Innovative Therapy for Learning Disorders

Schneider Children’s Medical Center has launched the only integrative treatment of its kind in Israel for youngsters with learning disabilities, difficulties and/or attention disorders. Learning disabilities and attention disorders impact upon the youngster in many spheres of life including school, ability to express competence, social interaction, self-assurance and self-confidence. All these in turn influence one another so that each can positively or negatively affect the youngster’s capability in general. Despite the direct link between learning disabilities, ability to interact socially and frame of mind, few therapies take all the characteristics of the child’s coping into account. Most current treatments focus only on one aspect of the child’s life, whether didactic, emotional or behavioral, while there is a real need for a holistic approach, focused and pragmatic, that embraces all these spheres and particularly the way each influences the other.

Against this background, Schneider Children’s has launched an integrative program that connects mood, quality of support and the relationship with significant figures, and the coping methods of the child with learning disabilities as foundations and causes that can improve the chances of success and the child’s functioning. The program is short over a period of 15 weeks and includes individual sessions with the child and his family, the school and medical support where needed. In this way, a supportive environment is created which together with the child, mobilizes everyone to deal with the learning difficulties. An additional three sessions are held for maintenance and follow-up after completion of treatment.

The program is conducted by the Learning and Attention Disorders Clinic in the Psychological Medicine Department in cooperation with the Learning and Attention Difficulties Unit at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center and the University of Columbia, and accompanied by research. Research findings indicate high satisfaction with the treatment, an improvement in various spheres of the child’s life and increased efficiency of the support.

The program is suitable for children and youth between the ages of 10-18 who have been diagnosed with difficulties or disabilities in learning and/or attention who experience difficulty in functioning in school, interacting with others and mood.

Treatment ias not included in the basket of services and is accompanied by a fee.