Every day, I meet parents who are literally at their wit's end just trying to cope and help their kids survive school. It can be extremely frustrating and lonely trying to find answers.

As a public school Learning Disabilities Specialist many years ago, I knew there had to be more that could be done for students who struggle in school. I was a very good, very dedicated teacher with a Master's degree in education, but some of my students still weren’t learning as easily as they should. I was SURE that there were answers that just weren’t being taught or explored by our schools.

The heartbreak for me was watching both kids and their families suffer. I’m talking about students who have average or often much higher than average intelligence spending hours on simple homework, then failing anyway. And despite their best efforts, they often get called lazy or unmotivated. Eventually, many of them just give up. The rest limp through the school system with their self-esteem slowly crushed and their potential wasted. It is devastating to the students, and can even tear families apart. So I left the schools in search of something better; some real answers to unlocking the intelligence and competence that lay hidden in these kids.

Frankie is a perfect example of a boy with tons of potential, whose learning challenges impacted his choices and most likely his future. Frankie was smart and charismatic, but he was also, at 12-years old, a tough kid, already entrenched in a street gang. As a special education teacher in the public school Frankie was coming to me because he couldn’t read. I really liked him and I promised him I would teach him to read. But I couldn’t. I didn’t know why such a smart boy couldn’t read and my very best efforts didn’t make a difference.

I didn’t know how to get to the root of the problem. In fact, I didn’t even know there was a “root” that I should be looking for.
Frankie didn’t believe he could learn, and I hate to think where that took him in his life. But somehow, I knew that couldn’t be right. When Frankie got passed along to 7th grade, I began to seek out the experts who were doing the research on the brain, learning, and attention.

In 1984, I opened Stowell Learning Center for children and adults, who, like Frankie, were smart, but struggling and not getting the kind of help that would make permanent changes.

In the past 30 years we have helped over 5,000 students and their families overcome the devastation of learning problems. Our students have gone from special education to graduation with honors, to college, and many even have masters and doctorate degrees.

Here is my promise to you: There are real and permanent solutions to learning problems and I want to do everything I can to help you first to understand, and second to get the help you are looking for.