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Dr. David Sortino, Ed.M., Ph.D., Director

Dr. David Sortino holds a master’s degree in human development from Harvard University, and a doctorate in clinical psychology. He has spent the last 40 years as a teacher, director (residential and day treatment to SED/LH children and adolescents), resource specialist (K-12 public and private school), as well as graduate child development instructor at several universities. In addition, he has served as a consultant to state and county correctional programs and works directly with individuals and families.

In his private practice, he consults and collaborates with students, parents, teachers, and psychologists to provide support for students Pre-K through college in establishing school success and greater achievement motivation. He is a trained specialist in Neurofeedback as well as in the Fast ForWord Reading Intervention Program. 

Dr. Sortino’s recently published book The Promised Cookie about his teaching experiences with ADHD children is available is available on Amazon.com.

His column “Awakening Every Child’s Genius” is available through several North Bay newspapers, and he writes a blog for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat entitled “Your Child’s Learning Brain.” 

The following are recently posted blog articles:

• Children with Attachment Disorders: Healing the Paper Cut

• A Viable Alternative to Medication For ADHD Children?

•  Learning Potential, Student Fatigue and/or Lack of Sleep

•  The Underachieving Child

•  Kids and Competitive Sports: Too Much Pressure?

• ADHD Children: When 50% Is Really 100%!

•  BPA and Childhood Developmental Disorders

You can reach his blog by clicking here. 

Fast ForWord

For Struggling Readers

Dr. Sortino can also help your child through the Fast ForWord Reading Intervention Program, created by Scientific Learning Corporation, which addresses reading struggles by preparing student brains for reading and learning success. The software develops the processing assistance that is required of any student to read, listen, think, and participate successfully in the classroom.

The Fast ForWord LANGUAGE Series products build foundational elementary school reading and language skills to help students learn successfully in the general classroom. Fast ForWord can help children meet the challenging state academic standards and improve state test scores. Fast ForWord also provides extra academic support and learning opportunities in reading and language for struggling students, including at-risk students, ELL students, and special education students.

Helps Middle and High School Readers

Close the Achievement Gap!

The Fast ForWord LITERACY Series helps struggling preteen and teenage readers build their confidence – and improve state assessment scores. The series features age-appropriate exercises, characters and artwork designed to appeal to secondary school students and adults. It builds foundational middle and high school reading and language skills to help districts move struggling students – including at-risk students, ELL students, and special education students – to become successful learners in the general classroom. 

Reading Assistant

Using speech recognition technology, Scientific Learning’s Reading Assistant software provides one-on-one guided oral reading support, acting as a patient, non-judgmental listener to struggling readers. Monitoring for signs of difficulty, the program intervenes with assistance when the child is challenged by a word. Extensive reporting features enable educators to monitor their students’ progress with Scientific Learning products. Educators whose students are using Reading Assistant software may also play back recordings of student’s individual readings at a later time.

Meet Matthew...

dismissed from Special Ed

His parents were worried. Their young son was diagnosed with ADHD, struggled to read, and hated school But after one year on Fast ForWord, he made four years’ worth of growth. His whole life changed. “It’s so cool. My teachers stopped talking so fast and I?can hear them.”

Fast ForWord is a radically different intervention software. Developed in a university lab specifically for children with learning issues, Fast ForWord addresses the core cause of your students’ learning difficulties by targeting foundational phonics, language, memory, attention, processing and sequencing skills. It is one of the most powerful and unique reading interventions ever created. 

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