Psycho-educational Treatment Program Strategies

For the reader’s understanding, note that this guideline uses familiar terms, rather than psychological or clinical terms. Also note that all of the treatment strategies introduced here are implemented in individual sessions, except for those children who acquire social skills in small group settings.

Language Acquisition and Language Development Delay Treatment Strategies

In 1896, Dr. Witmer of the University of Pennsylvania first applied his psychological strategies to target delays in language acquisition which caused behavioral problems in children’s learning. If there are no identifiable physical issues in the vocal system, hearing, intellectual or neuropsychological systems, but only delays in language development, all possible psycho-developmental factors should be analyzed.  
 
In some cases, children may have confusion or difficulty distinguishing a particular sound from others or cannot remember the basic sounds for a long time. In other cases, they may have trouble making accurate pronunciations due to problems in the organs that are involved in oral language or have difficulty recognizing their own sounds as well as developmental disorders, such as autism, that prevent from acquiring basic language skills. 
 
For children whose language acquisition continues to be delayed, the major interfering factors must be identified through the Comprehensive Psycho-educational Evaluation and the children should start appropriate psycho-educational treatment with an initially developed set of psycho-educational strategies. If there is little or no progress with a certain initial strategy, other strategies should be developed and implemented to overcome those delays.

Receptive and Expressive Language Treatment Strategy

With the issues of receptive language ability, children may have difficulty recognizing accurate sounds. In some cases, they have trouble distinguishing between sounds and words or recognizing specific phonics. In other cases, they are unable to store newly learned words in their short-term memory due to neuropsychological issue or attention/concentration difficulties. Some of them refuse to learn altogether and remain in the state of helplessness due to prolonged exposure to ordinary learning/teaching methods that are not suitable for their needs.  
 
With the issues of expressive language ability, children may not show problems with visually recognizing objects and knowing their names accurately; however, they have difficulty verbally expressing what they recognize and know.  
 
If children experience any of these difficulties with receptive or expressive language, the core factor that triggers these problems must be identified first and they should be treated with an individualized psycho-educational strategies to assist them acquire the basic phonics, recognize the names of basic objects and verbally express these and train them to increase their attention/concentration capacity.  

Reading, Makes Sense! Treatment Strategies

Some children who have been raised in bilingual and multicultural environments experience delay in language development. In fact, simply reading a text out loud, comprehending the meaning of the text, and integrating the content with one’s existing knowledge are completely different from one another. For instance, bilingual students who process knowledge in Korean show a relatively lower level of accuracy, speed, and comprehension of texts written in English than those who process knowledge in English. Low comprehension skills lead to low academic achievement and ultimately a sense of shame about academics in general.  
 
The Reading, Make Sense! Program aims to help students develop language proficiency and enhance their ability to think in that language. As such, students can gain confidence, motivation, and interest in reading through improving the speed of reading as well as the ability to grasp the meaning and accumulate knowledge necessary for learning. 

Optimal Language Acquisition Program with Standardized Tests (SAT, SSAT, PSAT, TOEFL, GRE, GED)

The SAT, a standardized test widely used in English-speaking countries, was launched more than 120 years ago by an American psychologist at Princeton University, named Carl Campbell Brigham (1890-1943). He was the chairman of the College Board, which has overseen the test, and through SAT, he attempted to predict how much students could achieve academically and how well they could adjust to college environment. 
 
However, because the SAT has the basic assumption that the test taker is a native English speaker, there has been continuous criticism about its inappropriateness and unfairness toward students who are speakers of other languages. Despite such limitations, standardized tests, including the SAT, are still actively used as an objective measure to evaluate the students’ current academic status in the form of numerical scores. 
 
The treatment strategies ingrained in the Optimal Language Acquisition program are not developed to make students to study the English language as an academic subject; rather, these are made to foster the students’ ability to think at a deeper level and gain insights so they can broaden their scope of thought as well as to continually monitor their progress with objective measures.

‘SOUL’ Writing Strategy

Recently, concerns over regression in the writing skills of both English and Korean speaking students have been rising. These concerns are specifically about their inability to write with their own insights and philosophies while focusing too much on producing grammatically and technically flawless writing. The ‘SOUL’ Writing Strategy aims at training and cultivating students to become true writers who can deliver their perspectives, philosophies, and sentiments through writing to the extent that they can touch readers’ hearts.