Consultation/Recommendations
Dr. Rooney meets with parents who have had educational testing to provide guidance as well as recommendations to help translate test scores to practical action. Recommendations include strategies and interventions that can be put in place by schools, parents and the individual who was evaluated. The recommendations range from appropriate instructional methodology, accommodations and behavioral interventions to strategies that can be implemented by parents, tutors, relatives or the individual to result in progress.
Learning Strategy Instruction
Knowing how to learn is an important part of the learning process. Independent Strategies for Efficient Study empowers the individual in the learning process by teaching clear, simple, explicit strategies that will improve performance. Dr. Rooney's program was published by Corwin Press and is now available in a digital format.
The program includes strategies for following directions, reading (fiction and non-fiction), spelling, writing, math, advance organizers, charting, English grammar, notetaking during class, foreign language, vocabulary development, proofing and test-taking. All the strategies produce review systems to support retention over time.
Each strategy is designed to make the student do the same type of processing successful students do. Focus, memory, attention, processing, comprehension and task completion are supported through the use of the strategies. Though all students can use the program to improve their performance, clinical research was done to show that this particular package of strategies could result in significant improvement in actual classroom performance for students with attention problems and learning disabilities.
The number of sessions and the selection of strategies vary according to the needs of the individual.
Executive Function/Organizational Training
Traditional tools (like calendars or agendas) may not provide sufficient structure or support for some students. This instruction teaches executive function and/or organizational strategies based on the concepts of advance organization, authentic visual support and external organization. The individual is involved in the planning to create systems that make sense to the person who needs to use the strategies and develops "ownership" needed to support the use of the strategies. The program is very individualized but can include the following: Self-monitoring Agendas, Visual Calendars, Authentic Visual Supports, External Organization Systems, Notebooks with Windows, Self-Monitoring of Attention.