The heart of Reading Success Plus is our tutoring program that aims to help people of all ages, especially those with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, who are struggling in school or on the job because of difficulties with reading, writing, and math. We are proud of those programs. We also are proud of our tutors, whose skill, experience, and dedication are the foundation of our students’ success.
So that’s the “Reading Success.” The “Plus” is what we offer beyond tutoring. It means determining the best way to meet a student’s need, and to offer the services, experience, and dedication needed to help the student and their family achieve their goals.
“We have parents reach out to us and say, “How do I get some help for my kids? What do I need to do?’” says Lawrence Kloth, co-founder of Reading Success Plus. “It’s a very lonely journey when you don’t know what’s going on. We want to guide you on the right path to get the results you want.”
Reading Success Plus understands that it’s the students and their families who are doing the work. We want to give them the guidance and information they need so the students can reach their full potential.
Here are some of the elements that, when combined, make up the “Plus” in Reading Success Plus.
Coaching
While tutoring helps students build their skills, coaching goes beyond that by changing mindsets. Students and their families can learn about how the students’ minds work, why traditional teaching methods don’t work, and how these students best learn. These insights will change the way parents, students, and adult clients think about dyslexia, learning, and even life.
RSP’s coaching program also helps families navigate their way through special education programs. We can help them prepare for 504 and IEP meetings, as well as attend the meetings as the advocate for the student. We will explain the accommodations that are appropriate for the student, and how to make sure the school provides them.
By taking advantage of coaching, parents will better understand the child’s learning style, the child will gain self-awareness and self-confidence, and everyone can pull in the same direction to overcome the learning disability.
Social media
Tutoring and coaching are provided to clients of Reading Success Plus for a fee, but we also offer resources that are available to everyone at no charge. Many of those resources can be found on our social media sites. RSP has a presence on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. There, you can find quick tips for dealing with dyslexia, ADHD, dyscalculia, and other learning disorders.
The Reading Success Plus YouTube page includes almost 30 short videos. These easy-to-digest clips, mostly about 3 minutes long, cover a variety of topics, from workplace accommodations to building a struggling student’s self-esteem. The Information is a blend of research-supported facts and the personal insights of Lawrence, who overcame dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia and difficulty with math.
“That is available to everyone. You don’t have to have a student in our program,” Lawrence says. “We just want to be a resource to anybody who can use this information.”
Webinars start soon
Reading Success Plus plans to start a series of monthly webinars in August. The Zoom sessions, which will be about 30 minutes, will cover questions most asked by people who want to learn more about learning disabilities. Why is my child struggling? Why can’t I read? How can my child read more fluently? What are some strategies for dealing with ADHD? Do ADHD and dyslexia coexist?
The webinars will be free and available to all, not just RSP clients.
“We want people to be informed, and we want to help people,” Lawrence says. “If they don’t choose to use our services and they just want to watch our webinars, that’s great. The webinars are just another way to get the information out.”
More information sources
The first edition of our new monthly email newsletter went out this spring. It has links to research articles and offers ideas to make life with a learning disability a little bit easier. Go here to subscribe.
For a bit more depth, check out our monthly blog, which can be found on our website. There, we go deeper into such topics as where to start if you suspect your child has a learning disability, the importance of outside activities, and how to brace for the return to school after vacation. It also provides more details about Reading Success Plus programs such as coaching and math tutoring.
The RSP website also has information that is useful to families who are starting to gather information about learning disabilities. The checklists of the warning signs for dyslexia and ADHD have been especially helpful for families trying to figure out why their child struggles. Additionally, the website has entries that explain our programs, philosophy and history.
The biggest ‘Plus’: We’ve been there
That history explains perhaps the biggest ”plus” in Reading Success Plus – experience. Lawrence, who has dyslexia and ADHD, has lived through the struggles our students face – frustration, hating school, wondering why he was so “different.” His mother, Anne, the other RSP cofounder, faced the same challenges as other parents trying to help their struggling students: a maze of confusing jargon, conflicting claims, and dead-end programs.
Eventually, they found something that worked for Lawrence, who went on to graduate from Hope College. They started Reading Success Plus to help other families dealing with learning disabilities, to share what they have learned, and to offer programs they knew were effective.
“We want to make everybody comfortable because we know this is a very sensitive topic,” Lawrence says. “This is tough for people to see. They know their child is different, they don’t know why they’re learning that way, and they don’t know how that happened. It’s a helpless feeling.”
Parents of struggling children or adults who face the same difficulties are welcome to have a conversation with Lawrence or Anne, not just about our programs, but for general guidance.
“We want to be your guide,” Lawrence says. “We’re here to help that child or individual to become the most successful person they can be.”
Reading Success Plus has offices in Grand Rapids and Troy. It offers one-on-one tutoring online or in person in reading, math and writing, as well as personal and family coaching. You can get more information at readingsuccessplus.com. To contact us, call 833-229-1112 or go online to https://readingsuccessplus.com/#contact.