My name is Maya Sandler and I am the founder of PreSetGo. I have a Ph.D. in Neuroscience in the field of learning and memory, an MA in learning disabilities and an educational therapy certification.

I was always fascinated by the brain and its natural ability to learn and change. However, learning is a very complex neurological ability. The modern world expects everyone to learn a variety of disciplines, to conduct themselves in the social world, to remember information well and to succeed. These processes are more natural and easier to some people than to others, due to a variety of reasons. Research shows that children who struggle more academically at the first grades, will increase the gap in later grades. This may be due to low academic self-esteem, low motivation, less active reading and writing, lower vocabulary, stress, attention difficulty etc.

Knowing all this didn’t prevent me from experiencing the difficulties of kindergarten within my own family.

My daughter was always very active, physically developed in a very young age, and emotionally developed way too much for her age, that I (even with all my knowledge and experience) neglected to notice that she struggles with sounds. She couldn’t rhyme when she was 4 years old and didn’t want to play rhyming games at 5 years old, she didn’t want to play - let’s find objects in the house that start with the sound “B” (for example), and avoided learning the letter and number shapes even at 5 year old. She didn’t go to an academic-driven preschool and I didn’t check her developmental stages with anyone.

My daughter entered kindergarten and I was a bit worried, but the kindergarten teacher reassured me that everything is alright. My daughter however, was not happy at school, felt she is not like the others and even didn’t want to show up for class. The teacher then admitted that my daughter is somewhat behind, but is developing still. This year passed without any significant development in my daughter’s ability to read.

Then came 1st grade, and we were lucky and my daughter got an amazing teacher! Her teacher noticed something was wrong and sent her to a learning center, where they worked several times a week on her language skills, reading and writing. I know from research and experience that catching a difficulty and working intentionally and intensively specifically to improve it, is necessary for improvement. If we had been given a different teacher, my daughter’s life experiences could have gone south. I am really thankful for that one teacher who changed my daughter’s life!

This experience showed me that we do not always know how developed our child is, even if we are knowledgeable and pay attention. I therefore set a personal mission to develop PreSetGo as a screening tool, available to all parents who want to check up on their child, and will direct them to the appropriate needed actions.

I hope that PreSetGo will help you and your child to be on the right path to success in school - educationally and emotionally.

Yours,
Maya Sandler, PhD