is a LearningSuccess Coach?
2. What services do you provide?
3. What do you charge?
4. What areas do you service?
5. What is your experience? 

6. Who do you work with?

I work primarily with families (parents and children).  Teachers are encouraged to join the coaching team.  We create teams to coach and support the student.  The students in this scenario are usually 3rd graders through 11th graders.

I also work individually with young adults, either still in high school or college, and older adults if they need coaching for professional needs.  For high school students who are contemplating higher education, college majors, career paths, I leave it up to them to decide what role their parents play.  As children get older and depending on the type of services, they may or may not need parents present.

 7. What type of client would benefit?

Almost anyone can benefit from LearningSuccess  services.  LearningSuccess coaching can help if you are looking for  understanding and clarity and a team approach.  Initial contact and conversations will shed light on your needs and whether I can meet your needs.

8. How much coaching will I need?

First, the amount of benefit you or your family receive is positively correlated with the amount of coaching. If you are simply interested in identifying learning styles, the benefits will be limited to our initial time together during the In-depth Profile discussion. However, the new things you learn about yourself or family member may be the beginning of a long- term discovery process you may undergo on your own. Thus the benefits continue whether or not you follow up with coaching. It is your choice to go past initial services if you so desire.

Second, each case is different.  Some people may need more coaching to reach set goals; others may need less.  And that’s the beauty of LearningSuccess Coaching.  Unlike traditional education, together we determine what you need and how you can meet those needs at a comfortable pace.  The pace depends on several factors:

         -It depends on the service(s) selected.  For more info, see #3. 

 -It also depends on how proactive you are and how much effort are willing to put into incorporating recommendations and using newly discovered knowledge and tools.  Some people can put into action new habits faster than others. And since change involves unlearning old habits and relearning new ones, and thus an educational process in itself, it is no surprise that it depends on how one approaches learning.  

 -It also depends on the number of negative schooling experiences you have: the lower the number, the easier it will be to make positive changes, and the less coaching will be necessary.

 -It also depends on how well my perspective on learning matches your own. I make a commitment to encourage true learning and deep understanding of concepts.  I do not pass out “quick fixes,” put a bandage on the problem, or hand out fish.    I prefer to apply long-term solutions, address the cause of a problem, and teach people to fish for themselves.   

9. How do initial services differ from follow-up and coaching sessions?

Initial services include taking the profile or having an in-depth discussion of the profile.  Both can be done in one two-hour session. Follow-up sessions and coaching will require more time and some activities to take home.  There may be reading assignments or some form of journaling.  Or some self-discovery activities might need to be undertaken either on your own or together with me.  For example, a family mission or educational mission may need to be drafted before important decisions such as selecting a school can be made.  Another example involves a student who has a difficult time with chemistry becasue he or she does not fully understand the concept of ratios and fractions.  This would require some support work in understanding ratios and fractions before applying the concept in chemistry.  Both examples would require a “side-trip” to strengthen or better understand other concepts.

10. What about learning disabilities?   

This question is best addressed by sharing how I work with individuals who have not yet resorted to educational or neurological testing.

Generally, I look at difficulties holistically without jumping to conclusions with an emphasis on what can be done now to help the situation in the future.  I look at individuals through their strengths first.  Together, we find solutions to problems rooted in a “weakness” by first understanding the related strength.  Then, we develop new strategies or alternatives based on that strength.  These solutions may involve merely a change in one or two habits for some families, but may require a whole shift in outlook for other families.  The latter will require more effort and time.

 

Trying to get to the root cause of a learning difficulty takes time and patience.  The right solution may also take time and patience, especially if it is an “organic” solution.  A 100%  “organic” solution does not involve labels or drugs and requires much self-exploration and affirmation.   How “organic” one chooses to go depends on each family's perspective on life and values. Each family is different.  If you decide to addresss the issue with educational or neurological testing, that is your choice. I will respect that choice.  My hope is that after understanding your child's learning style, other solutions will become more apparent and testing will no longer be necessary.

If you have or your child has undergone educational or neurological testing, I welcome you to see me.  Most likely the results of the learning style profile will allow you to see the test results from a different perspective.  This perspective looks at an individual through their strengths instead of weaknesses.  And helps children understand what they are good at instead of what they are bad at. Progressively-minded educational therapists, psychologists, neurologists share the perspective underlying the LearningSuccess^TM approach and their solutions may be compatible and/or complementary.

11. Do you tutor? 

No and Yes. In the traditional sense of the word, I do not tutor. The traditional view of tutoring entails meetings between two people.  Usually the older, more knowledgeable person “instructs” the younger in a subject of difficulty with the sole goal of seeing a marked improvement in grades. With inexperienced or young tutors, there is no strategy involved and the tutor relies solely on the class textbook, homework assignments and failed tests to determine a course of action.  I used to just tutor other children early in my educational career. I had positive and negative experiences. Positive experiences occurred when I made a connection with them –an ahah! experience.  My conclusion:  Tutoring worked . . . for some. But some children just didn’t get it. Something was missing. 

As my experience in teaching increased, I realized what was missing:  understanding how people learn and using this knowledge to teach differently, learn strategically, and set educational goals.  That is why when I "tutor" the student must take a Learning Style profile.  In the end tutoring becomes coaching in a specific subject.

 

12.  How is traditional tutoring different from coaching? 

Coaching involves  (1) understanding how people learn and using this knowledge to teach differently, learn strategically and set educational goals; and (2) a team approach through parent and or teacher involvement.   

13.  What do you mean by parent involvement and how much parent involvement is needed?

For tutoring or "coaching in a specific subject" a parent may want to be involved on days I don't meet with the child.  Or their role may be simply to support the LearningSuccess Model of Education and be supportive of the process.  Minimally, a supportive team spirit is necessary from parents for success.

In all other coaching scenarios, committment may be deeper.

Generally, the younger the child, the more parent and teacher involvement is needed.  A young adult may benefit from parent involvement, depending on the situation.  An adult who is seeking coaching may want to seek the involvement of a partner, spouse, or significant other.  These relationships must be supportive of the process for success.

More specifically, in a parent-child relationship, there are two dimensions to parent involvement: organic involvement and time involvement. By organic involvement, I am referring to the extent a parent is open to becoming your own child’s coach, eventually.  In situations where parents are maximally involved organically, parents are open to proactively changing the way they view their child, their thinking regarding education, their style of parenting, and in some extreme situations, ingrained values.  With regards to time, the extent to which you are involved is determined by what you want and need from LearningSuccess coaching.  If you are simply interested in learning about your child’s learning style for the sake of curiosity, much less involvement is necessary than for a parent who is faced with the overwhelming decision of whether or not to administer medication to help their child focus in school. This situation in turn requires less involvement than the situation where a parent has committed to homeschool their child from kindergarten through high school.

14.  Can the profile tell me who I get along with in a relationship?

While not designed for that purpose, it can shed some light.

15.  What research is all this based on anyway?

The LearningSuccess Institute has taken what is inaccessible to parents and laypeople -namely research regarding education, the brain and psychology- and developed a self-administered tool that is easy to use, yet very powerful way of looking at how a person thinks and learns. With  proper guidance, the usefulness of this tool multiplies.  The LearningSuccess model of education, which includes the principles, coaching techniques, and profiles, is based on academic research. For more information, see Research.