Learning Differences

Learning Differences

The right educational environment can transform struggle to growth for your different learner

Empowering a wide range of school and college learners

Some of our students experience significant obstacles to learning and come to us searching for a better educational environment that meets their particular needs.

Others come to us not fully understanding the root of their struggles and we empower them with deeper self-knowledge of their challenges and alternative educational choices. Whether your child has a formally diagnosed learning disorder that requires specialized schooling, a moderate learning challenge that can be supported by the right mainstream educational environment, or is a gifted student who requires an educational setting that both values intellectual gifts and supports skill development, our counselors’ goal is to create a path forward that transforms those learning struggles into self-confidence and empowerment.

Getting you to the right school

Because so many schools offer a range of learning support programs, finding the school that can meet the needs of your child’s particular challenges can be a daunting and confusing task.

Our learning needs experts help you sort through the types and levels of academic support schools offer, closely guide you through the search and application process, and work closely with school and admission officials on your child’s behalf. Finding that better school alternative that addresses your child’s current needs and starts building for a more confident future is our counselors’ expertise and reward.

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Guidance through the college process and beyond

Our college planning students who have had some level of learning challenges come to us with a wide variety of college needs and goals.

All benefit from our college counselors’ dual expertise in college counseling and learning differences. For most, their particular learning challenges require additional help or expertise on the part of the counselor for organizing, researching, and completing all of the college search and application tasks. Others with particular learning profiles, including but not limited to Autism Spectrum Disorder, Language Based Learning and Specific Learning Disorders, benefit from working with one of our counselors with expertise both in students’ particular needs and the colleges that best serve them.

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Our Learning Differences Expertise

Attentional and Executive Deficits

These students experience a wide range of academic, social, and daily life skills challenges that affect their performance and self confidence. We help identify the type and level of support needed and the best school or college to address your child’s needs.

Language Based Learning Disabilities

Regardless of the age of your child or the type and level of language-based challenge they are confronting, our counselors use their formal training and experience working with students with LBLD to skillfully guide your next educational step.

Specific Learning Disabilities

For these students, school can be a painful and demoralizing experience. Our counselors know how to help students address their immediate needs and prepare to meet the demands of the full continuum of learning ahead by guiding them to the school or college where they can thrive.

Neurodivergent Profiles

Our students with complex neurocognitive profiles or Autism Spectrum Disorder have a wide range of skills and challenges that require a deep knowledge of an equally wide range of schools and colleges to meet their diverse needs. All of them benefit from our expert counselors’ close and caring guidance through the school or college search and application process.

Twice Exceptional Students

Students who have high intellectual abilities paired with particular cognitive vulnerabilities are often misunderstood and suffer a distinctive type of struggle in school. Our experts help these students find schools and colleges where they can be intellectually engaged while also getting the support they need to help them succeed.

Related Emotional & Behavioral Challenges

Students with learning and developmental challenges often struggle with related emotional distress and behavioral dysregulation that results from a lack of the skills necessary to meet their environmental demands. Our counselors bring their caring and expertise to helping families find the right environments to address their academic, emotional and behavioral needs and restore their overall well-being.

Our Learning Differences Experts

Don and Sarah McMillan have assembled a team of educators-admissions experts whose collective experience is unparalleled in the field of educational counseling.

Sarah McMillan, Ed.D.

CEO/Developmental Psychologist

Carolyn Nelson, M.Ed.

Chair, School Planning Practice

Rachel Leja, M.S.

Educational Counselor

Samantha McMillan New, OTR/L MOT

Educational Counselor

Kelly McAdams, MSW, LICSW

Educational Counselor

Chris Hawk, MSW, LCSW

Educational Counselor

Edith Adams, MSW, LICSW

Educational Counselor

Jamie Paul

Educational Counselor

Wise Insights & Success Stories

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Your Child’s Future Begins Here. Establishing the value of learning and curiosity is the first step to helping your child succeed, both in education and in life.