TOTAL LEARNING CENTERS

My daughter has multiple learning disabilities that affect her language, visual and auditory processing as well as her short-term memory. Her diagnosis is PDD-NOS or Asperger's syndrome. The memory difficulties in turn make it difficult for her to reason. TLC's testing targeted these areas in greater detail than our school district did. Our district had no idea how to test for cognitive processing and executive functioning (the ability to coordinate the use of information gained through different senses and potentially at different times), so this was the first data we were able to get on my daughter in those areas. My daughter then underwent 60 hours of one-on-one tutoring during the course of one summer. Post-program testing revealed the following gains: Visual memory skills- from 9th to 50th percentile; contextual auditory memory skills from 25th to 39th percentile; Overall processing speed from from 1st to 12th percentile; Decision making/visual processing from 1st to 74th percentile; Decision making/auditory processing from 12th to 75th percentile; Cognitive efficiency from 6th to 55th percentile; Reading comprehension from 39th to 75th percentile; and Phonics from 25th to 47th percentile. I used this data to show our school district what areas needed further targeting and what areas had improved enough that the district should raise its expectations when we drafted IEPs. It was staggering having to spend this much money, but after years of negotiating with the school district, I knew I wasn't going to get anything more from them at that point. I know families who were unable to afford tutoring who decided just to obtain testing from TLC to use in negotiating with their school district or working with their children themselves. The cost of testing can vary, depending on whether it's for something targeted like reading or for overall cognitive condition like my daughter's case. My daughter's testing accounted for about $500.00 of the money I spent. I understand that this sort of comprehensive testing is at the upper end of the scale. Annual follow-up testing is free. My daughter has had her first annual follow-up testing and it showed that she maintained the gains she achieved from the 60 hour program.