Where Kids Learn To Read, Spell, Comprehend, and Communicate
Adults And Adult Groups Welcome
Pre-K - Adult

258 Sixth Avenue, Corner of Garfield Place
718.768.3526

Why Some Children Have Difficulty Learning to Read
The specific reasons are as varied as there are children. All of us have strengths and weaknesses. Some children have difficulty paying attention, while others may have difficulty associating a sound with a symbol; that is, the awareness of or ability to remember what sound a letter makes.

In other cases, there may be an underlying language issue. Deficits in auditory processing, phonological processing or even a subtle receptive language disorder can also interfere with the ability to learn to read, write and spell.

And eventually, difficulties with reading, writing and spelling affect your child’s ability to learn and to achieve academic success.

How We Can Help
We have been helping children in the Park Slope and surrounding area since 1984, with virtually every type of language and/or literacy problem. In 2006, we increased our focus on literacy, and renamed ourselves Park Slope Communication Center, to more accurately represent our services, as providing assistance along the entire spectrum of spoken and written communication.

Indeed, both the spoken and written word are essential aspects of communication. We're here to meet your needs.

What Makes Us Different?
What makes us different from other learning/literacy centers? In a nutshell, our training, our methods, your child.

• Our Training — All of our services are provided by certified and highly experienced Reading and/or Language Specialists. We are are trained to understand the entire communication continuum, from the smallest sound, through beginning reading, through effective spoken and written communication. We are trained to understand underlying language issues (if they exist) and how they may affect your child's reading and spelling skills, so truly appropriate help, at the right level, is provided.
• Your Child — Your child is an individual with his or her own interests, strengths, and temperament. When children fall behind, it may be for many different reasons, ranging from being smart, creative (and bored), to having a temperament that doesn't match up well with a particular classroom setting, to having an underlying language problem. At Park Slope Communication Center, we fully recognize this, and relate to your child as a unique individual. In addition to helping your child to read and spell, we help your child build confidence.
• Our Methods — Your child's sessions are guided not only by your child's needs, but by your child's interests, strengths, and temperament as well. We've developed a patented methodology which allows us to create a completely personalized learning program specifically based on those needs, interests, strengths and temperament. We want to know what your child wants to know because that's what inspires your child to want to learn. We provide individualized, highly interactive, playful instruction, using our patented computer-based learning methods, as well as other tools, and use your child's own interests as the springboard for improvement. In addition to reading, your child will also enjoy an increase in areas of interest, and expand his or her general knowledge -- an underpinning of reading comprehension.

Your child's sessions take place in small and supportive environment. Our techniques conform completely to the findings of the Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read, (we strongly suggest you read this study). So, by focusing on your child's own natural interests and building on his or her strengths, we have the formula for success. And that success spurs your child on, to read more and to learn more.

It's a simple concept, really: use research-proven techniques; let your child's own interests guide the learning process; utilize highly trained specialists -- who truly understand your child's specific needs.

We will work with your child to help him or her catch up, keep pace or become a more advanced reader. Whether you're a 4 year old, or for that matter, a 40 year old, we can help make reading easier and more enjoyable.

How To Get Started
We offer a number of ways to get started. If there's a concern about your child's reading (i.e. you'd like to help your child catch up or keep pace), we'll schedule a one to two hour session, which includes an interview and diagnostic assessment. Our assessment comprises several standardized and well validated reading and spelling assessment tools.

If your child's already keeping pace, and you'd like to boost this by providing extra enrichment — or you'd like to give your Pre-K or Kindergarten child an enjoyable jump start — we will schedule a half hour meeting to further discuss your child's interests, needs, and our approach.

Also, we can schedule an informal visit to chat about our methods, and your needs.

Why We Use Language as Well as Reading Specialists
The trained Speech and Language Professional, as mentioned above, is trained in the entire continuum of language and language development. They have the ability to understand and correct potential language issues that may well go unrecognized by other professionals. For a simplified example (which in all likelihood would be recognized by other professionals), a child who pronounces "r" sounds as "w" sounds may also spell and/or read words with the letter "w" being substituted for "r." In this case, the problem would not be confined to reading or spelling; and to correct this issue, help recognizing the spoken aspect of language as well as the written aspect would be appropriate. There are more subtle and complex issues, however, that may well not be recognized by other professionals, resulting in the appropriate assistance not being provided at all, or only after a substantial delay, lack of progress, or additional diagnostic assessments.

About Our Software
We have been involved in the development of an online literacy program, KidsVoyager^® Online. When your child plays a video game, he or she presses buttons on a controller which may cause a character to walk, run, jump, fly, etc. in a fantasy world. After the button moves have been mastered, your child -- even at 4 or 5 -- is adept in moving the character at will through this world, in pursuit of a treasure, or points, or something else.

With KidsVoyager Online, pressing buttons allows your child instead to easily move through the real world of the Kids' Internet (safely, of course). With KidsVoyager, after the button moves have been mastered, your child -- again, even at 4 or 5 -- will have also mastered all the fundamentals of reading and spelling. And from there, he or she can safely explore any topic of interest, further increasing all literacy skills, as well as general knowledge.

We also use other tools as well -- books, pencil and paper, toys, wicky sticks, other software, and more; all under the guidance of our Language Specialists, who will be as directive and interactive as is necessary, or apply a semi-independent approach, all dictated by your child's needs and temperament.

We are competitively priced and highly affordable compared to other centers. Our fees are variable, depending on what kind of schedule and payment plan you choose. So if you'd like to set up an appointment, or just ask us some questions and get more information, please call us at 718.768.3526.