Special Program for Special Kids

Phillip Bausk, The Journal News

By 2005, Geoff Nixon was tired and ready to retire after 14 years of running a successful hedge fund.

But one factor prevented Nixon from calling it quits on work. His son, Matthew, had been diagnosed with a learning disability and was having trouble with activities such as homework.

The 54-year-old Pelham man came across the Fast ForWord program while working at his hedge fund. He owned shares in the Scientific Learning Corp., the Oakland-based company that created the software.

He couldn't get over the results he saw with his son after using the program.

"It was truly an unbelievable thing because he was so behind," he said. "His speech was delayed and he saw reading as a chore. After just a month of this program, he was using words he never used before and was following verbal instruction."

This inspired Nixon to create the Gemm Learning Center, which uses the software to help children overcome their learning difficulties. He just opened the center's third location, on Weaver Street in Scarsdale. There are also centers in Pelham and Greenwich, Conn.

Kids go to the center four or five times a week for 50-minute sessions during which they use the software at their own pace. Two or three full-time staff members and 10 part-time coaches at each center help the children, some of whom have been diagnosed with learning disabilities and others who are simply languishing in school.

Each child gets the amount of attention that the staff deems appropriate to help them succeed.

Prices start at $590 for two to four months.

The program helps children with a range of reading, writing, auditory and other learning issues.

Being the father of a son with learning disabilities, Nixon understands how cautious parents are when it comes to dealing with such issues. Parents want the best possible care for their child but are hesitant to venture into new programs.

Nixon's son, who is now 10, has Auditory Processing Disorder. That means he has trouble processing speech and other sounds. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, a child with the condition might be told, "Tell me how a chair and a couch are alike" but think that the speaker said, "Tell me how a hair and cow are alike."

"This system has been used for around 10 years, which seems like a long time, but in this field of work, its brand new," Nixon said. "Other programs for children have been used for decades and parents seem to trust them. It's easy to see why a parent would not want to invest their child in our program, but we know that there are those who understand what we are trying to do here."

The Fast ForWord software approaches the cognitive abilities of a child, isolates the problem, and allows for the child to do certain mental exercises to help change the way their brain is used in doing things such as reading.

"With this program, you have to be able to find the problem, and work at it constantly. It is not good enough to work on it and then stop, and then start again," Nixon said. "You must continue to work hard and these centers offer the children a comfortable setting to do so."

The success of Nixon's centers in Pelham and Greenwich seems to show people are opening up to the approach. About 50 children are enrolled at each of those centers.

Andrew Brainard runs the Scarsdale center and said the center has been getting attention, though as of last week it had signed up only one student.

"Our location is very good for attracting parents," Brainard said. "We have been getting a lot of traffic from people driving by, and people just walking in and wanting to hear about what it is that we do."

Nixon and Brainard expect 50 children to enroll at the new center during the summer.

Nixon and the Scarsdale Teen Center have set up scholarship programs to help parents who can't afford to send their children to his center.

"This company is turning into an enterprise, which is allowing us to make partnerships for scholarships," Nixon said. "As more time goes on, we will be able to make more agreements with companies to help sponsor more scholarship programs."

Nixon hopes to open more Gemm Learning Centers in northern Westchester in the next couple of years.