My son was in Year 4 when his teacher announced that she was concerned he 
was dyslexic. None of his teachers had flagged any problem before so this 
news came as a shock. He had never been  the most academic of children, but 
I had always assumed that he was just a typical "boy" - only interested in 
sport. 
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When I started looking at his work, and the teacher's reasons for "labelling" 
him, I found that the "diagnosis" did not fit with the child I knew. 
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I was considering taking the next step of having my son formally assessed 
by a child psychologist, (at considerable cost), but a friend showed me an 
advert for the Raviv Method. 
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Usha very kindly and patiently listened to my story and we agreed to meet 
for a more detailed discussion. She was great. Never judgemental. Very 
professional and uncritical of my son's teacher while managing to 
simultaneously gain my trust - which was quite an achievement. 
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What I liked most was that after a few weeks of working with my son, Usha 
wrote a detailed analysis of what she had found to be his weaknesses. Her 
analysis found that he had a  problem with his working memory, which she 
explained meant that he struggled when he was presented with new information, 
especially if it was not presented to him in a way that worked for him. She 
also helped by highlighting that his visual memory was very strong. 
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Suddenly everything made sense. I had written him off as not academic, but 
really even that had not made complete sense. There were times when he was 
sharp as a tack, and had a phenomenal memory for things that he found 
interesting. Things he learnt from "visual" rather than "aural" clues. 
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There were many aspects of my son's abilities which were affected by his 
working memory. But it was not until Usha explained how this affected his 
abilities that this made sense to me. And it affected many areas of his 
life beyond the academic - such as sport and even his ability to play chess! 
Perhaps these are not essential skills in a child's development but they 
were clues that helped Usha identify his difficulties. And they made sense. 
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I believe that parents have to be their child's best friend when it comes 
to advice from others. Children can easily be pigeon-holed by professionals 
but it is a parent's job to know his or her child better than anyone. Or 
should at least! Diagnoses and analyses in all areas of a child's well-being 
need to make sense. Usha did. 
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What is great about the Raviv Method is that I felt I was doing something 
constructive to HELP my son. 
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Since working with Usha, my son has improved in many areas of his ability 
to work - his focus and concentration, his interest and keenness to succeed, 
and his academic results. But best of all, I know how to help him learn in a 
way which is most effective for him. 
<br/><br/>
<b><i>Pinner Mum</i></b>