Our Approach

The Harp Learning Integration Program:

We have developed a 5-step academic, gross motor, visual, auditory, and memory enhancing learning integration program that builds a solid foundation for academic success.

The Problem: Academic Failure Due to Poor Sensory Processing

Students who have a difficult time mastering reading and math skills often have a sensory processing problem as the root cause. Human beings learn through their senses - by seeing, by hearing, by smell, by touch, and by taste.

Students with learning issues often have visual and/or auditory systems working differently than their peers as well as problems with gross motor activities and memory issues. These students are also usually tactile learners, which means they learn by doing. We prepare them to succeed academically by strengthening the sensory components that are weak so they can learn by other modes besides just touch.

Why The Traditional Tutor/Learning Center Solution Gets Limited Results:

Traditional learning centers and tutors address reading problems by providing more phonics and decoding tips/tricks. For math, demonstrations are just given more slowly and repetitions of computation are given.

The philosophy is that more is better, even though the information is presented in the same method that didn't work for the student to begin with. This repetition bores an already exhausted learner.

More progressive tutors may use multi-sensory approaches by using games or manipulatives. This is a beginning first step, yet once a student is in 3rd grade or higher, most schools require students to take in information from a lecture or demonstation and process the information independently without the use of manipulatives or multi-sensory learning techniques. This sets the student up for failure, because these techniques are generally not used in a traditional classroom setting.

Reviewing phonics, math computation, and using manipulatives may get the student a few steps ahead, but the core problem will not be solved since the underlying sensory issues that cause reading and math difficulty have not been addressed. The student will need extra support at every step in school, which is expensive and time consuming. Students suffer from low self-esteem, and do not enjoy school, reading, writing, or math. Many students will receive a recommendation to be retained, start the IEP process, or attend a special school for children with learning differences.

The Harp Learning Integration Program Solution:
Getting to Grade Level and Beyond

The Harp Learning Integration Program addresses the sensory root cause of reading, math, and writing difficulties while filling in any academic gaps that may have occurred. Our program consists of academic, gross motor, visual, auditory, and memory components.

RESULTS:
Over 90% of students who finish the program remain at or above grade level.

Five Steps to Learning Success:

  • ACADEMIC

  • GROSS MOTOR

  • VISUAL

  • AUDITORY

  • MEMORY

Academic: The Harp Learning Integration Program incorporates academics including reading, writing, and math. Students receive academic instruction in every learning session and in the latter levels receive logical reasoning every step of the way. The strategy is to get students up to grade level and beyond by focusing in the first months more on the foundation for learning success including gross motor, visual, auditory, and memory building skills. Once a strong foundation for learning through the senses is built, the shift to academics takes place and focuses on filling in academic gaps. The academics in the Harp Learning Integration Program meet California Standards.

Gross Motor: Kids with learning differences often but not always have a challenging time with gross motor activities. Since gross motor skills are the first building block for learning, we take students back to the beginning and make sure their gross motor abilities are within normal ranges. Children develop from gross motor to fine motor, and many students are ill prepared to write and perform even basic academic activities simply because they may have skipped some crucial steps along the way. By filling in these gaps, students can later read, write, and do math as expected.

Visual Processing: Students who process visual information incorrectly do not perceive information as expected. They may skip letters, see letters backwards, see horizontal lines as diagonal lines, see double, or have a difficult time holding images (such as letters and numbers) in their visual memory. Students with visual memory problems may only be able to remember 1 to 3 letters or numbers, which makes decoding words, reading sight words, memorizing math facts and recalling numbers very difficult. By strengthening visual processing skills, students are able to perceive and process visual information correctly, which leads to academic success

Auditory Processing: Students who process auditory information incorrectly have a difficult time following directions and communicating. These students may not hear the endings of words or sentences, might hear only every second or third word in a sentence, or fail to filter out environmental noises. Because of this these students are highly distracted and have a difficult time focusing, especially in a traditional classroom. When these students are taught to "hear" correctly and through specific exercises "filter" out extraneous noises, then learning in a classroom can take place effectively.

Memory Building: One of the most important aspects of the Harp Learning Integration Program involves building working memory so students can hold and manipulate letters, numbers, and images in their minds until the pieces create a complete word or number sequence. This in turn leads to academic success by allowing the student to remember and work with what was introduced at school. Howework can be done without battles because the student can remember and utilize information. Tests can be passed because information was retained.