Learning curve is business function

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Learning is big business for some local entrepreneurs.|ret||ret||tab|

Fred and Karen Lee of the Learning Lab and Merica Clinkenbeard of Cultural Kids see opportunities to pick up where other aspects of a child's education may leave off. |ret||ret||tab|

The Learning Lab is an intensive training center for children ages 7 and older with learning problems. It opened in early January at 227 E. Sunshine. Cultural Kids is a learning center of a different kind: Clinkenbeard moved her in-home business teaching private Spanish-language lessons for kids out of her home, opening downtown at the corner of Pershing and Jefferson.|ret||ret||tab|

The Learning Lab is different from some other centers that treat learning problems in that it provides a guarantee of improvement, said Fred Lee, who owns the business with his wife, Dr. Karen Lee, a psychologist. Fred Lee is responsible for the day-to-day functions of the business while Karen Lee oversees operations.|ret||ret||tab|

The Lees have one student now and a trainer who works one-on-one with the student. |ret||ret||tab|

The tests the center uses are calibrated to national standards, and the training follows the Processing and Cognitive Enhancement, or PACE, program, which increases learning skills, Fred Lee said.|ret||ret||tab|

"What separates us from some other programs is that we actually focus on the child's cognitive processing skills and work to enhance those. We aren't a tutoring lab; we don't do math, reading or social studies. What we do increases a child's skills for life," Fred Lee said.|ret||ret||tab|

The Learning Lab uses programs that enhance a child's auditory and visual processing skills. The Lees had a similar program in Peoria, Ill., and have now brought it to Springfield. |ret||ret||tab|

Karen Lee is a neuropsychologist. Once a child is tested at the Learning Lab, Karen Lee scores the test and speaks to the parents about what the child's learning difficulties are, Fred Lee said.|ret||ret||tab|

He said the Learning Lab can offer a child assistance that he may not get in a school setting.|ret||ret||tab|

"Teachers have enough to do as it is, and it's very difficult for them to give the kind of intensive, one-on-one training that a child with learning problems needs," Fred Lee said. |ret||ret||tab|

"If a child is not doing well, then that leads to other problems. He stops paying attention or gets distracted. That's where we come in. We're here to enhance those learning skills, and that will carry over into the classroom."|ret||ret||tab|

Through a series of exercises, the Learning Lab works to improve auditory and visual processing skills that help children with memory, organization, understanding and concentration. |ret||ret||tab|

"We teach skills for life. These are not just skills that will help a child in school, but will help a child in life," Fred Lee said.|ret||ret||tab|

Children meet with a trainer three times a week for 50 minutes each session and the total course is 10 weeks, Fred Lee said.|ret||ret||tab|

Across town at Jefferson and Pershing, Clinkenbeard has a different purpose at her learning center: teaching kids Spanish.|ret||ret||tab|

Clinkenbeard said she has recognized a need for a language center in Springfield for several years, and for a time she taught Spanish out of her home. She put her idea for a center on hold for a few years while she started a family of her own her 3-year- and 8-month-old sons are already hearing Spanish daily and then got to work starting the enterprise early this year. |ret||ret||tab|

Her classes begin meeting Feb. 1, she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Tuition for a 12-week session is $300 per student. |ret||ret||tab|

Students age 2 through elementary age are eligible for the school. Clinkenbeard said the focus on young students is strategic.|ret||ret||tab|

"It's been proven that when an adult learns a language, they take the information, process it, and then translate. When a child learns a language, they process that language in the same center of their brain as they do their first language," Clinkenbeard said.|ret||ret||tab|

Clinkenbeard completed her master's thesis on how children acquire language and is putting a program to work at Cultural Kids that she developed as part of that thesis. |ret||ret||tab|

She said she wants to make the time children spend at her center "not like school," but very active, noisy and fun.|ret||ret||tab|

"We're going to sit on pillows on the floor and do a lot of talking," Clinkenbeard said.|ret||ret||tab|

Having taught in public schools, Clinkenbeard said she will bring that experience to the kind of intensive language program Cultural Kids will provide.|ret||ret||tab|

"I've always wanted my own business, and this is really bringing all my degrees and my past work experience together," Clinkenbeard said.|ret||ret||tab|

Clinkenbeard holds a degree in international business and a minor in Spanish, and has a master's in education. She has worked for the Arkansas Export Council and has performed international consulting work for an advertising agency in addition to teaching Spanish. The center combines her business acumen with her language skills, she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Twelve-week sessions of classes will meet at Cultural Kids Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Clinkenbeard said she hopes students will stay on for multiple sessions. She has plans to add more languages in the future, though that will require hiring a French or German teacher, she said. |ret||ret||tab|

She may also expand into adult language education at some point. |ret||ret||tab|

"For now, the focus is on kids and Spanish," Clinkenbeard said.|ret||ret||tab|

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