Students of all ages receive one-on-one tutoring in all instructional materials, test preparation, and executive function coaching as required. At Themba Tutors, we take the time to help students/clients understand their strengths and progress in areas where they need to improve. We offer personalized tools for each of our clients to help them become more aware of their individual needs as they work towards short-term goals. Improving these skills will benefit our students’/clients’ long-term plans.
CEO, Themba Tutors LLC
Craig Selinger is a New York State licensed language therapist with over eighteen years of experience working professionally with a wide variety of ages in New York City and has worked with children for over 25 years. He holds his Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCCs) from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and is Orton-Gillingham trained. Craig received an undergraduate degree and a master’s in Communicative Disorders from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the top speech-language pathology programs in the nation. His training consisted of interdisciplinary work, including working in a psychology lab performing neuropsychological research and performing neuropsychological testing on Romanian children adopted in the Midwest. After graduating with his master’s, he completed his clinical fellowship year in New York City.
Craig and his colleagues will be presenting a series of workshops designed exclusively for schools and educational organizations in the New York City metro area for the upcoming 2023-24 school year. They also offer these workshops remotely.
Secure your spot today!
Craig is an expert in childhood development, language-based learning issues, and executive functioning. Craig has experience working with all ages, including adults, and with a variety of developmental profiles, including helping individuals with expressive, receptive (listening), reading, writing, language processing, working memory, attentional and executive functioning learning difficulties, and disabilities. His professional experience includes working at an interdisciplinary therapeutic nursery at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, treating young children diagnosed on the autism spectrum at a school in Queens, offering professional services, as a learning specialist, at a Manhattan Montessori preschool & elementary school, worked as an independent contractor as a speech-language therapist with the Board of Education (preschoolers and school-aged students) and, currently, providing learning support for students of varying ages and learning styles.
Some of Craig’s clients have established a long-term working relationship with him because he adapts his teaching style as the child grows and changes: it’s a dynamic process. Craig begins by establishing a connection with families and then co-creates short- and long-term goals. Children and their parents need to acquire tools for learning and use them appropriately in a natural, nurturing environment. In 2010, Craig started a private practice for in-home and at-school speech-language therapy (serving all ages, including babies and adults) remedial literacy tutoring company for younger students struggling with their decoding and spelling skills called Brooklyn Letters. These speech therapists and literacy professionals travel throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island.
Most of his work hours these days, as the CEO of Themba Tutors, are spent as an administrator helping families find the right professional for their children, assisting staff, reading neuropsychological evaluations, and collaborating with psychologists, psychiatrists, other therapists, teachers, and other professionals.
Craig is an avid traveler who has visited close to thirty countries and currently trains in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, intending to become a black belt martial artist. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children and hopes he can be of service to you.
Dr. A Jordan Wright, Ph.D., ABAP, Faculty and Director, Center for Counseling and Community Wellbeing New York University, specializes in psychological assessment (including learning disabilities and ADHD) and is the author of five books on psychological assessment, discusses online neuropsychological assessments. He answers common questions about the validity and reliability of tele-assessments for learning and attentional difficulties commonly seen in children, adolescents, and college students. Come learn what the important factors families should consider when deciding if an office or tele-assessment or both make the most sense when a child or teen is struggling with learning in school.
Dr. Jane Aronson, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, Director of International Pediatric Health Services, PLLC, Founder and former CEO of Worldwide Orphans 1997-2019, and Director of Global Behavioral Health Network for Children and Young People, who is also known internationally as the Orphan Doctor, reflects on her childhood growing up above her father’s grocery store in South Jamaica, Queens, through age 3 and then in Franklin Square, Long Island. Jane was passed over, ignored, and sometimes bullied at times throughout her medical career for being a woman, and yet she was resilient and became a leader in adoption medicine and global health. Even as a young child, Jane knew she wanted to become a doctor like her revered Great Uncle Joe, who helped treat Native Americans with Tuberculosis. As a young child, she created “The Bee Hospital” nursing injured bees brought to her by friends on the block. Her father, who owned a grocery store, would take Jane, as a very young child, on home visits to his diverse customers. He would ask them about their lives and about their children and spoke quietly and asked them to pay only what they could afford at the time. Early in her childhood, Jane experienced trauma and the identity crisis of coming out LGBTQ without the support of her family. This motivated Jane to help others as a teacher, doctor, and as a global leader. At the age of 69, nothing stops Jane as she plans to grow her work as a pediatrician by developing a counseling practice to help adopted children grow a healthy identity. She currently works with professionals all over the United States to improve health equity and provide social justice for vulnerable and at-risk children.
Dr. Jan Wasowicz is an ASHA-certified, IL-licensed, and FL-licensed speech-language pathologist with 35+ years of experience as a language, literacy, and learning specialist working with students who have language-based reading writing, and spelling difficulties and disorders. She has taught numerous university-level courses and is frequently invited to speak about best literacy assessment and instruction practices at professional conferences. She is also the inventor of the Earobics® software, author of SPELL-Links to Reading & Writing, and lead moderator of the SPELLTalk professional listserv. She is here to speak about her favorite topic, literacy! Learn about the updated science of literacy, how the Colorado READ Act adopted her word study program, and Dr. Wasowicz’s favorite literacy tips to help students become more proficient readers and writers.
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peggy Stern, who struggled with dyslexia as a child, discusses how she created SuperDville, a video-based social-emotional learning curriculum for students 7-12 years of age with dyslexia and learning differences. All subscriptions are currently free to support communities through the pandemic. The SuperDville curriculum was developed by seminal researchers, therapists, educators, and star students learning differences. Educators and parents worldwide are using these fun educational videos with students to support in-person and remote learning. Each video lesson contains a scaffolded activity to promote social-emotional themes and discussions. Please take advantage of this free subscription while it lasts!
Kaity Broadbent, Head of Learning from Prenda, discusses microschooling! Kaity is an ardent believer in equity and Prenda’s approach to learning. Prenda believes students of different ages can learn collaboratively at their own pace. Flexibility helps students learn through fun, engaging activities. Finding each child’s internal drive, allowing autonomy for student choices, and making connections with peers and learning guides helps students grow as individuals as they master vital skills. Helping provide equal access to students who struggle with literacy, Kaity was one of the masterminds behind Treasure Hunt Reading (check out one of 93 videos) and Orton Gillingham-based multisensory way to learn literacy! It’s free for all https://treasurehunt.
Patty is a Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn resident, mother of three girls, helps her hustler husband run one of their local businesses, a restaurant, and is the Math Department Head at a Manhattan public school, The Institute Collaborative Education, 6th-12th grades. Learn about progressive education, portfolio-based approaches, and how to encourage students to problem-solve. Patty explains how she facilitates her students to apply their understanding of mathematical concepts and use tools to build upon their understanding of mathematical learning. Encouraging her students to collaborate creates a community of inclusion and allows her students to challenge themselves. For the upcoming 2020-2021 school year, regardless of how students are taught, Patty stresses that students, regardless of the discipline, need time to think and actively engage with the world and their peers.
James, a Brooklyn middle school student, discusses his first week of all remote learning from the comfort of his home. Learn what James enjoys about his online learning setup, what he misses from being physically at school, and what he predicts will happen to his online curriculum as the school year progresses. He also offers several suggestions to help students improve their online learning!
Fara Jones, MA, LCSW, is a Psychotherapist and Creative Arts, Therapist. During this podcast, she discusses how the pandemic impacts our mental health and provides suggestions for how to best care for ourselves. COVID-19 is best understood through understanding the stages of grief. Acceptance helps us deal with loss. We need to learn to adapt to our new lives, accept discomfort, allow the flow of our full circle of emotions, and find a cause. Cultivating how to express oneself during hard times best is crucial for our well beings. Creativity helps us engage with the world, even when expressed during mundane tasks. Learn how Fara helps families, tweens, and teens find their paths during these unprecedented times.
Language is all about communicating expressively and effectively through sounds and listening, reading, and writing. And for many children who struggle with language, this can lead to further issues with literacy, such as learning to write and peers.
Watch this video with Dr. Anthony Koutsoftas, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, speech-language pathologist, professor of speech-language therapy at Seton Hall University, and learn more about why writing is one of the most difficult skills to master and the pivotal roles that speech-language pathologists play in literacy.
In many instances, learning disabilities are invisible. What many consider as typical behaviors, such as acting out or lack of focus, could turn out to be warning signs of underlying learning or attention difficulties. We have seen parents get caught off-guard when their child is diagnosed with a learning disability, and the process of seeking assistance from schools also adds another layer to these challenges. In this episode, special education advocate and consultant Miriam Nunberg, Esq., talks to us about students’ rights and getting proper education for children with learning disabilities. Learn more about these laws created to ensure equitable learning and what accommodations you can avail for your child. Miriam recently was on the “Nice White Parents” NY Times podcast.
Lavinia Mancuso, native New Yorker, teacher, principal, and currently Executive Director of Everyone Reading, joins us to discuss her favorite topic- literacy! She explains why students are still illiterate in the US and how we can solve this problem. Here are some of her tips: Parents and teachers must teach the five pillars of literacy and tackle all four modalities: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. When it comes to teaching decoding and spelling, please keep it simple! Say the sound and write it. Practice and repetition are the key ingredients for success. Train students to use their inner ears and eyes to monitor themselves when they read. Learn more about how to teach literacy effectively! Lavinia also recommends the Reading League keep updated with the science of reading.
Hearing your child talk for the first time is one of the most magical moments of parenthood.
In this episode of the Craig Selinger Podcast, Dr. Michelle Macroy-Higgins, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, speech-language pathologist, and associate professor of the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Program at Hunter College, New York, talks about how to diagnose a late talker and how to help them.
In this episode of the Craig Selinger Podcast, Micaela Bracamonte, founder of the first 2e (Twice Exceptional) friendly school in New York City, talks about how The Lang School started sixteen years ago when her son was diagnosed as 2e at the age of four. She discusses the Lang School’s evolution and incorporates social-emotional learning and strength-based approaches, among other curriculums. In the early years, teachers notice students’ talents and nurture them throughout their Lang School careers. For the 2019-2020 school year, the graduate class, all three Lang valedictorians, received financial merit-based college scholarships. The Lang School offers virtual free resources for families. To learn more, please visit The Lang School website: www.thelangschool.org.
Discusses five ways to engage students, based on her doctorate research at the University of Southern California – Los Angeles.
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