By Melissa Holman-Kursky, M.A, M.Ed., A/ET

 Under the best of circumstances, school is still hard. It’s a job and a social life at the same time, with a very strong learning curve, and daily feedback about how you’re doing. For children who struggle with any aspect of their school lives, motivation can be one of the earliest things to be affected, and yet it’s so crucial to both academics and life.

But what can parents do if they perceive school is harder than it should be for their child? There are a wonderful range of professionals who can support children and families, one of which is an educational therapist. Educational therapy is a field that includes quite a variety of psychoeducational services and types of expertise. The practice of educational therapy involves, as Dorothy Ungerleider so elegantly describes in her video Educational Therapy: What It Is and How It Works, the “interplay of emotion, cognition, human development, and learning.” On a team of specialists working to support a child and their family, the educational therapist serves as the big-picture thinker, the one who helps all the different moving pieces function as part of a whole. 

Motivation, Growth Mindset, and Self-Advocacy

One of the roles of the educational therapist is to help kids regain the natural motivation to do well that all humans have, whether or not they are able to fulfill it. Motivation is closely linked to several other areas in which educational therapists work, all of which depend on each other and are difficult to treat in isolation. It’s connected to self-esteem, as well as to what we currently call growth vs. fixed mindset; in order for a student to believe that change is possible for them, they must believe that change is objectively possible. 

According to Adventures in Neurodiversity: Think and Teach Like An Educational Therapist, if you have a more traditional view of learning and intelligence, this is much harder: in the past, intelligence was seen as based on the type of brain a person had. It was viewed as unchangeable, and it was thought to directly predict school and life success. But in our more modern, research-based times where we understand neurodiversity better, we know that intelligence is more “plastic” and can grow and change in some ways throughout the lifespan. 

 In order to feel motivation, people have to first feel hope that change is even possible.

This means that educational therapists can actively work with clients to improve things like executive functioning, self-regulation, time management, and meta-cognition (understanding yourself as a learner), all of which have a huge effect on both school and home life. 

 We also work on harnessing that knowledge for the power of self-advocacy, so clients can go out in the world knowing what they need to succeed and how to appropriately advocate for themselves. This is so important, because schools, workplaces, and even other clinical settings may not always know or be immediately able to offer the correct accommodations. 

Support for Parents, Guardians, and Teachers 

Another major category (but by no means the last) that educational therapists work on is communication with and support for adults. This can mean the day-to-day communication we have with teachers and other allied professionals about our shared students, trading information about the week and our observations that may inform classroom or therapeutic life. This can also mean providing support for parents and guardians. Sometimes this means teaching them strategies for getting ready for school in the morning, or improving their child’s homework organization, and sometimes it’s just being a thoughtful listener. 

The educational therapist is a resource for parents and guardians to begin to understand their own place in their child’s learning and begin to process what their child’s diagnosis or learning style may be.

While it’s not the same as psychotherapy, it can be productive and deeply meaningful for families to go through that process with an expert who can both help guide them, and help them keep the long view at the forefront. 

Educational Therapy vs. Tutoring

While educational therapy and tutoring definitely have some things in common, they’re actually pretty different once you look more deeply. One main difference between the two is that tutors focus on what a child or adult is learning, and educational therapists focus on how they learn. Confusingly, this doesn’t mean that a tutor doesn’t work on strategies for learning, and it also doesn’t mean that educational therapists don’t work on any curriculum! In fact, educational therapists and tutors often collaborate – along with other professionals like occupational therapists, developmental psychologists, psychiatrists, vision therapists, pediatricians, physical therapists, and social workers – to help a child. 

More than anything, tutors’ real expertise lies in specific academic content, such as particular areas of mathematics or writing, or even higher level topics like test taking. They may have an undergraduate degree in the area they tutor, or may have an advanced degree in education or a similar area. The activities they would be most likely to offer would differ as well. For instance, a tutor working with a struggling elementary reader might use sight word flashcards, guided reading techniques, or worksheets to practice specific literacy skills.

Educational therapy is more holistic and looks at the whole child. Educational therapists’ expertise is in the unique learning needs of each child. We have graduate degrees or certifications, and have training in the psychological factors and effects of learning differences. We provide highly individualized interventions, assessments and/or interpretation of reports, and communicate with parents, teachers, and other therapists or helping professionals who work with your child. While we can help with academic content, we are really helping your child understand, improve, and advocate for themselves as a learner. Educational therapy can be a truly empowering experience! 

If your child is struggling in school or at home, or if you could use someone to talk to, please reach out directly via the contact page or hello@cognitionsf.com. I offer free discovery calls to see if we might be a good match for working together. If I’m not the right one for you, I have a full network of wonderful professionals and am happy to provide referrals.