Offering professional reading support in the comfort of your home. Our reading tutors work with all types of reading needs, e.g. dyslexia. We are trained in Orton Gillingham and Wilson, and we travel to:
Manhattan- Upper East Side, Midtown East, Murray Hill, Gramercy, Union Square, East Village, Soho, Upper West Side, Midtown, Chelsea, West Village, Chinatown, Lower East Side.
Brooklyn- Kensington, Midwood, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, Ditmas Park, Boro Park, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Ditmas Park, Kensington, Prospect Park South, Midwood, Canarsie, Flatbush, Crown Heights, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Prospect Heights, Bay Ridge, and Dyker Heights.
Queens– Sunnyside, Woodside, Long Island City, Astoria
Long Island- near Baldwin.

For more information: http://brooklynletters.com/services/reading-specialists-and-interventionists/

Self-regulation is critical to a child’s learning and development. Self-regulation is a person’s ability to maintain their arousal level and a level of alertness that is appropriate for the demands of the environment. Children and adults use various strategies and techniques to maintain self-regulation throughout their daily lives. Many of these strategies are sensory based and help our nervous systems sustain physiological regulation in order to participate in social activities, daily living activities, and other age appropriate activities. Sensory processing is a key ingredient to a child’s self-regulation.

Sensory information that our bodies process includes:

• Proprioceptive input: Gives our bodies information of body position and where our body is in space.
• Vestibular input: Provides information to our body about movement and changes in head position.
• Tactile input: Sense of touch through our bodies, hands, and mouth; allowing us to interpret what we feel.
• Auditory input: Sense of hearing, allowing us to interpret what we hear.
• Visual input: Sense of vision, allowing us to interpret what we see.

Our bodies take in sensory information from the environment and process that information, resulting in a behavior in response to the environment. When children have difficulty processing sensory information or have difficulty adequately registering the sensory information, difficulties in self-regulation can result.

Just a few examples of how adults sustain regulation on a daily basis using sensory strategies include:

• Chewing gum to help sustain attention.
• Going out for a massage or engaging in physical exercise when feeling stressed.
• Lying under a heavy blanket when relaxing and falling asleep.
When a child has difficulty with self-regulation, it can impact the child’s ability to participate in school activities, in activities of daily living, social activities, etc. For example, if a child has difficulty sustaining an optimal level of arousal and is very active they will potentially have difficulty listening to classroom instruction, difficulty following the classroom routine, etc. Another example is a toddler who has difficulty tolerating transitions and difficulty self-soothing. This toddler may have difficulty utilizing tools or strategies to assist with self calming, like engaging in a calming movement activity, getting a hug for comfort, knowing what to expect through a visual schedule, etc.

Here are a few questions to consider when looking at a child’s functioning and determining whether difficulties with self-regulation may be contributing to your child’s learning potential:

• Does your child have difficulty staying seated or sitting still during tabletop tasks?
• Does your child have difficulty transitioning between activities?
• Does your child have difficulty sustaining attention to a conversation, activity, or task?
• Does your child have difficulty self-soothing when upset?
• Does your child have difficulty filtering excessive noise resulting in difficulty sustaining attention?
• Does your child have difficulty following multi-step directions or multi-step activities without requiring assistance?
• Does your child have a low activity level?
• Does your child seem to get lost while completing a task, delaying his/her ability to complete it in a timely manner?

These are only a few questions related to possible self-regulation difficulties. If difficulties with self-regulating is impacting daily life and your child’s ability to participate in age related activities to their fullest potential, an occupational therapy consultation or evaluation may be beneficial. Occupational therapy can assess a child’s individual sensory needs and self-regulation capacity to assist with increase in functional independence.

Here are a few examples of techniques that an occupational therapist could utilize to assist you and your child with their self-regulation:

• Create social stories: creating a story about the child and identifying their arousal level (our bodies move slow, just right, and fast).
• Creating a sensory diet that is specific to the child’s sensory system and needs, to help provide needed sensory input to maintain regulation.
• Increasing a child’s self-awareness and ability to identify their own arousal level.
• Providing sensory rich experiences for the child to engage in to increase opportunities for the child to receive the sensory input that they may need.
• Engaging in sensory based community activities that provide the sensory information that the individual child may benefit from.

Dr. Neeha Patel is a licensed occupational therapist who offers a holistic approach to therapy, drawing from evidenced-based practice techniques, sensory integration theory, neurodevelopmental treatment, family-centered care, and a play-based approach. She is Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests (SIPT) certified, and has extensive experience helping children from birth to 16 years old with sensory processing delays, fine and visual motor delays, social skills, pre-writing and handwriting skills, as well as in their primary activities of daily life. She has worked with varying diagnoses including autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, developmental delays, developmental coordination disorder, cerebral palsy, disruptive behavior disorder, and down syndrome. Neeha has special interest and completed her doctoral work in the area of cultural sensitivity when working with children and their families. Neeha offers home, school, or community visits in Brooklyn and Manhattan (Upper West Side, Midtown, Chelsea, Clinton, West Village, Soho, Tribeca, Union Square, Murray Hill, Gramercy Park, Upper East Side).

We are offering speech language therapy to all ages in the convenience of your home and we travel to Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Green, Clinton Hill, Williamsburg, Kensington, Vinegar Hill, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Greenpoint, Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Boerum Hill, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bushwick, Crown Heights, Dyker Park, Bensonhurst, East Flatbush, Ditmas Park, Sunset Park, and Borough Park (Boro Park).

Our Speech & Language Specialists’ qualifications include:
- Master’s degrees in speech language pathology
- New York State and national certification
- Orton-Gillingham approach (40 plus hours-decoding and encoding training)
- PROMPT training
- We offer bilingual services (Spanish, French, Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu)

We are experienced to treat babies to adolescents with a variety of speech language difficulties, including: articulation/enunciation difficulties (e.g., lisp, tongue thrust, and/or difficulty saying sounds), speech delay (including apraxia, oral motor difficulties, cleft palate), late talkers/expressive and receptive language delay (including multilingual homes), autism spectrum, e.g. Asperger’s, pervasive developmental disorder (PDD-NOS), social language delays, disfluency (stuttering), and feeding delays (including picky eaters, oral motor delays, medically fragile).

Our expertise includes:
Pronunciation (all ages) & Early Childhood Verbal Expression & School Age Verbal Expression
Social Skills
Stuttering
Listening Difficulties (auditory and language processing)
Aural Rehabilitation
Picky Eaters and Early Childhood Feeding Delays

CONTACT
Feel free to directly email a speech language therapist or contact Craig at craig@brooklynlearning.com & 347-394-3485 with any speech, language, feeding, and professional intervention questions.

Meet Maura and Nicole: your child’s new best friends! Both are NY licensed speech language therapists with experience working in Brooklyn public schools. They provide professional learning services for elementary, middle school, and high school students who are struggling academically, who have special needs and/or learning disabilities, and for students who are home-schooled.

Snap your fingers and Maura and Nicole can adapt the curriculum based on your child’s grade/academic level and they explicitly teach study skills. They assist your child to develop the needed skills to learn in a more productive way. Children can easily become overwhelmed by difficult and complicated subjects. One-on-one individualized professional learning support, in the comfort of your home, will increase your child’s focus. Teaching and using concrete learning tools will help your child earn better grades and increase your child’s motivation and confidence. Maura and Nicole make the inaccessible, accessible.

Maura and Nicole are language arts masters. They are experienced to teach:
reading, phonics, fluency, reading comprehension, essay writing, creative writing, and grammar usage/punctuation.

If your child has a special needs, Maura and Nicole are experienced tutoring:
language processing difficulties, e.g. dyslexia, PDD and autism spectrum (including Aspergers) etc.

They travel to:
Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights.

Rates
$120 for 1 hour
$100 for 45 minutes

Payment is out-of-pocket and considered out-of-network. Maura and Nicole are not RSA providers. Sorry!

Contact Craig for more information craig@brooklynletters.com and 347-394-3485 or directly email Maura and Nicole (see below).

Maura Amentas, M.S., CCC-SLP, Speech Language Pathologist

Maura is a licensed speech-language pathologist and a Brooklyn native! She earned a BA in English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, from which she graduated summa cum laude. After graduating, Maura worked briefly in law, followed by a research position at Columbia University. While working, she completed her Master’s of Science in Speech Language Pathology at Columbia, from which she received several scholarships and worked as a Teaching Assistant for two graduate level courses. Maura has vast experience with pediatric populations of all ages, ranging from infant to young adult, and she has passionately pursued a career in the NYC public schools. She currently works as a speech pathologist at P.S. 261 in Boerum Hill and completed her clinical school practicum at P.S. 321 right here in Park Slope! She also has experience in hospital settings, clinics, and District 75 schools. Maura is adept at treating children with receptive and expressive language deficits, auditory processing difficulties, literacy issues, phonological disorders, and pragmatic language issues. She is particularly skilled at addressing speech-language issues as they relate to and impact classroom and academic performance while keeping therapy sessions engaging and motivating for the child. Additional areas of interest and expertise include articulation therapy (not just lisps!), narrative skill development, reading comprehension and verbal reasoning abilities. Maura is a firm believer in evidenced-based therapies to promote a child’s speech and language abilities in functional and resonant ways. She emphasizes the importance not only of the therapist-child relationship but also of her relationship to parents and she is always happy to answer questions and allay concerns along the way!

HOURS: Available weekdays after 4pm and weekends.
LOCATION: Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights.
TYPE OF SERVICES: Individual therapy, group (2-3 children), parent consultations, speech-language evaluations
EXPERTISE: Speech, language, pragmatics, phonological awareness/pre-literacy skills, and literacy.
AGES: Birth through adult.
PAYMENT: Private Pay, Out-of-Network.
CONTACT: maura@brooklynletters.com

Nicole Loperena, M.S., CCC-SLP, Speech Language Pathologist

Nicole is a Brooklyn native and a New York state and American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) certified speech-language pathologist. Having worked in both general and special education schools in New York City she is also a certified Teacher of Students with Speech and Language Disabilities (TSSLD). Nicole earned her B.A. from the George Washington University in Washington, DC and her M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology at Hunter College, where she was granted awards for outstanding academic and clinical achievement. Nicole has worked with individuals with speech-language impairments from infancy up through adulthood. She has worked in a variety of settings including both general and special education schools, speech-language clinics, and hospitals throughout New York City. Her evaluations and therapy have focused on aiding children with autism and learning disabilities, language delay, literacy issues (including phonics, spelling, comprehension, and writing), articulation and phonological impairment, auditory processing, social and interactive skills, narrative skills, and swallowing and feeding disorders. Nicole is also trained and experienced with the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems including picture exchange communication and high-tech speech-generating devices. Nicole is committed to creating a fun and supportive learning environment to help children foster language, communication, and literacy development. She greatly enjoys working with children and is excited to guide families along as crucial players in the therapy process!

HOURS: Available weekdays after 3:30pm
LOCATION: Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Carroll Gardens, Cobble/Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights
TYPE OF SERVICES: Individual therapy, group (2-3 children), speech-language evaluations, parent consultation
EXPERTISE: Speech-language delays, autism spectrum disorders, literacy skills, augmentative communication
AGES: Toddlers through adults
PAYMENT: Private Pay, Out-of-Network
CONTACT: nicole@brooklynletters.com

The beginning of the school year is an ideal time to consider a neuropsychological evaluation for your child if he/she is struggling. Please contact her directly for further information. Dr. Whitman offers a free 30 min. consultation by phone or by e-mail: lindsay@brooklynletters.com & 347-560-1399

Dr. Lindsay Whitman conducts neuropsychological assessments with children and adolescents. A neuropsychological evaluation is most helpful to parents who suspect their child or teen may have a learning disability, developmental delay, attentional problem, or who is displaying behavioral or psychological difficulties (anxiety, depression) that may be interfering with their cognitive or academic functioning. This type of evaluation is best for parents who desire to truly understand why a child or teenager may be struggling to meet developmental, academic, or social milestones. A neuropsychological evaluation identifies which kinds of interventional or supportive services would best support a child or teen through these challenges.

Dr. Whitman has evaluated children and adults with a variety of developmental and learning risk factors including developmental delay, autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), traumatic brain injury, and psychiatric/mood difficulties. At New York University, she obtained specialized expertise in the cognitive assessment of individuals with seizures/epilepsy. Dr. Whitman has presented empirical research at national and international neuropsychology conferences and has published peer-reviewed articles on issues related to cognitive functioning in individuals with epilepsy and aspects of adolescent personality development. She is a certified coach for Cogmed, evidence-based, computerized, non-pharmacological intervention designed to strengthen attention and working memory skills in children, adolescents, and adults. This fun and engaging program was developed by Swedish neuroscientists, is easily completed in your home, and is an excellent alternative to medication for individuals struggling with attentional difficulties.

Dr. Whitman is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of New York. She completed a PhD in clinical psychology/neuropsychology at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science/The Chicago Medical School. She completed clinical internship at West Virginia University School of Medicine and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. She also holds a masters degree in early childhood risk and development from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. Dr. Whitman has met the education and training requirements of the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology to become board certified in clinical neuropsychology. She is currently in the process of obtaining board certification.

What would I learn about my child from a neuropsychological evaluation?

*General intellectual functioning (IQ)
*Academic achievement skills (word reading and phonetic decoding skills, mathematics, spelling, reading comprehension, writing skills; ability to apply academic knowledge or perform in a timely manner)
*Attention (auditory, visual, ability to sustain skills over time)
*Executive functioning (working memory, planning, problem solving, and organizational skills; ability to reason, inhibit responses when needed, and/or be behaviorally “flexible”)
*Learning and memory (verbal and visual)
*Language (expressive/receptive, naming, verbal fluency)
*Visuospatial/visuoconstructional skills
*Fine motor dexterity and coordination (handwriting, pencil grip, ability to complete written tasks in a timely and efficient manner)
*Psychological and Emotional Functioning (parent, teacher, self-report)
*Personality

Contact: lindsay@brooklynletters.com, 347-560-1399 www.lindsaywhitmanphd.com
PAYMENT: Private pay only. Dr. Whitman does not accept insurance but is happy to provide a receipt for out-of-network reimbursement. Cash or check accepted.
HOURS: Wednesday & Friday 9AM-5PM
LOCATION: One Grand Central Place, 60 E. 42nd Street New York, NY.
TYPE OF SERVICES: Neuropsychological evaluations for children and adolescents. Dr. Whitman is also able to conduct neuropsychological evaluations with adults.
EXPERTISE: Dr. Whitman is trained in the evaluation of children and adults with learning disabilities, developmental delay, intellectual disabilities, and all other clinical conditions associated with cognitive difficulties (e.g., AD/HD, autism spectrum disorder). She is trained to evaluate children and adolescents with medical conditions such as epilepsy/seizures, traumatic brain injury/concussion, and perinatal toxic exposure (e.g., alcohol, lead).