How to apply for the program

What Types of Individuals Benefit from Our Programs

The Andrew Dean Fildes Foundation aims to provide services to individuals who have the following:

1. An age range between 2 years and 14 years of age. (We will consider students up to age 18 years.)
2. An IQ in the normal range (70 and above).
3. No known major hearing or vision difficulties.
4. No known major physical disabilities.

Thus, we primarily provide services for individuals with the following diagnoses:

1. Auditory Processing Disorders
2. Information Processing Disorders
3. Sensory Processing Disorders
4. Learning Disabilities
   • Reading Impairments and Disorders (Dyslexia and Developmental Dyslexia)
   • Writing Impairments and Disorders (Dysgraphia)
   • Spelling Impairments and Disorders
   • Maths Difficulties (Dyscalculia)
   • Nonverbal Learning Disability
5. Social Pragmatic Disorders
6. Language Delay, Impairment, and Disorders
7. Speech Delay, Impairment, and Disorders
   • Sound errors, multiple sound errors (articulation & phonologic)
   • Dyspraxia and Developmental Dyspraxia

People with these type of disorders may include those with

1. ADHD and ADD
2. Autism Spectrum Disorders-Asperger’s Type
3. Language Disorder
4. Learning Disabilities
5. Speech Disorders
6. Pragmatic Disorders

The child with a language-learning disability may:

• be disorganised
• not always follow instructions easily
• be slow to start or finish work
• has to touch everything; moves from one activity to the next
• short attention span
• be unable to generalise from specifics
• not appear to understand cause and effect
• forget instructions and other information
• take a long time to process information
• have poor attention skills and be distractible
• be inflexible with vocabulary (inaccurate word selection, word finding difficulties)
• have a poor time concept
• have social problems (poor turn taking, does not make or keep friends easily)
• use inappropriate conversation (poor topic maintenance, off target responses, problems with conversational repairs)
• not participate in group activities
• not ask questions
• not comprehend jokes
• not convey messages clearly
• use of immature grammatical structure (omit grammar or words, problems with pronouns, tense, etc)
• stories – lack specificity, vague and lacking cohesion
• have poor reading skills (especially reading aloud)
• have problems with phonemic awareness or phonological awareness
• have difficulty extracting information from books (problems with meaning)
• not be able to sound out words or predict text
• have poor self concept, low self-esteem
• have problems with understanding subtle social rules
• unable to pronounce some sounds or words

If families are unsure of a diagnosis, we can help to identify your child’s difficulty through our Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Assessment Program. These assessments can take between one and three full days of assessment. A comprehensive report is provided. Families are expected to provide an up-to-date IQ, vision and hearing assessment before you are accepted into the program.

The Foundation also offers research-based data gathered Intensive Treatment Programs that are used to assess your child’s Response To Intervention (RTI). Your child’s RTI can be used to identify what programs and techniques work and to guide further treatment goals and procedures. In order to be eligible for an Intensive Treatment Program, your child should have a diagnosis or a referral indicating that the child needs an intensive program or therapy. Usually evidence of IQ (or school reports) plus results of hearing and vision tests can help decide if a child would be eligible for an intervention program.

If you are interested in applying for one of our programs - click below.

• Apply for A Screening Program at Your School
• Apply for A Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Assessment
• Apply for An Intensive Treatment Program at Your School during Term Time
• Apply for An Intensive Treatment Program during Term Breaks and Holiday Periods