Learning Gym Press


Easy Reader
January 11, 2007
By Lisa McDivitt

Experts to Address Learning Disorders

Valerie Maxwell has been practicing psychology in Manhattan Beach for the past 27 years, but it wasn't until about a decade ago that her young patients started to count the lines in her black leather couch as they sat in her office. She is seeing what she calls an epidemic of autism, ADHD, and other disorders. And on January 19, 2007, her Foundation for Learning Development will host the first in a series of conferences to address ways of treating these children.

"I think what we're looking at is third generation of fast food kids," said Maxwell, the president and founder of the foundation. And as diverse as the disorders, from visual attention deficit disorder to trouble with listening, Maxwell knows there are ways of treatment that can be more natural than medication. The key, said Maxwell, is networking and communication among experts in research and those who work with the students, and to bring parents and educators into awareness as well.

"Nobody's talking to each other," she said of the various researchers and professionals in the field.

The foundation grew from what Maxwell saw as a need in her field for communication between experts, to tie together assessment and treatments that exist for an array of learning disorders. Her hope is that through conferences such as the one this month, diagnosis of learning disorders will be followed by specific paths for treatment.

"If you come in and you're depressed, we have a treatment plan for you," said Maxwell, "And we do not have that in education." In the educational system, said Maxwell, treatment plans are not prevalent, even though the technology exists for the various disorders a student might face. Maxwell said she imagines a day when a parent can Google his or her child's symptoms, and then be met with not only a specific diagnosis, but a specific path to treatment.

If a child's disorder is in listening, the student might respond well to Auditory Integration Training. A student with difficulties in reading comprehension could be a good candidate for the Irlen Method. What the conference aims to change is the "my program is better than yours" philosophy in favor of "what works for whom," said Maxwell.

The foundation itself is designed as a think tank to help professionals change the learning disorder landscape. "It's pretty exciting that it's happening right here," said Maxwell.

The conference will be held at the Ayres Hotel. Speakers will come from around the country, and include specialists in the fields of genetics, speech pathology, bipolar disorder, and optometry. The conference will aim to help bridge what Maxwell calls a gap between clinical practice and research in cognitive training.

In addition to "learning therapy," a term coined by Maxwell that encompasses this area of treatment, Maxwell helps to educate parents and experts about various other ways of helping comprehension, including diet. Maxwell recommends zinc, and said that 90 percent of American children are deficient in zinc. She also said she is shocked at how many South Bay parents do not give their children a multivitamin. "Zinc makes you think," she said. Omega-3, the fatty acid found in fish oil, protects the brain cells, and helps with learning. Maxwell recommends 500 mg of Omega3 for children every day.

Where certain treatments as well as diet can help many kinds of ADD and ADHD, Maxwell hopes to establish a new landscape and language so that a unified front can begin to create a system for treatment of all such learning disorders. And Maxwell hopes that this month's conference will start the conversation.




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