"Before PACE, I would just daydream off... If it was too much of an effort, I didn't want to do it," he said.

“It’s a lot better now . . . Sometimes now I daydream but only for not even a minute.”

PACE is a program offered throughout the United States - it was developed in Colorado Springs - but is relatively new to Canada.

Pearson is the only one offering it in Abbotsford, through the Accomplished Learning Centre on Ventura Avenue. She was so intent on the program, after researching its benefits, that she travelled to Colorado for training.

Now that she’s putting it into action with kids, she is even more sold on what it can do to assist a child’s learning.

“I’ve had parents say to me that within two or three sessions, they start to notice improvement in their kids’ attention,” she said.
Pearson said that PACE works by developing “thinking skills” such as auditory processing, planning, memory, visual processing, comprehension, and logic and reasoning.

In layman’s terms, this can assist a child who “may be able to see or hear information but cannot identify, interpret, comprehend, remember or stay on task,” says a PACE brochure

A series of exercises are practised three times a week in one-hour sessions with Pearson, as well as at home. Kids work through different levels.

Pearson said the goal is to get children to think faster, stay focused and improve their attention.

For example, one exercise involves the child following several lines of arrows positioned across a page. The child must verbalize which direction the arrow is pointing - left, right, up or down - to the one-second beat of a metronome.

Another exercise involves memorizing long lists of words. The kids are taught to do this by creating a visual story to go along with each word.

Christian was able to memorize all the Canadian prime ministers and U.S. presidents using a picture that tells a story incorporating all their names.

Pearson likens this kind of training to learning a skill such as golfing or swimming. These tasks require practise and lessons to improve upon.

She said PACE works the same way - it trains the brain and leads to an improvement in skills.

“They (kids) may have access to the information (at school), but if they’re not learning it as well or as quickly as they can, by getting their brain to work better, they’re going to do better,” Pearson said.

All PACE clients are evaluated before they start the program to see what learning deficiencies they might have.

They are re-evaluated at the end of the 12-week program.

In Christian’s case, he improved in all areas, with an average increase of 4.6 years.

One of his biggest improvements was in “logic and reasoning.” He jumped from a level of 7.5 years to 16.3 years. In “visual processing,” he went from 10.5 to 16 years.

Pearson said PACE is applicable for a range of children, including those who have been labelled with a learning disability.

She refers to a sentence in a book, called Why Our Children Can’t Read and What We Can Do About It (by Diane McGuinness), in supporting how effective a program like PACE is in training auditory-linguistic skills: “These skills are so trainable, at any age, that the terms ‘dyslexia’ or ‘learning disabilities’ cease to have any meaning.”

Pearson said more people need to know about PACE and what it can do to change their lives.

“There are lots of people we can help and lots of kids who have trouble in school who don’t need to have trouble in school,” Pearson said.

For more information about PACE, call 604?859?3276.

Article reprinted with permission from The Abbotsford News.

Ask Lisa@accomplished.ca

My son was tested at school and does not have a learning disability. What’s wrong that he struggles so much with schoolwork?

First of all, there is no legal or standard definition of “learning disability.” Do a search on the Internet and you will find statistics showing that from 1 to 25 percent of the population have learning disabilities. The discrepancy is caused by the variations in the definition.

Within most school districts the label is only given in the most serious cases. The label is used to identify those children who qualify for additional expenditures through special education. This can include the development of an I.E.P (Individual Education Plan) that allows the child to work at a slower pace, advancing through the school system without the acquisition of skills and knowledge others in his grade achieve.

Because the school has demonstrated that there is enough of a problem to justify the expense of testing your son, the likelihood is high that he has significant cognitive and/or processing difficulties though they may not be severe enough for a label and exemption from regular school curriculum. PACE would be the very best solution for him.

Understanding Learning Disabilities: How Difficult Can This Be?

For kids with learning disabilities, the classroom can be an intimidating place. In this workshop, Richard Lavoie shows why. He leads a group of parents, educators, psychologists, and children through a series of Video coverexercises that cause Frustration, Anxiety, and Tension…feelings all too familiar to children with learning disabilities. By drama­tizing the classroom experience so vividly, Lavoie lets us see the world through the eyes of a child. At the end of the workshop, participants discuss strategies for working more effectively with learning disabled children.

Accomplished Learning Centre is pleased to offer the opportunity for you to view this fabulous video and to meet other parents whose children are struggling with school. You are not alone!

Upcoming Workshops

Monday, May 30: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. or 7 - 9 p.m.

Wednesday, June 1: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. or 7 - 9 p.m.

Cost: No Charge

Reservation required: (604) 859-3276