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For immediate Release
September
22, 2004
kSERO opens cutting-edge center for
learning and memory
RICHMOND, Va. – The kSERO Corporation, a pioneer in developing the human capacity to learn, has opened the kSERO Cognitive Development Center to provide cognitive skills assessments of school-aged children and customized programs to improve their academic performance.
The center specializes in helping children who are experiencing academic or learning problems and those who have a large differential between ability and academic performance.
kSERO created the center because tutoring, remediation and medication have had very limited success in improving learning. Often, says President Susan Hardwicke, Ph.D., academic problems stem from underlying cognitive issues that can be addressed through carefully selected exercises and activities. "It’s essential to have a systematic approach to developing memory, rule application, logic and other mental skills. We make the experience enjoyable."
Located at the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park, kSERO’s Cognitive Development Center draws upon the latest research in cognitive neuroscience to continually update its methods. "The typical educational approach is to find a gap and fill it with content," says Hardwicke. "That just doesn't work. The brain isn't built to do that."
The first step in kSERO’s treatment, says Hardwicke, is to conduct a "cognitive portfolio assessment" identifying the child's strengths and weaknesses in 24 different skill sets ranging from short- and long-term memory to pattern and rule-making skills. Based on the findings, kSERO develops a hierarchical program to remedy the most basic needs first.
kSERO then burnishes mental skills through a wide array of techniques: playing particular games, employing custom strategies, or working with parents to implement changes in the home.
The center has a research component as well. kSERO evaluates outside-the-schoolroom approaches to improving academic performance, with a particular emphasis on games and activities that develop the pattern and rule skills that underlie math and language"
There are plenty of educational consultants, pediatricians and others who treat parts of the problem, but no one who provides a comprehensive cognitive assessment and tailors a program based on that assessment." Says Hardwicke: "This is something entirely new and different."
For more information refer to the Cognitive Portfolio Web site at http://www.cognitivepix.com.
About kSERO
kSERO Corporation, a developer of cognitive services, products and programs, was founded in 2002 at the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park by Dr. Susan Hardwicke, founder of EduTest, an educational testing company; Dr. Donald Abraham, professor of medicinal chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University and director of VCU's Institute for Structural Biology and Drug Discovery; and Ronald Wright, founder of NeuroScan, a neuroscience-based measurement and scanning systems company. Dr. Kirk Schroder, former president of the Virginia State Board of Educations, serves as a director.
Contact:
Regina Smith or Amanda Knowles
800 E. Leigh St., Suite 114
Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: (804) 827-8235
E-mail: sbh@ksero.net
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