Developing academic skills are not just necessary for meeting educational standards in the classroom. For many individuals, such as those with developmental disabilities, the academic curriculum needs to extend beyond the school setting into the community to allow individuals to develop independent (and interdependent) living skills. Dr. Rizzo has experience and expertise in this area of teaching community-based academic skills whether it is to teach a student how to complete a task such as laundry, cooking, or grocery shopping by breaking it down into do-able parts or learning skills to be able to get and keep a job.
All individuals develop these skills at different rates and many students have “holes” or deficits in different areas. Dr. Rizzo believes that teaching functional academic and life skills in an authentic environment, not in isolation from the real-life settings, gives individuals the opportunity to learn and practice whatever functional academic or independent living skills the individual needs to develop. Each individual’s program is customized with goals and objectives for his or her specific needs. The structured learning program is created based on the student’s interests, strengths and weaknesses, and always involves a social skills component because no one learns skills in a bubble. Individuals need the opportunity to practice skills in their real world. Contact Dr. Rizzo to set up an individualized “Academic-infused life skills” program for your child.
Advanced Brain Technologies is a neuro-technological company that offers safe, effective, non-invasive products and tools to improve brain development. TLP is a music listening therapy that trains the brain to process sounds more efficiently. This leads to improvements in many areas including: learning, reading, language, listening, social engagement, attention, behavior, and auditory processing. Dr. Sandy Rizzo is a certified provider of the Listening Program and ABT Bone Conduction System. She is available to develop a customized, psycho-acoustically modified music listening program for any family member.
Scientific Learning’s Fast ForWord™ products are technology-based intervention programs specifically designed for children with language-based learning deficiencies who need to improve their auditory skills, phoneme discrimination, rate of auditory processing, reading ability, vocabulary skills and following directions. The Fast ForWord™ programs are solidly based in neuroscience research to train the brain to process information more efficiently.
It uses acoustically modified speech sounds which progress toward more natural language. The Fast ForWord™ program continually adapts to the child’s skill level to continually challenge the child. This intensive program can be set up as a Home Program with weekly monitoring by Dr. Rizzo.
