Daniel Franklin, PhD, BCET, is the author of Helping Your Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities (2018). He is an AET, Board Certified Educational Therapist and the founder, president, and clinical director of Franklin Educational Services, Inc. Daniel holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Reading, Language, and Learning Disabilities, and a PhD from UCLA in Education. He has over 30 years of experience in education as an educational therapist, teacher, administrator, and educational consultant. Daniel also teaches courses and gives presentations at universities. He helps schools use a trauma-informed approach to help children with a wide range of learning disabilities.
Daniel's experience with dyslexia:
As a child, Daniel struggled with dyslexia which made it very hard to learn. He was labeled as "lazy", causing a lot of anxiety and shameful feelings towards himself. With the help of understanding and compassionate teachers and parents, he began to gain traction in high school and college.
Joining associations to grow your network:
Daniel was a school teacher and reading specialist prior to moving to LA to start his PhD program. He got his first clients when he was invited to study groups for the Association of Educational Therapists and connected with educational therapists who saw Daniel’s value and referred families to work with him.
Know your limitations as well as your strengths. If you are working with a child and know that there are aspects that you don’t have enough knowledge in to help, use your network to refer the family to another person who can help. It’s a good idea to join local associations to grow your connections, build relationships, and stay involved. Daniel has a networking group, CAPLA, where 40-60 practitioners get together for a big lunch to make new connections and build on current ones.
Transitioning from sole practitioner to team business:
There came a point where Daniel transitioned from being a sole practitioner to working in a team environment. As a private practitioner, you are responsible for networking, marketing, and business development, as well as continuing to grow your own knowledge about your offerings. Over time, a growing business begins to develop and, as a business grows, there is a need for more people to join your team.
Daniel attributes his success to hard work, curiosity, and compassion. Paying attention and learning about how we can effectively support children in all aspects of development. He recommends staying involved, asking for help, and being an active participant in the community.
You can find Dr. Franklin at www.danielfranklinphd.com
Sean McCormick 0:02 This week on Earn More Tutoring, I talk with Dr. Daniel Franklin, about his book helping your child with language based learning disabilities, how he founded and continues to run Franklin Educational Services, and a fateful meeting he had with the founder of educational therapy, Dorothy. Dr. Daniel Franklin 0:20 Dorothy learned about me and my background. Then she said, Daniel, here in Los Angeles, we have an organization of the Association of Educational therapists. And they said, that sounds great, but what is it? She said, well, experienced educators such as yourself can work with children, one on one outside of the context of school. Sean McCormick 0:46 Welcome to Earn More Tutoring. I'm Sean McCormick, the founder of Executive Function Specialists, an online coaching business that helps middle high school and college students feel better organized. I'm here with Dr. Daniel Franklin, author of helping your child with language based learning disabilities, and founder and clinical director of Franklin Educational Services. Welcome Dr. Franklin. Dr. Daniel Franklin 1:07 Great to be here, Sean, how you doing? Sean McCormick 1:09 I'm doing pretty good. I'm very thrilled to have you on, you know, as we go back, but I've just always been a fan of you. And now to be mentored by you is a wonderful thing. And I'd love you know, I want to share my my kind of gems with the world in terms of in terms of your knowledge and expertise. I'd love for you just to talk about what are the different you know, things you do I know you're an author, you've got your tutoring center, I know you do some consulting work, tell us about your different offerings. And then maybe we can go into how it all got started? Dr. Daniel Franklin 1:39 Well, sure. Currently, I'm the founder, president and clinical director of my company, financial and educational services. My role here primarily is that of clinical director. That is I really stay focused on working directly with families with parents, with children, students, I interface with referring clinicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, who refer students to us. In addition to that, I spend a lot of time presenting, I'm the author of my book, this little jet, helping your child with language based learning disabilities, I do presentations on various themes of that book, I work with the rest of my team here to make sure all the services we offer work smoothly, and that we reach the kids we're, we love finding and supporting. Sean McCormick 2:36 You're a man of many skills, which is something I admire so much. And, and I know we can even go into it. But I know you're also a scholar in the sense that you have a, you know, a deep background of knowledge and art and art history. And I'd love to tap into that a little bit. Because I just think that's such a cool aspect of your, of what you do. But take us back because you know, when I was reading your book, I loved the beginning. Because it really your story, you know, in your work is it ties into, you know, your educational journey and the struggles that you experienced? So I'd love for you to talk about, you know how you got into this work, but also give us a little background on why you did this? Dr. Daniel Franklin 3:14 Well, certainly, you know, years ago, as a young child and early elementary school, I struggled horribly. I could not read or write, I had a lot of challenges, even with mathematics and all the basic things that a child is expected to do I say expected, but we shouldn't always expect it because there's enormous variation from one child to another with regard to how and when they acquire skills with written language and math and other competencies to I am and then was very dyslexic, and as but when I was a child dyslexia really wasn't understood as natural variation from one child to another. So unfortunately, I had my share fare teachers my share of fear of teachers who thought that I was lazy or stupid or both, or I wasn't, I was highly motivated and a deeply curious boy. But written language skills came to me very slowly and with great effort in time, and with the help of a few very special teachers, I eventually began to get some traction by about fifth or sixth grade. Indeed, it wasn't until I was in fifth grade that I can actually spill my entire name. And it's quite a daunting experience as a child, one in which you feel a lot of shame and embarrassment and live in a state of rather significant anxiety when you cannot do that. Basic things all the other children around you can do. So that was my beginning. In education and schooling. As I said, I had one teacher in particular Mrs. Shirley got back there's a wonderful short documentary about her called on teachable by the acclaimed filmmaker Anthony Sheeran. And I'd be happy to share a link to that film if your listeners would like to see it sometime. At any rate, with her help, and the help of a few others...
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