The Lear Educational Center is frequently asked the following questions

How do I know my child needs additional help to be successful?
Children do not get up in the morning wanting to be different than their friends or family.
Children should be excited about learning and be able to move at their school’s grade level pace.
When your child does not show emergent skills every day, and every week, and little or no progress is evident within a marking period, it is an indication that there is a problem.  The earlier you can determine what the problem is the faster you can get your child back on track.  A prescription of “let’s wait and see” will only further set back your child’s success, in most cases.
When your child’s progress is slow or not at all and you know they are unhappy and struggling, it is time to seek help from the professionals.  Consider seeing us for a consultation to help guide you through the process changing your child’s life.

What if my child needs other help that you can’t offer?
During your intake or consultation you will be asked to bring any testing you may have of your child.  You will also discuss your concerns and your goals with Ms. Lear or the center’s lead teacher, Mrs. Dougherty. If during this discussion it is determined that you should take your child for further diagnostics we will do all we can to help you get to the correct professionals.  We may immediately know where you should go and will give you a referral to see other learning specialists. 

You can always trust that we have the best interest of your child in mind.  Our goal is for all individuals to reach their full potential.  If we cannot help you we will make sure we direct you to the person or persons who can.

Do we need to come to you with testing or do you do the testing?
If your child has never been tested and you do not have any formal testing from the school or your child is not yet of school age we will be happy to perform the necessary testing or refer to another specialist.
Many of our students do come to us with testing from schools in the form of PSSAs or other standardized tests.  In some cases parents have had their children tested by other specialized professionals. The more examples of your child’s work and past assessments you have the better prepared we will be to determine what programs will best help your child be successful. 

Some parents come only with a hunch that their child has a problem.  We will work together to determine what problems may exist and then determine what we can offer to you meet your goals.

Do we have to pay for you to test for again if we have recent tests?
No.  In most cases the testing you come with will be enough.  We will test for baseline skills in the student’s first session but his is the first part of every program on the first day it is started. Base line skill testing is necessary to determine how much progress is being made and in how much time.

Do we have to pay for a full year up front?
No.  You will be asked to pay prior to or on the first day of the month for your scheduled sessions.  Please see our policies in the “About Us” Book on our home page.

Who are your teachers?
Are teachers are state certified and in most cases have their master degrees in an area of specialization.  Before beginning with the Lear Educational Center each teacher must spend a prescribed number of hours observing our techniques and how we interact with our students and parents.  Before a teacher may teach a program to a student they must first teach to both Ms. Lear and the center’s lead teacher, Mrs. Dougherty.  Only then may a new teacher work with one of our students. Our teachers are here because they love children and love teaching.  Wanting our students to be self-directed learners and proud of themselves is a primary goal of the teachers of the Lear Educational Center.

What types of schooling do you augment?
At Lear, our highly-trained teachers work with students from traditional schooling environments as well as those educated at home by their parents and/or online outlets, including PA Leadership Cyber School.

What has been your key to program success and your excellent reputation?

Ms. Lear, Mrs. Dougherty and the center teachers follow the Keys to successful programs by June W. Karassik.

We need to always demonstrate respect and sensitivity for our students and their parents.  Many of our students have tried other programs and have failed.  We need for these students to know they are in a safe place and will be successful this time.  The Lear Educational Center will not accept students unless we are confident we are the correct educational center for them to attend.

We feel we are honest at all times.  Honesty opens up dialog with teachers and parents when it is in a safe environment.  Honesty promotes openness from the student to the teacher.  This openness helps promote a healthy attitude and a good environment for learning.

We always keep our sense of humor about ourselves.  This is a powerful tool which will help to promote strong student teacher relationships.

We are flexible and creative in our instruction.  When a skill is not being mastered we must consider it is a glitch in our program or in our delivery.  It is our responsibility to determine why a student is having difficulty in learning a skill. 

We help to create an environment that reinforces a good self-image for the student.  This is accomplished by being a good role model and re-enforcing even the smallest try so that the student feels positive about their ability to learn.

Perseverance is key.  New program material needs to be practiced. It is like playing the piano or learning to ride a bike.  You need to practice.  Once students begin to master their skills they find one skill builds on another.

Teacher enthusiasm helps students be enthusiastic learners.

As teachers we need to know our programs well.  Having a firm knowledge base of all of our programs is the only way we can make decisions about what is best for our students.  Remember, we individualize all our programs to fit the student.  Not the other way around.