Welcome
I'm a passionate educator and advocate for students with learning differences. I have close to 30 years of educational experience and enjoy researching and sharing the different ways that our brains process information. I have two children who take in the world in their own unique ways and they have deepened my understanding and compassion for learning differences. The goal of this website is to provide information and key resources about the different ways our brains learn. Please also check out the professional services I provide to guide your educational journey.
Consulting
Ed Psych Assessments can be difficult to interpret. Let me review them with you and recommend next steps to support your child's learning.
Preparing for your child's up coming IEP or 504 meeting can be stressful. We can work together to create goals that will maximize their learning.
If you don't have an IEP or 504 but want to know how to better support your child, I can listen to to your concerns and map out a plan to optimize their learning.
The Brain
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Parietal
Located in the middle of the brain. It helps us identify objects, understand space around us, feel pain, and the sense of touch. It is home to the somatic sensory cortex where the brain interprets senses from other areas of the body.
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Cerebellum
Located above the brain stem. It coordinates voluntary muscle movements, maintains posture, equilibrium, and balance. It is also responsible for emotions, thoughts, and social behavior. It is known as the electrical board of the brain.
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Frontal Lobe​​
Located in the front of the brain. It houses our executive functioning, many of our personality traits, and our expressive language.
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Occipital
Located at the back of the head. It is responsible for vision processing, color determination, distance and depth perception, face and object recognition, and memory forming.
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Temporal
Located on the sides of the brain, near your temples and ears. They are responsible for perception,
processing auditory information, speech formation, learning, understanding language, managing emotions, processing information from your senses, and storing and retrieving memory.
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Executive Functions
Executive Functioning is the management system of the brain. It is a set of cognitive processes that regulate and manage our activities such as planning, organizing, starting and staying on task, maintaining focus, controlling impulses, and being flexible with change. Executive functioning is like the commander of our brain. It guides and coordinates the information we take in so we can make choices and take action on our daily activities. Executive functions are comprised of three main areas: Working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. Working memory filters all the information around us. It decides what is important to act on and passes it on to inhibitory control. Inhibitory control keeps us on course, helping us ignore all unwanted distractions so we can complete the task at hand. Finally, cognitive flexibility helps us navigate around obstacles in our path and find new ways to reach our end goal. When one or more of these areas are weak we can develop strategies to strengthen them to help our brains run smoothly.
Blog
Resources
Resources
Testimonials
"Donia has been an invaluable part of our family for six years, advocating enthusiastically for our daughter. She guided us through the educational psychological reports and meticulously reviewed the school's IEP goals to ensure our daughter received the best possible instruction each year. By aligning her learning style with the right curriculum, Donia has helped our daughter surpass everyone's expectations as a learner. We are truly grateful for her support as an educational consultant." - Sherry, Current Client
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"Donia is a wonderful advocate and changed the trajectory of my son, Andrew's, educational journey. After the school sent me the preliminary IEP document, I sat down with Donia to strategize for the meeting ahead. Donia carefully reviewed Andrew's IEP and suggested individualized goals that targeted his educational growth. We discussed what we wanted as the outcome in the IEP meeting, and she found curriculum to work on his area of need. Donia then attended the IEP meeting and we were able to get Andrew everything we discussed. She is amazing. She is thoughtful, intuitive, and intelligent. She also has the special gift of reading kids and figuring out what they need in order to be successful in the classroom.
It is overwhelming as a parent to go through and IEP process. With Donia’s knowledge and experience, we were able to advocate for Andrew and get him exactly what he needed. Three years later, Andrew is thriving and would not be where he is today without Donia." - Farrah, Former Client
Consulting Fees
My hourly fee is $150. If you have concerns about your child's educational development, I can give you direction for next steps. If your child has been evaluated and has Ed Psych reports. We can review them together to understand their meaning and develop a plan to support their learning. I'm also able to help you prepare for 504 or IEP meetings.