The Empowered Learning Program
The Empowered Learning™ Program is an exclusive combination of “outside-the-box” educational and medical technology that works on the brain’s processing abilities, directly affecting underdeveloped cognitive, visual, and sensory-motor functions and literally changing the brain physically as it eliminates barriers to learning.
The Empowered Learning™ Program operates several levels below the content typically taught in schools or by tutors and measures the cognitive, visual processing, and sensory-motor integration functions of anyone experiencing learning and/or behavioral difficulties. Once deficiencies in any of the screened areas are identified, the program is tailored to remediate the deficiencies, which enables the student to then easily assimilate any content taught in school.
Who Can Benefit
Parents
Empowered Learning Centers provide the means for parents to finally understand why their child is not learning as expected. Whether identifying focus, attention, or behavioral issues, working with an ADHD diagnosis, or assessing why a good student is struggling with their workload, Empowered Learning’s proprietary testing/assessment battery pinpoints areas of improvement and tailors the program to correct those areas without resorting to medications.
Homeschoolers
Empowered Learning Centers provide homeschoolers with an advantage no school can – the ability to assess and correct the underlying causes of a student’s inability to efficiently learn the content taught in schools. Our tailored programs, based on learning style and skill level, are an educational enhancement to a child’s homeschooling instruction, serving as a perfect accompaniment to their personalized education in a safe learning environment.
Professionals
Empowered Learning Centers work with professionals and other peak-performance seekers to improve their quality of life and reach performance levels never imagined. Unavailable in even the most elite universities, the ELTC tailored programs help adults manage workloads more efficiently, increase focus and attention, and eliminate comprehension difficulties.
Educators
Empowered Learning Centers accompany classroom teaching to transform students struggling with learning, focus, attention, and behavioral issues. Our tailored learning programs complement the traditional classroom setting to improve a student’s ability to learn the content taught. Correcting learning deficiencies can improve a student’s classroom experience and ensure teachers are connecting curriculum with their students.
Athletes
Athletes often face unique challenges in reaching their full athletic potential because of undeveloped sensory-motor and visual processing abilities. Empowered Learning Transformation Center helps athletes strengthen these core abilities and improve performance. This is accomplished by determining skill levels in balance, coordination, depth, and focusing, then tailoring the program to those underdeveloped areas to create peak levels of performance in any sport.
“I can read, study and have better processing and motor skills than I could imagine. I graduated from Baruch College of the City University of New York and am already in an MBA program. I have started a job as a financial auditor at a top 6 accounting firm. Life, thankfully, is great”
Our Team
Peter Riddle
Visionary Educational Entrepreneur and Co-Founder
Peter has over 37 years of experience in the education field. A certified Structure of Intelligence (SOI) specialist and Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner, he has also developed training programs used in the comprehensive sensory-motor and visual processing gym, cognitive exercises, and Learning Strategies™. He is a recognized expert in the self-development field, parental involvement in children’s learning, and strategies that facilitate learning where traditional classroom methods have failed.
Richard A. Reutter, MD, FAAP
Medical Director and co-founder
Dr. Reutter is a nationally known developmental pediatrician in practice for 30 years, specializing in developmental, attention, and behavior-related disorders. He pioneered The Attention Center in Eatontown, New Jersey, devoted to the testing and treatment of children presenting ADHD symptoms. Dr. Reutter is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and the first pediatrician to use the QEEG test more than 10 years ago.
Herb Bilick, PhD
Director of Coaching & Parent Services and Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Bilick specializes in working with families, parents, and children who struggle with the very challenging world of learning disabilities. In addition to offering psychological assessments, he is in the unique position of offering coaching and psychological services to these families who are part of the Empowered Learning Transformation Program. His services make a significant contribution to the Empowered Learning model by helping parents and adolescents achieve important goals and gain clarity in their everyday lives. Dr. Bilick received the 2015 Patients’ Choice Award.
Jeffrey Mastroly
MAnaging owner, Monmouth county Center
VP of Training and Development, EMpowered Learning Network
Jeff, a North Bergen, N.J. native, attended high school at St. Rose High School in Belmar, N.J., where he was a state champion track and cross country runner. Jeff attended The College of N.J., where he competed in both track and cross country and majored in health and physical education teaching. He has been working and coaching at both private and public schools ever since.
Jeff began his working years as a high school cross country and track coach and substitute teacher in Hightstown, N.J. Soon after, he got his first job as a health and physical education teacher at Collier High School in Marlboro. Collier is a private, non-profit high school for students with disabilities whose needs cannot be met by public schools. In the 2011 school year, Collier started a middle school that included a physical education program developed and run by Jeff. He also spearheaded a groundbreaking Holistic Health Program at Collier. The program utilizes many of the disciplines he has learned at ELTC and it is one of a kind.
Now a 21 year Collier veteran, Jeff realizes Collier and the Empowered Learning Transformation Centers are alike in many ways. Most important are the values – each puts the kids’ needs first; the atmosphere is loving, caring and fun; and all employees are working together for a common cause. Jeff wakes up every morning and cannot wait to get to work – they are places he wants to be, not has to be. Come for a screening at ELTC of Monmouth and you will see the passion and fun he adds to the program on a daily basis.
OCCUPAT
Elizabeth Brightbill
Senior Instructor
Elizabeth (Liz) Brightbill is an instructor at the Empowered Learning Transformation Center Hazlet. While working at ELC, Liz attended Monmouth University, where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education Endorsement in Special Education and English in January 2012.
Liz has worked at the ELTC for approximately three years and continues to enjoy every minute of it. Being part of the ongoing success that the Empowered Learning Program has on students of all ages is extremely rewarding. ELTC is unlike many other learning centers in the fact that we work with individuals of all ages. The center is beneficial to individuals at all levels of achievement. Throughout the program our students are improving their sensory motor, visual processing, and cognitive skills; thus helping them to succeed in school, work, and life.
Heather Fortinberry
Senior Teacher, Stamford
Motivated by helping others fulfill their own potential after years of teaching and caring for children of varying ages, Heather received a Master’s degree in psychology in 2002. For the following ten years, she proceeded to create, as well as implement, a variety of psychology courses to young adults in California. She is an author of the book “Logics of the Kingdom.” Uncovering bridges between varying disciplines, including physics and psychology, has generated a unique understanding of the human experience and an even greater desire to set people free to fulfill their own potential.
The Empowered Learning Program was developed and is currently deployed in three Empowered Learning Transformation Centers (ELTC) run by Dr. Richard A. Reutter and Peter Riddle. With a 90+ percent success rate validated by pre- and post-program testing over 15 years, these brick-and-mortar supplemental education providers serving both children and adults focus on:
- developing foundational learning skills,
- assessing and remediating underdeveloped sensory-motor integration skills, visual processing skills, and cognitive processing skills, and
- teaching learning strategies that enhance academic performance.
“All three of my homeschooled children have gone through the Empowered Learning program, starting at ages 7, 9 and 12 years of age. Two of my children had developmental delays that Peter Riddle quickly identified (with more clarity than our pediatrician) and those issues were effecting reading and comprehension. With Peter and his team’s help, we were soon on our way to unlocking the puzzle that made learning such a challenge. Lo and behold, the customized program also strengthened both of my children’s athletic coordination and balance – a bonus after just four months in the program. My kids have greater confidence, focus and are learning new concepts with more ease. That makes my job easier and more effective.”
The Empowered Learning experience begins with a special assessment process.
Sensory-Motor/Visual Processing Assessment
Parents remain with their child during a 45-minute sensory-motor/visual processing assessment that allows them to see with their own eyes any visual, auditory, and/or physical aspects of their child's struggle. For most parents, this is first time they learn that deficiencies in these areas may underlie their child’s learning or attention problem. Sometimes this assessment alone motivates parents to enroll their child in the ELTC program.
The second assessment uses two non-invasive, objective testing methods that aid in detecting and diagnosing ADHD and other learning problems a child may have. These are:
The Quotient ADHD Test
Child with ADHD
The Quotient® ADHD System, developed by Pearson, is an innovative device that objectively measures the severity of the three core ADHD symptom domains: hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention. Based on research from the McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, this tool uses advanced motion-tracking technology to track a child’s (or an adult’s) micro-movements while they complete a computerized test that takes 15 or 20 minutes, depending on age. The Quotient test is cleared by the FDA with the intended use “to provide clinicians with objective measures of hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention to aid in the clinical assessment of ADHD.
Child without ADHD
After the test is completed, patterns of motion, accuracy of the responses, and fluctuations in attention state are quickly analyzed and scored using proprietary algorithms. A colorful, graphical report is available immediately. Scores and test data provide valuable insights into both the existence of ADHD-related deficits and the magnitude of those deficits compared with expected results from typically developing children of the same age and gender.
Quotient reports are designed to provide a quick comparison of the patient’s performance. Data collected from the advanced motion-tracking system captures motor activity for the entire test, providing a sensitive measure of developmental deficits.
The individual’s baseline Quotient data help the physician make treatment decisions if ADHD is the diagnosis. The physician combines Quotient data with clinical exam, rating scales, and other data to help create a treatment plan.
The Quotient ADHD Test also helps to achieve clinical efficacy sooner. Because stimulant medication effects are seen immediately, trials of different doses of stimulants can be accomplished in a relatively short time period. Stimulant medications can be effectively titrated on a 3- to 7-day basis. The Quotient System can be used to implement a rapid testing protocol. A series of Quotient Tests may be administered to help track progress to treatment goals.
The Empowered Learning Centers work to transfer children off of ADHD medication through their proprietary focus-training program.
The Quantitative Electroencephalogram (QEEG)
The QEEG is the first FDA-approved, objective, non-invasive physiological diagnostic tool to assess ADHD quickly and accurately. Scientific research shows that many individuals with ADHD have a distinct brain activity pattern as compared with the general population. The QEEG compares a person’s brainwaves (theta and beta) against ADHD subjects and non-ADHD subjects. The test is designed to correct a misdiagnosis and reduce the number of children inappropriately placed on medication.
In QEEG testing, EEG data are collected from a child (or an adult) in a procedure that lasts about 30 minutes. The EEG data are digitized and computer scored so that an individual's theta/beta ratio can be computerized and then compared to what is typical for individuals of a similar age. When the ratio is sufficiently elevated, the individual is considered to have the EEG marker for ADHD.
Although no single test should be used in isolation to diagnose ADHD, the QEEG is an important objective tool that can aid clinicians in the accurate assessment of ADHD.
The Empowered Learning Program
The Empowered Learning™ Program is an exclusive combination of “outside-the-box” educational and medical technologies that works on the brain’s processing abilities, directly affecting underdeveloped cognitive, visual and sensory-motor functions and literally changing the brain physically as it eliminates barriers to learning.
The Empowered Learning™ Program operates several levels below the content typically taught in schools or by tutors and measures the cognitive, visual processing and sensory-motor integration functions of anyone experiencing learning and/or behavioral difficulties. Once deficiencies in any of the screened areas are identified, the program is tailored to remediate the deficiencies, which enables the student to then easily assimilate any content taught in school.
The Empowered Learning Pyramid:
The Foundation of All Learning
The Empowered Learning™ Pyramid
Level One – Sensory-Motor Integration (SMI), the “Mind-Body” connection, is the foundation of all learning. Poorly developed neural connections between the brain and the body, which often manifest themselves in clumsy or disruptive behavior, contribute to an individual’s inability to focus or attend to learning tasks.
Solution: An individualized program of special exercises in our sensory-motor gym will bring the under-developed “mind-body” neural connections up to the well-developed range and eliminate balance, coordination, focus and attention challenges.
Level Two – Visual Processing (VP) is often the underlying cause of reading, focus, attention and behavioral difficulties. VP – not to be confused with proper eyesight – is the two-fold ability to physically control eye movement as well as efficiently move information from the eyes to the brain via neural connections. VP deficiencies are often the underlying cause of problems with reading and comprehension, as well as behavioral problems related to the areas of focus and attention. VP deficiencies are often misdiagnosed as symptoms of ADD/ADHD, and lead to the often unnecessary prescribing of powerful medications such as Ritalin and Adderall.
Solution: An individualized program of special integrated visual and sensory-motor exercises in our brain gym to correct both the under-developed eye control issues – refixations, convergence, tracking, side-to-side dipping, wall-eye – as well as strengthening the under-developed neural connections carrying information from the eyes to the brain, at the same time working on balance and hand-eye coordination. Since its inception, the Empowered Learning™ Program has helped take over 700 students off powerful ADD/ADHD medications and has de-classified 80% of students once assigned to Special Ed. classes.
Level Three – Cognitive Skills are individual functions of the brain – 41 of which govern an individual’s ability to learn. The underdevelopment of these core cognitive brain functions can impair the ability to process information, leading to a difficult in learning content.
Solution: The award-winning Brainware™ software program with special training modules for each of the 41 cognitive abilities will bring any underdeveloped areas into the developed range and possibly even into the gifted range. Along with properly developed sensory-motor and visual processing abilities, properly developed cognitive skills make learning difficulties fall away and allow easy, efficient content learning.
Level Four – Learning Strategies work with the notion that each person learns differently, so “one size fits all” teaching strategies fail students with different learning styles. Many people labeled learning disabled are challenged on a sensory or visual processing level and only need a different type of education to accelerate their learning processes.
Solution: Founder Peter Riddle has developed Learning Strategies™, a proprietary set of brain-based learning strategies modeled after how the best learners in every category approach learning. These strategies teach students how to absorb content the way their brain was designed to accept information. Learning Strategies™ are universal – completely applicable to every subject and aspect of learning. The Empowered Learning™ Program produces a learner who assimilates content based on the way their brain was designed to accept it, creating a much more efficient and comfortable learning experience and improving areas like memory and retention.
The Peak of the Pyramid – Content. Once the foundational aspects of learning function are measured, remediated and combined with mastery of the Empowered Learning™ brain-based Learning Strategies™, the Empowered Learning™ Program graduate will be capable of learning any content more efficiently.