QUALITY, SERVICE AND ADDED VALUE

At Symbols, we are committed to providing the highest quality lessons and service possible. We achieve this through our:

Lesson Materials Library

All of our lessons are designed and delivered based on materials from our extensive lesson materials library, which includes various multisensory learning aids, games, phonograms, mnemonics and sight words. Our materials are continually carefully designed and developed to be both effective and fun, and their use by our tutors helps to ensure that the lessons we teach consistently meet our high quality standards.

Term Goal Setting

Term goals are set after the diagnostic and then reassessed at the beginning of each new term.  Goal setting takes place during a meeting between the student’s tutor and our Director of Education, who together discuss the student’s strengths and weaknesses and identify areas that need improvement.  These goals then help guide the tutor in designing each successive lesson to meet the student’s short term and long term needs.

Homework Packages

Each student is provided with their own Symbols homework book.  Homework is provided when appropriate, and is designed to promote the recall of taught concepts while being neither strenuous nor time consuming (never more than 5 minutes).

Detailed Progress Reports

Symbols operates on a three-term system, with terms completing at the end of December, April and August.  We provide detailed progress reports at the end of each term.  The reports are made available on the secure parent sign-in area of our website in PDF format.  Successive progress reports reference previous reports, so areas of improvement and those needing additional attention can be easily identified and understood by the parent.

Incorporation of Student Interests

Our tutors often tailor various aspects of their lessons, such as games and mnemonics, to a student’s particular interests.  Different sports, hobbies and activities may be incorporated into our lessons.  This helps to keep students engaged and learning.

Parent Involvement

Parent involvement is important to a student's success. Tutors are available at the end of each lesson to explain what was learned in the lesson, and when possible, how it can be reinforced at home.  Parents can also always remain informed through signing into the parent sign-in area of our website, where they can read brief summaries of each lesson and access the diagnostic and term reports.  We are also happy to discuss student progress with parents over the phone, through email or in person (meetings can be scheduled with our Director of Education at no additional cost).

Teacher Involvement

We’re happy to communicate with any of our students’ school teachers so that we can incorporate their feedback into our lessons.  To keep parents informed, we post any tutor-teacher communication to the parent sign-in area of the website.  Some parents may even want to share their user ID and password to the parent sign-in area with their child’s teacher so that the teacher can sign in and directly access the lesson summaries and reports.

Focus on Student Self Esteem

We know that many children labeled as learning disabled are also of above average intelligence, or even gifted in other academic areas, fine arts or sports.  We believe that the title of a popular book on the topic, written by Ronald D. Davis, says it all:  “The Gift of Dyslexia:  Why Some of the Smartest People Can’t Read…and How They Can Learn”.  Regardless, many children with dyslexia or other learning differences suffer from low self-esteem as a result.  We address this through: