FAQs - Working with Long Distance Clients


I'm long distance from the closest Center, but I'm really interested in your program. How do you generally work with Long Distance Clients?

Working with long distance clients is very similar to us working with local clients. We have worked with clients from nearly 30 states, Canada, the Caribbean and Thailand with no major issues. As long as you have internet, email, a smart phone, a computer and printer (with ink/toner), you should be able to do the program.

The primary difference between local and long-distance clients is that most local families have us do an evaluation. Then the first two training sessions are done face-to-face. Then all the other twice-a-month sessions are done via phone and email, the same as with long distance clients.

With long distance clients, in lieu of an evaluation, we spend quite a bit of time on the phone discussing your family's situation. We will ask you a number of questions pertaining to your child's cognitive performance to figure which cortices or areas of the brain need development work. With our 23+ years of experience, this is straightforward to determine. Then we will make a recommendation as to which of our Guided Training System options would be most effective for your situation. We can provide you with some references to call to get comfortable with moving forward. We have done over 1450 evaluations and worked with over 1000 individuals over the past 23+ years with zero complaints to the BBB, so you know you will be working with the best brain development experts.

Once you are comfortable, you call us and confirm your intent to start a particular Sharper Minds program option. We prepare the Services Agreement, Equipment, and Instructional Materials for you. We email you the Agreement, review it with you, get back your scanned signature page, countersign it and return it to you, take your initial payment (preferably via Zelle) and ship you your equipment. You should receive the rather large package in about 5 days from the date of shipment.

Besides the various equipment options, the instructional materials include a book/manual, printed charts and forms, videos in digital format, and nearly all the files that you will need over the course of the program on a USB flash drive that you can copy to your computer. The files are for your exclusive use and not to be shared with others.

The first two phone sessions take about 1.5-2 hours each. We provide clear instructions and guidance to you and personalized assignment sheet(s) at the end of each session Your family will work on the exercises over the next 2-3 weeks. Practice time at your home is ~1 hour a day 5 days a week, once you are past the first two weeks (exercises are added at the second session).

After the first two sessions, as with local clients, the accountability phone sessions will take about 20-35 minutes.

We guide you with the twice-a-month phone sessions as long as it takes for you to go through the program.

Prior to each weekly appointment, the client family sends scans of their ASSIGNMENT SHEET & PROGRESS RECORD and other worksheets to their trainer. This will form the basis of the phone conversation.

To send the scans, there are two easy options:

  • Use the automatic document feeder (ADF) on an All-In-One Printer/copier/scanner and scan to pdf software (we recommend the excellent free program called NAPS2 (Not Another PDF Scanner 2).https://www.naps2.com/   Email the single multi-page pdf file to us.
  • Use a SmartPhone with a high resolution camera and a scan-to-pdf app such as TinyScan Pro, $5.99 for iOS and Android. Email the single multi-page file to us.

These sessions help with accountability on the part of the family to do the daily exercises required for successful brain development. After each phone call, the trainer fills in a new ASSIGNMENT SHEET & PROGRESS RECORD, scans it into .pdf format and e-mails it to the family. The family records their time for each of the respective exercises on the form.

Your trainer will lead your family, step-by-step through the brain development stages of the Sharper Minds program. You provide the consistency and persistency in working with your children (or yourself if an adult) in order to get the best results. The exercises are not difficult to understand and the videos and manual will aid what your trainer instructs you.

Usually, improvements begin to be seen as soon as 8-12 weeks into the program, varying for each student.

We work diligently and encouragingly together throughout the entire program.

For best results, if you are consistent and persistent, anticipate a 14–16-month journey to complete the exercises, though for younger kids, brain tumors, childhood strokes, more severe cases, or a lackadaisical attitude, it will take longer.

When your student has completed the exercises and reached a level of proficiency that you are satisfied with, or that meets our expectations (ranging from a minimum reading speed of 300 words per minute to much higher), then together, we may elect to bring the program to a close. It is extremely rare for us to see a plateau in reading speed in the reading exercise, which means that the student’s reading speed can be taken to any reasonable level that one desires by continuing the exercise. If we believe that by adding a month of additional 15 min/day reading exercises, the student will reach a substantial target (e.g. 1000 wpm), then we may elect to keep the student in the program a little longer (at no additional charge).

To the best of our knowledge, the Sharper Minds program has the greatest success rate of any program addressing learning disabilities, ADD, ADHD and dyslexia in the USA today. It is so effective that we even offer a guarantee on the Ultimate version of our program.

Consider that the true cost of something is the price of doing it MINUS the price of not doing it. There’s nothing as expensive as the price for failure and preventable struggle. One must look at the fees and time as an investment that can yield returns FAR greater than the costs. 

Substantial academic scholarships are common for the families that we work with. For example, in 2021, two families that had completed the program obtained scholarships of $26,000 and $30,000 respectively, which were multiples of the investment in the Sharper Minds program.

To speak to someone regarding your unique situation and to see if the program would be right for your family, call us toll free at 1-866-HELP-A.D.D. [1-866-435-7233]. You will find us caring, knowledgeable and willing to listen. Call us today.

Leave a message if voicemail should pickup. Your call will be returned as soon as possible, likely from a 503-680- number..

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Last modified: January 27, 2024