Educational Therapy: A Holistic Approach to Academic Mediation

Some students need help in a single subject area. Maybe they want to boost their ACT score, or maybe they want to polish their writing skills in order to succeed in an English class. Other students, however, require a more holistic approach. While traditional tutoring addresses a student's needs in one subject area, educational therapy addresses how a student learns. If your child struggles in multiple academic areas and/or seems to dislike the school environment in general, you may want to look into educational therapy, which can be incredibly beneficial.

Just what is educational therapy? Basically, it's a thorough process that helps you and your child identify his strengths and weaknesses in the classroom. An educational therapist works one-on-one with both you and your child to define his particular challenges. Instead of just saying, "Your child struggles with math," an educational therapist will help define exactly why such obstacles exist — either by identifying an environmental cause (such as a too-noisy classroom) or a personal cause (such as a learning disability). Once the educational therapist has clearly identified and defined your child's unique academic challenges, she will develop a plan to help mediate those issues.

One of the most important features of educational therapy is that, while it identifies challenges, it also emphasizes strengths. This accentuate-the-positive approach is absolutely vital for students who struggle in the classroom. If students struggle for too long, without any positive feedback or recognition of their achievements, they will become frustrated with learning in general — and that leads to a lack of engagement, poor grades and, in extreme cases, dropping out of school altogether. Your child's educational therapist will build a plan based around her strongest academic abilities, and find ways that those strengths can lend help to areas in which she is less proficient.

Students benefit most from educational therapy when they attend sessions at least once (and, ideally, twice) per week. These sessions can take place in person, or they can be done via a Web interface. For educational therapists in your area, check out the website of the Association of Educational Therapists. If you're looking for a traditional tutoring session, you'll find dozens of experts here.