Children who had to adjust to English-speaking environments are now experiencing secondary symptoms, such as depression, anxiety and behavioral problems. Our program aims to help these children with psycho-educational strategies based on psychological treatment methods.
Our Active Learning Center follows the steps of Dr. Witmer. Through scientifically valid psycho-educational evaluation of each student’s abilities, we aim to improve students’ academic abilities, and to decrease their psychological struggles.
It also aims to help parents lessen their own agony and suffering about their child, resulting in the development of a positive parent-child relationship.
Dr. Cho did not turn away from the children who lost all their hopes because they could not acquire the English language at their English-speaking schools. Instead, Dr. Cho started providing bilingual comprehensive psycho-educational assessments and treatments.
A seed,
waiting for the spring
embracing Colors of Lights
flowers aglow,
into a tree
it blossomed
season of LIFE
season of Truth
season of Liberation
We hear the sound of children
with unsung exuberance
and hidden happiness
Yong Cho, Ph.D.ㅣChief Psychologist, the Tree Group
“Freud Meets Buddha: Therapy adapts to immigrants’ need”
The New York Times, January 18, 2003
Lecture offers help for Korean kids overseas
– JoongAng Daily by Moon Published July 23, 2008
The DBT Center of Korea invited Dr. Marsha Linehan who is one of the most influential authorities in the field
In 2000, Dr Cho started the English/Korean bilingual services
for Korean immigrants and their children at the Zucker-Hillside Hospital/North
In 2003, Dr. Cho established the Tree Group to provide evidence-based treatment in both New York and Korea.
Lecture offers help for Korean kids overseas
– JoongAng Daily by Moon Published July 23, 2008
The DBT Center of Korea (under the umbrella of the Tree Group) invited Dr. Marsha Linehan and initiated the DBT
Dr. Cho explained the importance of the father’s role and mothers’ struggles in raising a child in a multicultural environment
The Tree Group established “Active Learning Center”, which involves psycho-educational programs for English/Korean speaking bilingual children and young adults.
In January 2013, the Tree Group team visited international schools in Shanghai, China to discuss the grave reality of the
Established “the Tree Group Co.” to expand its mission.
The Tree Group moved from Gangnam campus to Song campus and rebuilds its space to illustrate our philosophy.
The Active Learning psycho-educational program has two great differences that other educational institutions do not have.
This program runs on the basis of clinical treatment.
All participants are required to undergo the initial diagnostic interview and the Comprehensive Psycho-educational Evaluation to accurately measure their current states of cognitive/intellectual/academic/linguistic/emotional/behavioral/neuropsychological functioning.
The assessment data from these measures helps to identify the functionality of all developmental areas of a child, and makes an accurate diagnosis.
Communication disorders involve persistent problems related to language and speech, and its four main types include language disorder, speech sound disorder, child-onset fluency disorder, and social communication disorder.
Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents is marked by inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive behaviors. The symptoms usually start before age 12 and boys are approximately three to four times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls.
Learning disorders begin in early developmental stages before formal schooling and is a neurodevelopmental issue that would impair individual, social, educational, and occupational functioning.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder involving difficulties with verbal and non-verbal communications, social interactions, and repetitive behaviors.
Adjustment disorder is diagnosed in individuals who experience significant difficulties adjusting to major life changes. Its behavioral and emotional symptoms include feeling sad and hopeless, worrying excessively, difficulty carrying out daily activities, feeling overwhelmed, withdrawing from social support, etc.
Children or adolescents with depression, anxiety, trauma, and other family or peer related problems often display poor academic performance. If a child who showed average academic performance starts to display academic problems, this may be a sign of mild to severe emotional problems.
“The Tree Group was my favourite place, I felt happy that I made new friends.”
Do “87 x 6” in your head. Most people would probably get the multiplication of 7 and 6 and at the same time store the number “4” on one side to later add it with the multiplication of 8 and 6.
Children who have difficulty with visual processing face problems with visual discrimination, visual memory, or visual closure of letters and words.
If identical twins are found to be sufficiently more concordant than fraternal twins, then there is a significant contribution of genetic factors.
We often interchangeably use the two concepts: memory and learning. The two concepts are intimately intertwined, but they are of fundamental difference.
“The number module refers to our innate ability of processing numerical information. When there is a core deficit in the number module, individuals develop dyscalculic traits.”
Sensory memory refers to the temporary storage of information based on the stimuli we receive via our senses. In other words, they are what we remember after seeing or hearing something.
In 1896, Dr. Witmer from the University of Pennsylvania became the pioneer to apply psychological knowledge to clinical and educational settings.
He did not turn his blind eye to children’s delayed academic progress and language development and began providing treatment based on psychological research and knowledge.
This is the root of our Psycho-educational Program.
In 1896, Dr. Witmer from the University of Pennsylvania became the pioneer to apply psychological knowledge to clinical and educational settings.
He did not turn his blind eye to children’s delayed academic progress and language development and began providing treatment based on psychological research and knowledge.
This is the root of our Psycho-educational Program.
IPEP Individualized Psycho-Educational Plan is an essential document for a scientific and structured treatment program. It allows the clinicians to set clinical goals and treatment strategies according to the scientific procedures and to proceed with treatment systematically.
To best treat the children scientifically, we develop a unique system of developing clinical/psycho-educational treatment strategies of which strategies are presented together to improve their linguistic and learning related delays.
Scientific Scrutiny of Psychology & Psycho-educational Program
How psycho-educational program works?
There is no set-in-stone syllabus for our psycho-educational program.
Because every child’s problem is complex and diverse, the Tree Group’s clinical team is dedicated to conducting research for each individual child and build the individualized psycho-educational curriculum for the individual child.
It is a great gift for us to witness the small miracles that these children make.
Scientific Scrutiny of Psychology & Psycho-educational Program
How psycho-educational program works?
There is no set-in-stone syllabus for our psycho-educational program.
Because every child’s problem is complex and diverse, the Tree Group’s clinical team is dedicated to conducting research for each individual child and build the individualized psycho-educational curriculum for the individual child.
It is a great gift for us to witness the small miracles that these children make.
Phase 0 is the preliminary stage where an individualized psycho-educational program is prepared. After completing the Comprehensive Psycho-educational Evaluation, the clinician delivers the evaluation results and feedback to the parents and school professionals.
Upon completion of the registration in the Active Learning program, clinicians analyze the data from the Comprehensive Psycho-educational Evaluation results to set initial clinical and psycho-educational treatment goals and write detailed initial treatment plans.
After Phase 1, where initial treatment strategies are developed based on the IPEP and applied in treatment sessions until they become stabilized, clinicians continue with treatment according to the individualized treatment plan. Every clinical behavioral response which the child displays during sessions is recorded and shared with the entire clinical team.
Among the clinical/psycho-educational strategies that have shown treatment effects during Phase 2, strategies that are necessary for a child’s behavior modification or learning progress at home or school go through the generalization process in the following ways.
In Phase 4, the treatment team provides a quarterly feedback session to parents on the clinical and psycho-educational progress the child has shown over the past 3 to 4 months, or a quarter term – Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. This feedback session takes place during the regular clinical session, and the primary clinicians review the initial treatment goals and explain how their Treatment strategies to achieve these goals have reduced the child’s problematic behaviors and improved his language or learning development over the past term.
Phase 5 begins after about two years in the program have passed. It is a step where clinicians re-evaluate and analyze how much the child’s cognitive, intellectual, linguistic, emotional behavioral, or social problems revealed from the initial Comprehensive Psycho-educational Evaluation have reduced.
“The Tree Group was my favourite place, I felt happy that I made new friends.”
Yekyung Kim
“I’m going to present what I learned in class.”
A loud voice echoes inside the clinic. The voice comes from a bright child who can confidently present what he learned in front of teachers, parents and friends.
School of Life – Many students in our Active Learning Program go to international schools and complete International Baccalaureate (IB) during which they face various challenges.
Students in the School of Life-Active Learning Program have different academic goals; however, as children or adolescents, they often share similar interests.
“Students who experienced academic struggles due to unclear acquisition of alphabets when first learning English as their first or second language joined the psycho-educational programs at our School of Life – Active Learning Center.”
As a clinical institution, the Active Learning Center has accumulated sufficient data to serve a child with a specific problem with an appropriate treatment program.
The recommended period of time and number of hours to be taken in each program were set based on the analyses of participants’ treatment progress since 2003.
These treatment programs which were designed based on an Individualized Psycho-Educational Plan (IPEP) include:
1. A full-day BRIDGE program
2. After-school STREAM program
3. Summer/Winter Intensive Programs provided during school breaks.
The Bridge Program is designed for English-speaking students who are experiencing language transition issues or psychological difficulties as well as Korean-speaking students with extensive language acquisition delays followed by difficulty in following the standard school curriculum.
The Stream After-School Program is a treatment program for students attending either English-speaking or Korean-speaking schools who experience delays in language development followed by learning and emotional behavioral problems at school.
The Summer/Winter Intensive Program is a full-day program that takes place during summer and winter breaks. For primary school students, it runs from 10AM to 3 or 4PM and for secondary school students, from 10AM to 5PM.
Spring Term: 03.14 (Tue)
We are excited to start the Spring Term,
during which the individualized psycho-educational strategies
will help many children to overcome their
We invite parents and children who want to make small miracles through our 2023 Winter Intensive Program.
Introducing School of Life – Active Learning Winter Intensive Program!
School of Life – Active Learning Program has begun as of September 14th
School of Life – The Active Learning Program is in the Summer Term since the week of June 15.
“The Tree Group was my favourite place, I felt happy that I made new friends.”
Q: My child is suspected of having an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), referred to the Tree Group and asked to join the Active Learning Program. What will be the first learning experience the child will encounter?
There are exciting news and stories at the Tree Group everyday.
The stories of individuals with life changing moments through psychological treatments.
The stories of individuals who have learnt to regulate their emotion and behavior through Dialectical Behavior Therapy.
The stories of children with developmental disorders having opportunities to learn and acquire skills, giving hope to their parents and families.
The Lounge shares these stories.
“The confidence of knowing that I can do anything made me feel delighted.”
I had doubted the purpose of life when I had to tolerate the painful difficulties,
School of Life – The Active Learning Program is in the Summer Term since the
Spring Term: 03.14 (Tue)
We are excited to start the Spring Term,
during which the individualized psycho-educational strategies
will help many children to overcome their difficulties
and start learning with a great joy
