Sendan Learning Services
Sendan Learning Services provides multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment of learning disorders, as well as academic support and family support.
Learning challenges in children can be due to a single factor or a combination of factors, including:
- Language Processing (example: dyslexia)
- Executive Functioning (example: time-management or homework planning skills)
- Social Language Skills
- Cognitive Skills
- Anxiety
- ADHD
Research shows childhood learning disorders are ideally diagnosed and treated in a multidisciplinary manner
Learning services we provide:
• Executive Functioning Coaching
• Language and Learning Assessment*
• Language and Learning Therapy
PLEASE NOTE: Speech and learning assessments at Sendan Center do not test for ADHD. If you are seeking an evaluation for ADHD, please visit our Psychiatry and Psychotherapy page here.
Jennifer Gruenert, MS, CCC-SLP is the director of learning services at Sendan and is a masters level speech and language pathologist. To learn more about Jennifer, click here.
Executive Functioning Coaching FAQs
Where to Start:
If you would like to schedule a learning assessment or are seeking treatment services, complete and submit the Learning Services New Patient Forms.
Once we receive your intake packet, our learning services director, Jennifer Gruenert, will review the information you submitted. Our learning services admin will call you to schedule an initial phone consultation with Jennifer Gruenert once she has availability. Phone consults typically last around 30 minutes, and Jennifer will answer any questions about our services, offer resources, and start to establish a plan for you to begin services with us.
Learning Services FAQs:
What kind of learning services do you provide?
Jennifer Gruenert provides diagnostic assessment services and individualized, 1:1 treatment services.
What do learning assessments involve?
Assessments typically consist of 2-4 hours of testing, a parent feedback session, and a detailed report that includes analysis, documentation of any formal diagnoses (or At-Risk areas), and 3-4 pages of individualized recommendations. The report is typically available 1-2 months following the date of the final testing session. Skill areas assessed depend on each individual child’s presenting concerns, but can include any of these areas: speech production, vocabulary knowledge and use, sentence-level language processing skills, comprehension and use of figurative/nonliteral language, discourse-level language processing skills, written language skills (including reading, reading comprehension, spelling, and written expression), aspects of memory and processing that relate to spoken and written language processing, aspects of executive functioning that relate to language processing, and social/pragmatic skills that relate to communication.
What do learning & language therapy treatment services look like?
Treatment services are conducted 1:1, usually on a weekly basis. Weekly sessions are either 30 minutes or 60 minutes in length, depending on the child’s age and what session length best supports their learning. A treatment plan with individualized goals is developed for each child, and session data is taken to determine and maintain an effective learning level for treatment tasks and to support the child’s progress towards their goals. A minimum of 6 months is typically needed for a child to make changes in their skills that will be maintained and begin to generalize to other environments.
Parents may sit in on sessions to observe and to allow for consultation and collaboration as needed. Resources and suggested strategies and accommodations for challenges at school and at home are provided as part of ongoing parent consultation. Home practice activities can be provided, but an effort is made to ensure that these are manageable and a positive experience/fit for each family. Sessions can sometimes address schoolwork when it is relevant to the child’s communication goals, but completion of school assignments is not the purpose of language therapy sessions.
Do you bill insurance?
Sendan Learning Services are private pay only. We do not bill insurances or Medicaid/HCA. You will receive a rate sheet prior to treatment, and will be billed monthly for services received. Payment is due upon receipt of the bill.
How much do services cost?
ASSESSMENT:
Full language and learning assessments (comparable to psychoeducational testing) are available, as well as consultative assessments and screenings. The assessment is tailored to the specific needs of the client and family, and will be collaboratively decided on by Jennifer Gruenert and the family. Assessment and testing are billed at $160 per hour, report writing is billed at $140 per hour.
A typical learning assessment consists of a 30-minute phone consultation, around 4 hours total of testing, and 3.5-4.5 hours of report writing. Please be aware that these numbers will vary depending on the level of complexity in each case.
| Service | Rate |
Estimated Hours per Service |
| Initial Phone Consultation | $70 per hour | 0.5 hours |
| Testing | $160 per hour | 4 hours |
| Report Writing | $140 per hour | 3.5 to 4.5 hours |
| Note: total hours per service will vary for each assessment | ||
ONGOING TREATMENT:
| Service | Rate |
| Learning & Language Disorder Therapy Services | $140 per hour |
| Executive Functioning Coaching | $80 per hour |
Executive Functioning (EF) Coaching FAQs:
What is Executive Function?
Executive function refers to frontal lobe, “whole brain” organizational and management skills, including:
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- Working memory
- Response inhibition
- Task initiation
- Sustained attention
- Goal-directed persistence
- Organization
- Planning/prioritizing
- Emotional control
- Flexibility
- Metacognition
- Time management
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Who benefits from executive functioning coaching?
Children and teens who struggle to meet the day-to-day demands of home and school. These children may show poor awareness or inconsistent skills with time, situational awareness (difficulty reading the room), organization, planning, problem-solving, and other skills required to notice and manage everyday tasks and challenges. Most are also self-directed learners who demonstrate unique points of view, talents, passion, and creativity, but can tend to be very “out of step” with the expectations of their teachers and parents.
Our executive functioning coaches work with children ages 9 and up, as well as with teenagers and young adults.
What does the onboarding process for EF coaching look like?
The Sendan EF Coach initially meets for two diagnostic interview sessions with the student and their parents/guardians to learn about their child’s strengths, challenges, and mixed skills across a set of EF sub-skills. Parents are also required to view a recorded introduction to Executive Functioning presented by the Learning Services Director, Jennifer Gruenert. Based on the interview sessions and intake paperwork, the Sendan Learning Services Director meets with the EF Coach to develop an Individualized EF Coaching Plan targeting the specific sub-skills that the student needs to strengthen. The EF Coach then meets with the student, typically on a weekly basis for hour-long sessions. Sometimes sessions are scheduled to occur more or less frequently, for example, twice weekly to get new habits established or monthly/quarterly on a maintenance schedule. Sessions can be conducted in the family’s home, in-person at Sendan Center, or over the computer as a tele-coaching session.
What does an EF coaching session look like?
EF Coaching sessions tend to be highly individualized based on the particular student’s needs and readiness to take on learning challenges. The underlying goal of EF coaching is to develop the student’s executive skills, which are the skills used by each individual to accomplish the goals they perceive to be priorities. EF coaching helps students to bridge from external control (provided by parents and teachers at younger ages) to internal control (self-managing to set and achieve goals). This means that coaching rarely starts off with addressing the student’s biggest challenges. Many students we work with need to start with skills like practicing co-regulation (and then self-regulation) in the face of challenges and frustration, finding and using their intrinsic motivation, and practicing new EF strategies and approaches in the context of motivating, familiar, enjoyable tasks, like crafts, games, drawing, and other hands-on projects. As they develop the readiness to apply strategies to work that is truly challenging, the focus of sessions will also shift.
Most of our EF sessions take place in person at Sendan Center’s clinic in Bellingham (4201 Meridian St Ste 113, Bellingham, WA 98226), but we are also able to provide sessions over telehealth and, in some cases, we can provide sessions in the client’s home. Sessions are generally one-on-one with the client and their EF coach.
How do we get started?
Complete and submit the Learning Services New Patient Forms. Our learning services admin will call you to schedule the initial two assessment sessions.