We are educators that believe that if we teach children HOW to learn and make the learning process easier, we will contribute to developing successful learner. What sets Educational Alternatives apart is our commitment to a multi-sensory educational approach. An individualized educational approach for each child and the understanding that if we also provide support to the family, every child will grow, develop and learn.

     Because we specialize in learning and the learning process, our methods are effective with a broad range of students with learning difficulties. A multi-sensory language - based approach to learning builds on the sensory strengths of a learner and supports weaker sensory input by providing the learner additional avenues to assimilate information. Our philosophy and methods are successful with students with Learning Disabilities, Language 

 Based Reading Disability, Attention Deficit Disorder, Hearing Impairment, or a Developmental Disability because, WE TEACH LEARNING!

     Multi-sensory education works because it is based on using teaching methods that are based upon how we learn. We know that LEARNING occurs when an individual effectively interacts with material using two or more sensory avenues (i.e. hearing and vision). If one or both of these sensory avenues is weak, what commonly occurs is memorization, not learning. Our approach not only remediates areas of learning difficulties but offers students effective long term strategies for coping with academic curriculum.

     The best curriculum is only as good as the quality of the teaching that goes into it. Therefore, Educational Alternatives combines a true multi-sensory educational approach with excellent, well-trained teacher to deliver fabulous results.

PROBLEM: The learner has difficulty/inability to read and spell to his/her potential. Often this learner is labeled dyslexic or learning disabled, or may have a sensory loss (i.e. hearing loss) or may be Developmentally Delayed. Despite various attempts and methods, these learners cannot (or with great difficulty) process written and/or spoken words and usually guess from memory or context clues. These individuals often have expressive and receptive language processing difficulties and do not learn easily through the traditional modalities (vision and hearing) of teaching.

PROBLEM: The learner has difficulty/inability processing sounds within words. Although he/she sees letters correctly, they cannot detect and correct errors in reading and spelling. As a result, this learner often has:

• weak decoding skills...reads "stuch" for "struck", "selfish" for "shellfisch", etc.
• weak spelling skills...spells "gril" for "girl", and "dun" for "done", etc.

     A common cause for such difficulty lies in difficulty processing sounds within words. This is a form of auditory processing dysfunction. Often this causes and individual to omit, substitute and reverse sounds within words. This individual often cannot judge whether what they say matches with what they see.

SOLUTION: Educational Alternatives uses a multi-sensory approach curriculum built upon integrated learning as an approach that teaches the learner HOW TO LEARN. It not only provides immediate success through effective learning strategies but also increases the stimulation of conceptual functions and the ability to process language. Through individualized approaches, the learner becomes aware of their specific learning difficulty, develops new strategies and coping skills to produce success and begins the process of ameliorating the learning difficulty.