Rocky Point Academy
Discover our transformative Learning Programs
At Rocky Point Academy, we hold the belief that everyone has the potential to achieve success, regardless of past challenges. Our programs are designed with personalized goals, tools, and outcomes, to meet diverse needs. We provide comprehensive support in reading, writing, math, as well as specialized programs for young learners.
Educational Therapy
Our programs are more akin to educational therapy than traditional tutoring. They are not tied to a specific grade level or curriculum. Instead, we focus on the foundational processes that influence progress in reading, writing, math, and executive skills. By leveraging the natural strengths of an individual's thinking and learning style, this program addresses the root causes of learning disabilities in an enjoyable way.
Participants leave with tools for lifelong learning and a deeper understanding of their own learning processes. This leads to increased confidence, enhanced abilities, and greater control over their learning journey.
Each of our facilitators undergoes extensive training and demonstrates exceptional dedication, care, understanding, and patience with their clients. A client remains with the same facilitator throughout their entire program, ensuring continuity and a deep understanding of each client's unique strengths, needs and goals.
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Addressing the root cause rather than just the symptoms.
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Tools and strategies for lifelong learning.
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Drug-free approach.
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Remarkable success rate (refer to results).
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Complimentary assessments.
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Personalized one-on-one programs.
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Supportive training for parents, teachers, and/or tutors.
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Free follow-ups are included in all programs.
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Dedicated, highly-trained, and experienced staff
Program Flow
Rocky Point Academy's programs are detailed and comprehensive. Each step is thoughtfully engineered to cultivate:
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Insight into one's personal learning process,
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Tools and skills customized to their learning style,
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The ability and confidence to apply these to future learning.
This approach leads to a positive, enlightening, and transformative experience. Every learning program follows these steps:
Complementary Pre-Screening & Consultation
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Online Video Seminar
Get acquainted with our programs through this introductory session. -
Online Intake Forms
These forms provide us with valuable information about you, allowing us to customize a program that aligns with your unique needs and objectives. -
Consultation
An opportunity to discuss, refine and clarify, with a specialist, the focus areas of your personalized program to achieve your desired goals. -
Registration
Reserve your date and receive your confirmation packet, which contains a letter of absence, program logistics, and a link for your child's teacher to share insights on classroom observations
Common Characteristics
Most individuals with a learning disability or ADHD will display over 10 of the following traits and behaviors. These characteristics can fluctuate from day-to-day or even minute to minute, with the only consistent aspect being their inconsistency. (Feel free to 'check off' and print them at your convenience.)
Alternate Diagnosis
Regardless of the diagnosis (or no diagnosis), Rocky Point Academy can evaluate whether our programs are beneficial for you or your child. We offer these informal assessments at no cost.
To streamline our website, we use the terms dyslexia and ADHD to describe the cognitive processes we focus on. In Canada and the United States, dyslexia is often identified as a Specific Learning Disability in areas such as reading, writing, and math. Our clients present with a variety of diagnoses. At Rocky Point Academy, we are committed to creating a supportive environment that acknowledges and addresses these complexities, empowering participants to achieve their full potential. We regularly offer tools and strategies for the following:
ADD
Struggles with maintaining attention or focus.
Anxiety Disorder
Excessive fear/worry about every day experiences
ADHD
Attention struggles with energy, focus, and impulsivity
Learning Disability
Unexplained struggles with learning.
Asperger's Syndrome
Autism with a high level of functionality.
Low Executive Functioning
Struggles with planning, organizing, time management, remembering details, and following directions.
Auditory Processing Disorder
Struggles with receptive language.
Developmental Reading Disorder
Struggles with processing language symbols.
Non-Verbal Learning Disability
Struggles with responding to social cues.
Dyscalculia
Struggles with math.
Phonological Disorder
Inability to use some of the speech sounds.
Dysgraphia
Struggles with writing.
Scoptic Sensitivity Syndrome
Also called visual dyslexia.
Dyslexia
Struggles with reading or spelling.
Sequencing Disorder
Struggles with sequencing.
Dyspraxia
Struggles with coordination.
Speech or language impairment
Struggles with expressive language.
Gifted
Particular strength in one or more areas.
Tourette's Syndrome
Involuntary movement, sound, and/or language.
Hyperactivity
Struggles with controlling energy levels.
Visual Processing Disorder
Another name for dyslexia.
The Gift Within
At the root of dyslexia, ADHD, and many other learning challenges lies a unique gift: the ability to think and perceive multi-dimensionally, in order to eliminate confusion. These individuals are often highly intelligent, curious, intuitive, and imaginative, displaying remarkable talents in areas such as the arts, design, engineering, storytelling, piloting vehicles, technology, strategic planning, inventing, or spatial awareness. However, when they enter the school environment, they may struggle and often become mislabeled as lazy, daydreamers, slow, or undisciplined. At Rocky Point Academy, our methods guide them to recognize and manage the mental processes that lead to distortions in vision, hearing, movement/balance, and time, effectively removing barriers to their learning.
A reflection on our world’s history shows that a significant proportion of those who have made impactful contributions to society shared this dyslexic thought process. Their profound influence spans across fields such as science, medicine, art, entertainment, music, literature, politics, invention, business, and more. They possess the vision to dream big, think outside the box, and devise creative solutions.
They have thrived because of their dyslexia, not despite it.
Understanding the Struggle
Humans have two modes of thinking: nonverbally and verbally. While most people use both, individuals usually lean more towards one mode over the other.
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Nonverbal Thinking
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Involves envisioning concepts or ideas as images/feelings/sensations
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Associative and non-linear in nature
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Resembles 3-dimensional, multi-sensory movies
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Excels in activities involving imagination, understanding how things work, creativity, athletics, and the arts
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This is the primary thinking style for individuals with dyslexia.
Verbal Thinking
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Involves mentally processing the sounds of words
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Linear and time-bound
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Aligns with the structure of language
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Highly effective for tasks such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking
To understand how the nonverbal thinking process can contribute to learning challenges, explore the slideshow below. It illustrates the steps an individual experiences when facing unfamiliar words, symbols, and concepts.
The individual comes across a confusing stimulus, which could be a written or spoken word, symbol, or object.
The lack of certainty causes confusion.
Compulsive solutions are developed to address the mistakes. Such a solution is a habitual way of knowing or doing something that has been successful at least once. This typically starts to emerge around the age of 8 or 9. At this point, confusion will trigger the compulsive solution to avoid disorientation. These compulsive solutions create rigidity in thought and inability to adjust to new learning.
The individual comes across a confusing stimulus, which could be a written or spoken word, symbol, or object.
The Power of Clay
For individuals with dyslexia, creativity is a vital component of the learning process. Achieving mastery requires creativity.
As dyslexics, we only learn those things which we, ourselves, create. If we create something in the form of memorization, that is what we have- something memorized. If we create something through understanding, then understanding is what we achieve. However, if we create something to the level of mastery, it becomes an integral part of us and our intellect. When something is mastered, it becomes embedded in our thinking process.
When we memorize or understand something, we have created it mentally. In other words, we generate mental images or sounds associated with it. To master something, it must not only be created mentally but also brought into the real world. While understanding exists internally, mastery requires external creation and practice.
Take riding a bicycle, for example. No matter how well we understand the concept, understanding alone won’t prevent us from tipping over initially. Mastering the skill of riding a bike requires actual riding. We must create and practice it in the real world to achieve mastery.
The question then is, how do we master a word? We can’t physically ride a word like a bike, but we can create it in the real world.
When we sculpt a word’s concept in clay, we are bringing that concept into reality.
By modeling the concept of the word in clay, and adding its appearance and sound, we create a tangible representation of that word. That word is then mastered.
Program Results
Rocky Point Academy began as an in-home tutoring service in Bremerton, Washington, in 1998. In 2000, it incorporated and relocated to Calgary, Alberta, transforming into a learning center that has consistently achieved a 97% success rate. The core programs applied, known as Davis Dyslexia Correction Programs®, were founded in 1985 and are available in over 30 languages across more than 40 countries, making it the most widely adopted dyslexia correction program worldwide.
The following data has been compiled from over 360 consecutive reading programs provided at Rocky Point Academy. Reading levels were assessed at the start and conclusion of the basic five-day program, with an average improvement of 3.96 grade levels.
Reading levels were evaluated using the Ekwall-Shanker Reading Inventory, which assesses word recognition and comprehension during both silent and aloud reading.
Our experience is that clients continue to progress as they apply the tools provided during the program. Since we focus on correction rather than providing coping mechanisms, these tools enable a lifetime of successful learning.
