So, it’s official: the Association of Educational Therapists has accepted my application for certification as an Educational Therapist (ET).  So what does this mean?  Well, those of you who know my work know that I require every student to start with an evaluation, so that I can determine how best to teach them effectively and efficiently.  That evaluation is not a standardized test, but rather a set of problems designed to help me get insight into how all the brain networks – recognition, strategic, and affective – are interacting.  All students also get a written report to help their parents and teachers understand them and remove barriers for learning.  My work is based onUniversal Design for Learning (UDL), which is a framework developed by CAST, based on cognitive science and education research.  An educational therapist is (per the AET website) “a professional who combines educational and therapeutic approaches for evaluation, remediation, case management, and communication/advocacy on behalf of children, adolescents and adults with learning disabilities or learning problems.”  So, there was already a lot of overlap between what I was doing and educational therapy.

After reviewing my degree in Mind, Brain, and Education, the AET committee determined that I needed coursework in mounting reading interventions as well as administering and interpreting standardized tests.  I had already studied the neurological basis of reading disorders and had no intention of working in reading instruction, so I was a little disappointed, but I am so glad that they required the course.  It turns out, after over ten years of math and science teaching and designing math curricula and interventions, reading interventions are SO FUN.  Seriously.  You have a child who is struggling to learn such a basic skill, and you evaluate them from a strengths-based UDL perspective, target the skills, and then watch their struggle turn into mastery.  It is possibly my favorite thing ever.  In class, we learned that increasing fluency by one word per week was good progress, 1.5 words was excellent progress, and 2+ words per week was considered ambitious.  My internal response?  CHALLENGE…  ACCEPTED.  With my experience in UDL, we have managed to shift the bar to 1.5 as good, and 2+ words as excellent, but also typical for MathAffect students.  And it is so. much. fun.

So what does all of this mean for MathAffect?  A lot, it turns out.  We are changing our name to Affect Academics, with both a reading and a math branch.  You’ll see a new website coming as soon as I invent a way to have a 26 hour day.  I am hiring tutors for when tutoring is all that is needed (and training them in UDL), looking into contracting with other professionals (OTs, PTs, and DOs) for when a larger scale intervention is needed, and just all in all getting super excited about effecting change.

I can’t wait.