Elementary Academic & Learning Support
Individualized, relationship-centered support in reading, writing, math, and learning skills for elementary-age students
Children learn best when they feel understood, supported, and capable. Our Elementary Academic & Learning Support services are designed to build academic skills while strengthening confidence, engagement, and a positive relationship with learning.
Support is individualized around each child’s strengths, interests, learning profile, and current needs. Sessions are flexible, encouraging, and responsive rather than one-size-fits-all.
Weekend appointments and limited availability one weekday evening are offered.
Who May Benefit
These services may be helpful for children who:
-
Benefit from additional support in reading, writing, or math
-
Need a different pace, explanation, or approach
-
Learn best with individualized practice and repetition
-
Have ideas they want to express but find writing difficult
-
Need support with foundational math concepts
-
Find it hard to get started, stay engaged, organize ideas, or complete schoolwork
-
Feel discouraged, overwhelmed, or less confident during academic tasks
-
Learn well through movement, visuals, hands-on activities, games, or interest-based learning
Children do not need a diagnosis to participate.
Areas of Support
Reading
Reading support may include:
-
Phonological and phonemic awareness
-
Letter-sound relationships
-
Decoding and word recognition
-
Spelling patterns
-
Reading fluency
-
Vocabulary and comprehension
-
Reading confidence and engagement
Instruction may draw from the Orton-Gillingham approach, which uses explicit, structured, sequential, and multisensory teaching to support reading and spelling development.
Written Expression
Writing support may include:
-
Generating and organizing ideas
-
Sentence and paragraph development
-
Spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation
-
Adding detail and clarity
-
Revising and editing
-
Building writing confidence and stamina
Children may use visual organizers, oral rehearsal, modeling, sentence supports, and other tools that help them communicate their ideas more comfortably and clearly.
Math
Math support may include:
-
Number sense and number relationships
-
Place value
-
Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
-
Math facts and flexible strategies
-
Word problems
-
Mathematical reasoning
-
Understanding and explaining problem-solving approaches
-
Building confidence with math
Hands-on materials, visuals, movement, games, and real-world examples may be used to make concepts more meaningful and accessible.
Learning and Executive Functioning Skills
Executive functioning support is woven into academic sessions when helpful. This may include:
-
Getting started
-
Breaking work into manageable steps
-
Following multistep directions
-
Organizing materials and ideas
-
Staying engaged
-
Remembering what to do next
-
Checking work
-
Asking for support
-
Developing manageable learning routines
These skills are practiced within meaningful academic activities so children can discover strategies that work well for them.
Our Approach
We use a strengths-based, neurodiversity-affirming approach that considers the whole learner. Support is shaped by each child’s academic skills, communication style, interests, attention, confidence, sensory needs, emotional experience, and need for connection and autonomy.
We prioritize:
-
A trusting relationship
-
Emotional safety
-
Respect for each child’s learning style
-
Individualized pacing
-
Meaningful skill development
-
Child engagement and curiosity
-
Confidence and self-understanding
-
Collaboration with caregivers
Getting Started
Initial Review and Planning:
$675
Services begin with an information-gathering and planning process focused on your child’s strengths, educational experiences, current needs, and family priorities.
With caregiver permission, this may include reviewing evaluations, school records, work samples, and information shared by your child’s teacher or school team. This information is used to prepare an individualized starting plan.
Initial Eight-Session Support Block:
$2,025
The initial block includes eight individualized sessions, ongoing planning, brief caregiver communication, and a caregiver check-in.
These first sessions provide time to build a comfortable working relationship, understand how your child learns best, and identify supportive approaches and emerging goals.
At the end of the block, the caregiver check-in provides an opportunity to share observations, discuss priorities, offer ideas for home, and plan the next phase of support.
Continuing Support
After the initial block, families may continue with another eight-session block. As goals and support needs become more established, families will typically transition to 12-session support blocks.
Each block includes individualized sessions, ongoing preparation and planning, brief caregiver communication, and a caregiver check-in.
Additional Information
-
Sessions are generally reserved at a consistent weekly time.
-
Weekend appointments and limited availability one weekday evening are offered.
-
In-clinic sessions are offered in San Carlos.
-
Limited home-based support may be available depending on location and scheduling.
-
Services are private pay.
Meet Karen Shin
Karen Shin brings more than 20 years of experience supporting children in educational and behavioral settings. She is currently a teacher at Synapse School, has completed her Institute for Social and Emotional Learning certification, is certified in the Orton-Gillingham approach, and is completing her educational therapy degree.
Karen provides individualized support in reading, written expression, math, executive functioning skills for learning, and academic confidence. Her approach combines evidence-informed instruction with warm, thoughtful, and relationship-centered support.
She works closely with caregivers to create learning experiences that help children feel understood, capable, and increasingly confident in their own ways of learning.
