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Frequently Asked Questions

(Have a different question?  Contact Us.) 

• How does Langsford differ from tutoring services offered in the community?
• Do you work one-on-one with your clients? 
• Do you work with people who have diagnosed learning disabilities?
• What are the qualifications of your staff?
• What ages do you work with? 
• How do we know how long it will take to complete the work recommended? 
• How much am I investing to complete your program? 
• Do we have to sign a contract?
• Do you guarantee your services? 
• How is progress monitored?
• Do the gains ever go away over time?
• Do graduates ever return?
• Can I come and visit?

Langsford is a locally based, privately owned business and does not operate through a franchise model like nationally advertised tutoring centers.

Traditional tutoring centers offer clients help with homework and grade level material in specific subjects. Langsford’s services are different than this type of content tutoring because we focus on addressing any underdeveloped learning processes that support independent reading, spelling, comprehension, and math.  

 

For example, if a student is having challenges with 4th grade spelling or reading, we don't start work at that point. Our focus is on finding any underlying learning processes that may not be in place or may not be as efficient as we would expect them to be for the student’s age and grade. We are the only learning center in the area that offers a comprehensive educational assessment focused specifically in these underlying learning processes. Examples of such underlying processes are phonological awareness and concept imagery.

Our success in improving learning processes is the result of several factors, including:

 

1. Frequency: We have a deliberate approach which consistently offers our clients the best possible results.  National research and our experience indicate that several components are essential for the remediation of a learning process.  When daily instruction, high frequency of presentation, and prescriptive changes toward a target goal are part of the Plan of Action, the best outcomes occur. 

The purpose of remediation is to bring the skills to a level of automaticity. The more often a learning process is utilized, the more quickly it will become an automatic action. Therefore, whenever possible, we recommend scheduling the most hours in the shortest period of time.  In addition to acheiving the best possible outcomes, the more hours per week your child attends sessions, the fewer weeks it takes to complete their Plan Of Action, and it also minimizes the total number of trips to our center.

 

2. Teaching model: We instruct using the "question for discovery" method. That is, we help students discover the answer by asking them questions to guide their thinking. Therefore, their answers are never wrong. We simply ask them questions to help them think differently about the information. We see this build self-esteem and self-confidence. 

 

3. Explicit and systematic instruction:  The National Reading Panel's (www.nationalreadingpanel.gov) report of 2001, concluded, among other things, that "explicit and systematic instruction" was most effective is developing the cognitive processes necessary for developing a successful reader.  Our approaches follow this finding.

Yes, and Langsford takes this one step further with our unique Team-To-One™ approach. As we implement a customized plan of action, many staff members work with a client and everyone has input. By design, this cooperative effort draws on the perspectives and abilities of our entire team of experts and creates highly effective, customized, individualized learning. Our Team-to-One™ model is second to none in the country. 

Yes. We work with individuals who have dyslexia, auditory processing disorder (APD), and other processing difficulties.  We also work with individuals who have developmental disabilities and developmental delays.

The backgrounds of our staff vary; we may have certified teachers as well as mastered degree teachers on staff. However, we do not require a teaching certification. Each individual is required to have a college degree and to pass our rigorous academic screening by scoring in the high average to superior range in tests of reading comprehension and spelling. Staff are trained intensively in a few, specific areas in which they can build expertise and are mentored and overseen over the course of their tenure. 

We work with clients from kindergarten through adult. 

After we have evaluated a client, we schedule a team meeting to discuss the results and determine a plan of action. During this meeting, people who have extensive experience training in the learning processes get together and make estimates as to the length of time it will take to close any learning gaps. These estimates are based upon their experience with past clients, along with the specific learning profile of the student. The work does not go on and on; we identify a start date and an end date. Recommendations tend to be between 35 hours and 120 hours.

 

Since we write a plan of action for each student, we do know where a student should be at a given period time. Thus, if we have worked with a student for 15 hours and are doing the work planned for the 10-hour mark, we know we’re behind. Alternatively, if we’re at the 15-hour mark and doing the work that we planned to do at the 20-hour mark, we’re ahead of schedule. This information is always communicated to the family. 

Of course the answer is, it depends.  We work with clients who have a broad range of underdeveloped processing skills.  The best way to answer this is to call us and give us more detail of your/your child's learning issues.  Center Locator page.  

Langsford does not require a signed contract for services and no one is required to commit to any number of instructional hours.  Our process is to collect service fees by Thursday of the week preceeding servcies. We do require families to sign a Client Agreement acknowledging their agreement to important information like safety, scheduling, and payment options, etc.

We make every effort to develop permenant learning skills needed, and we have been very successful.  There are, however, many factors involved in making these skills permanent, including the client's willingness, family support, and practicing, etc.  We cannot guarantee our services.

What we do gaurantee is honesty at every step along the way. 

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Once a student begins sessions, the treatment plan is updated every three to four instructional hours by a learning coordinator who oversees the student’s progress. Staff members meet bi-monthly to discuss specific students in-depth and there is daily communication among staff to ensure that situations are quickly resolved. Learning coordinators are also in constant contact with parents, updating them formally every 20 hours or so and interacting regularly with them as they bring the client to the center.

Our work is focused on developing underlying learning processes and our goal is to change the brain so these processes become automatic. We very rarely see a student backslide because we have retrained the brain; however, sometimes clients may stall at the point they finished work if they do not continue to practice skills.

Many students we see at Langsford Learning Acceleration Centers are able to achieve their goals and move forward in their learning without further help. 

However, some students do benefit from a return phase of work. For example, it’s developmentally appropriate to teach first graders how to work through words up to 3 simple syllables. However, beyond third grade, they will be expected to do more complex multi-syllable work and we can help bring them to this developmental level. 

Another reason clients may return to Langsford is to complete work in a different area of the learning process. For example, we may have students come to Langsford to learn how to read and spell, and then see the same clients several years later to help improve their comprehension. 

Yes!  We welcome anyone wanting to stop by and learn more about us.  If you have the opportunity to see one of your sessions, you'll understand how We Are Different than a typical tutor.  To ensure there's an available resource, please call and let us know when you'd like to stop by;  Center Locations page.