Frequently Asked Questions

We work with clients of all ages. We don*t typically see children until they are 4 years old; our oldest client was 76 years old. The strategies we use are effective for all ages.

We work with a wide range of clients. Often, they are experiencing difficulty in comprehension, reading speed, reading accuracy, writing, and spelling. Some parents bring their children (preschool-1st graders) for initial reading instruction. Frequently, the older siblings of these children have come to Ounce of Prevention Reading Center. We work with a lot of clients who experience difficulty paying attention and focusing, following directions, and experience significant anxiety. Many high schoolers come to us to improve their ACT score and college students/adults attend to increase their reading speed and comprehension. We also work with clients who have sustained head injuries, typically as a result of automobile accidents and need academic and cognitive processing intervention.

Our reading intervention and IM sessions are 1 hour long. Reading clients typically attend once a week and IM students come 3 times per week.

Our clients come from all over Michigan and some even fly in from out of state. While some clients find our about us from the Yellow Pages or the internet, the majority are referred by parents, educators, counselors, and physicians who are familiar with the success experienced by their child/students/patients who have attended Ounce of Prevention Reading Center.

For reading intervention, we typically see students an average of 12 hours (once a week for 12 weeks). Some students, especially middle and high school students, move much faster and need less instruction time. Others, especially if they have issues such as poor attention, difficulty with memory, anxiety, slow processing, tendancy to guess words, or sequencing trouble, require more time. IM clients come 3 times per week for 5 weeks to complete the IM protocol. In about 20% of cases, clients require some pre sessions before getting into the protocol. These sessions are in addition to the 15 session protocol. Some of our head injury clients attend 3 times per week. Out of state clients typically attend 2 hours a day for 5 days.

Students are typically seen for one 2 hour session.

Because our intervention results in increased reading speed and comprehension, students find they are able to finsh most or all of the test as opposed to just filling in the bubbles as time is running out. They also understand more of what they*ve read which also increases the accuracy of their answers.

We have many clients who have been diagnosed as dyslexic or having learning disabilities. They typically make significant gains once they understand the logic of English, the patterns in the English language, and are better able to sequence information after using the EBLI strategies.

Our strategies are very effective for spelling because reading and spelling use the same process to manage the English code. If a student is not spelling accurately in their writing then they are not reading to their potential. We assess spelling in authentic writing (notes, rough drafts of papers, journals, etc) as opposed to spelling on spelling tests (where they have memorized the words but not used a strategy to spell them). Many students who get 100% on spelling tests consistently misspell those same words in authentic writing.

Many of our ADHD clients go through the Interactive Metronome (IM) program (www.interactivemetronome.com) before starting with academic interventions. After IM clients typically are better able to focus and attend, sequence information, have improved memory, and decreased anxiety.

We recommend that clients read 20 minutes a day to further practice and reinforce the strategies in the context of authentic text. We also stongly encourage clients to use the strategies whenever they read and write.