Learning and Dyslexia Support for Children and Adolescents

Lerncoaching is about understanding how you learn and how you can improve. It is a “metacognitive” process (thinking about how you think, perceiving how you perceive). Through personalised guidance, I will help your child discover your/their strengths and challenges as a learner and work out how to approach the process best.

Dyslexia is a superpower — there’s no question about it (though in Austria, we’re a bit behind on this one). According to studies, more than 50% of self-made millionaires have dyslexia, as well as 75% of students in Art School. Famous dyslexic individuals include Richard Branson (the man behind the first commercial space flight), the core cast of Pirates of the Caribbean (Orlando Bloom, Kiera Knightly and Johnny Depp), Steven Spielberg, Steve Jobs, John Lennon, Will Smith, Richard Rogers, Charles Schwab — the list goes on and on.

Many books have been published in English which go into detail about the cognitive patterns of dyslexia, which underlie both difficulties in reading and writing as well as the outstanding talents that dyslexic individuals are gifted with. Unfortunately, only one of these books, the Gift of Dyslexia, is already 25 years old and is published in German.

I offer personalised training for people with dyslexia to improve their reading and writing to be happier and more relaxed at school. This is not about “curing” anything or changing anybody but targeting a specific challenge.

Executive functioning is the cognitive process that allows us to carry out complex tasks. It includes planning, prioritising, sequencing, attention, working memory, task initiation, emotional regulation, reflection, transitioning, time awareness, etc.

Executive functioning is known to develop well through a person’s life cycle and doesn’t mature for most people until the mid to late 20s. Major educational transitions — from Kindergarten to Volksschule, from Volksschule to Mittelschule/Gymnasium, from school to university, from university to real life— are crucial moments where executive functioning is tested

When the educational psychologist assessed me for the second time, aged 17, I was put in the bottom five percentile for executive functioning, and it has been a significant source of challenges for me, far more than reading or writing itself. This is an area where I have done the most work for myself. Everything I offer here has been tried and tested the hard way by yours truly

I am uniquely positioned to offer high-quality sensory-motor integration with a BA Hons in Choreography with Community Arts Practices and over nine years of experience as a Somatic Movement Educator. My work in this field is based on Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, an Occupational Therapist who pioneered Neurodevelopmental Movement Therapy.

Complimenting this, I have spent many years additionally studying complementary forms of movement analysis and integration, including Kestenberg Movement Profiling, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies, Sensory Awareness (based on Else Gindler), as well as bodywork modalities like Craniosacral Therapy. Finally, I have been practising Chinese Martial Arts (primarily Wing Chun and Taijiquan) and Qigong since childhood, which is an excellent complement to this work.

The way I work in this field is highly individualised. Unlike the typical “Motopädi” offered in Austria, which is very focused on interaction with objects which change the movement patterning, I start and end with highly personalised “Movement Profiling”, where I assess preferences and qualities in movement and look for patterns and opportunities to help someone expand their range.