Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Bibi Pirayesh.
Hi Dr. Pirayesh, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I fell into educational therapy by accident. I had always been interested in the underlying processes of learning, how the brain develops, and how understanding neuroscience can help teachers. But I had never thought about how learning breaks down and at first, my work with kids with learning disabilities was purely for research purposes. After a while though, I fell in love with the work and with the kids. It was an opportunity to really see research in practice, but to also understand how limited our research is because we are talking about whole human beings. Eventually I realized that the greatest impact I could have was in helping children demystify their own learning. They’re the best researchers themselves.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Ironically, the greatest obstacle to children learning and growing is often the very educational system that’s supposed to help and support them. Our system, as it stands today, does not allow for all the different ways children learn. We have a very limited, linear way of looking at learning and when kids don’t match that, we pathologize them. So ironically school itself often becomes the road block to Learning and the very obstacle children need to overcome.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
At OneofOneKids.org, we focus on giving children the time, attention, and support they need to own their unique ways of learning. What makes our practice special are our clients. Each student comes in presenting a new world to be discovered and understood. We work with the whole range of learning differences. Kids with reading struggles and/or executive function difficulties tend to come to us most, but my personal area of specialty is math disorders and I’m one of the few educational therapists I know who works with kids around math all the way to the college level.
The work I’m most excited about right now though is our new initiative: The Difference is Not Deficit Project. This is a new social justice initiative we have started asking students, parents, teachers, and other professionals to share their personal stories around learning differences. I’m not totally sure where the initiative will take us but we know that stories are powerful and that real community building and healing starts with sharing our stories. We invite anyone who wants to contribute to do so on our website and to make your story as short, long, personal, or even objective or academic as you like. The more diverse our entries, the more complete a picture we’ll have of how difference is treated in our systems and in our culture and the better starting place we’ll have for change. That’s the ultimate goal of our initiative, to recognize the power in our stories and our paths. That’s where change starts.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I think everything comes down to relationships. You have to get to know the people in your field and build trust over time. When I first started out, I would cold call anyone I learned about and ask them to coffee or lunch. It’s hard because everyone is busy but if you make an effort, people are willing to share and then eventually, if you do good work, people will seek you out too. And always remember there is no shortage of students who can use our help, so see your colleagues as exactly that, not as competition.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.OneofOneKids.org
