Good morning Dr. Haytasingh,
I wanted to thank you once more for taking the time to come address our staff on Friday. It was a superb presentation!
Our entire staff was engaged and gave me positive feedback on what they learned that morning. We are very appreciative of your time and expertise. Please pass along our thanks to Crystal as well, her humor and approach were the perfect accompaniment to your presentation.

My experience with brain learning, and, with Rienzi were beyond my expectations. The staff was kind and their level of professionalism was amazing. Rienzi and his team were compassionate and executed all of my daughter’s testing and assessments with attention to detail while exploring creative ways to access her current levels. They made me feel at ease throughout the process. To say I am impressed with Rienzi and his staff would be an understatement. He was extremely professional and thorough. Rienzi truly understands the depth of the importance of finding how children with special needs learn as well as making recommendations for what they need going forward as far as education and placement are concerned. Rienzi has been readily available via phone and email, and, reached out to me during this very difficult process on more than one occasion. I know that Rienzi will continue to make recommendations to the school district based on his findings that he feels are in my daughters best interest, and suggest ways to maximize her potential. I feel very fortunate to have someone who is so passionate about my daughter’s future on our team as we continue to navigate through the school system.

We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with Dr. Rienzi. He is genuine, has a gift for working with children, and truly cares about the kids he works with. We consulted Dr. Rienzi after being told by my son’s charter school administrator that he was autistic and should be homeschooled (the most restrictive environment!!). Within 5 minutes of meeting Dr. Rienzi, my shy son was comfortable and happy to cooperate with the evaluation. Dr. Rienzi performed gold standard testing for autism on my son and determined this was not autism. This was contradictory to the school evaluation where they determined autism based on a couple of questionnaires that Dr. Rienzi, in his many years of experience and expertise, had never seen. He attended my son’s IEP meetings and was instrumental in qualifying my son for special education without using autism – since he doesn’t have this. He was a calm, fair and balanced advocate for my son during the very high-tension IEP meetings. We could not trust the school to do the right thing or recommend the right course of action, but we could trust Dr. Rienzi. This brought us great comfort in knowing my son was getting what he needed in his IEP to be successful. The most important thing Dr. Rienzi gave us, as parents, was HOPE. He assured us that our son’s deficiencies were things that could be learned and that he would be successful with the right interventions and supports in place. I happy to report that Dr. Rienzi was correct! A year later my son is extremely successful in our neighborhood school with a well-written IEP. He is reading, writing, has friends, is the social skills “super star” student, and has had not a single behavior issue! Thank you Dr. Rienzi for helping my son (and his parents)!! Margaret Murphy

Dr. Rienzi performed a neuropsychological evaluation on my son and it was more than I would have ever expected. He was thorough in his testing and provided a detailed report that outlined not only the issues and concerns with my child’s learning abilities, but also methods for improvement and how to better teach my child. Dr. Rienzi has been available and responded promptly to any and all questions that we have had throughout this process and continues to assist to ensure my child receives the teaching that he needs to improve his ability to learn. The assessment performed by Dr. Rienzi has provided continued hope that my child will be able to learn more effectively and progress moving forward. It is difficult to fully describe how much we appreciate and value the neuropsychological evaluation and Dr. Rienzi as a professional and as a person. He clearly has my child’s best interests at heart.

We are so grateful to have found Dr. Haytasingh and Brain Learning. Dr. Haytasingh is thoughtful, patient and kind, and genuinely cares about the kids he works with. He has a distinct ability to connect with a child and make them feel understood and appreciated. Our son was having difficulty in school which led to a dramatic decline in his motivation to succeed. He was initially very resistant to participating in sessions at Brain Learning, but Dr. Haytasingh was able to put our son at ease, allowing him to open up and be receptive to Dr. Haytasingh’s input. He now looks forward to seeing Dr. Haytasingh, and has a fantastic attitude about the time he spends at Brain Learning. Each person I have met while there is engaging and helpful. We know that our son will continue to benefit from our investment in this program.

What a difference Dr. Haytasingh’s evaluation has made for our child’s education! Let me first start out by saying how well respected he is in the education community. It seems everywhere we go, his work is recognized and extremely respected. Our child had had several tests, reviews of her abilities and her educational needs, but none had been as thorough and insightful as Dr. Haytasingh’s. It was ultimately his independent educational evaluation that assisted us in obtaining access to non public schools for our child. He has also been a wonderful resource for our child in that he gives advice for the benefit of the child, not the school, not the district, but the child. I can’t tell you how much that is appreciated when it seems that as parent’s we fight for every inch of assistance/services our child deserves, but struggles to receive. He was a godsend for us. We would highly recommend him to the struggling parent who needs assistance in explaining why their child is not successful in school and suggested resources a child will need for their future advancement. Thank you so much Dr. Haytasingh for everything!

I give Dr. Haytasingh five stars. Here is why:

My developmentally delayed daughter first saw Dr, Haytasingh in July 2017 when she was 8 years old. I reached out to Dr. Haytasingh for a psychoeducational evaluation to better understand and identify my daughters areas of delay. Her history included barely, if ever, talking before 4 years of age and even if she did, it was impossible to understand her – her tongue thrusts were symptomatic. In social settings with kids you would see parallel play with no interaction or speaking, and with adults, she hid behind me (painfully shy, sometimes in tears) and said nothing. I nicknamed her “Cellophane: because when I dropped her off at school she would literally wrap herself around my leg, emotionally break down, and cling on until peeled off. Saddest thing I had ever experienced. She could not read and math was a non-starter. Medically, my daughter was diagnosed by several experts at Rady’s Children’s Hospital as suffering from a neurological disorder NOS, extropia leading to no depth perception, selective mutism, global learning and emotional disabilities, and a lack of age appropriate social skills. She did not fall on the autism spectrum making it more difficult to find help. The medical doctors could provide no answers, the only hope was therapy understanding the therapy needed to be scoped to my daughter’s specific learning delays. That was the goal – identify my daughters strengths and weaknesses to help figure out how my daughter needed material presented in a way she could learn.

Dr. Haytasingh was very effective and direct. He understood the goal was not to tell me something I might want to hear but to objectively determine my daughter’s strengths and weaknesses and then suggest how to best approach my daughter’s unique learning needs. He told me several things that, as a parent, I did not want to hear but based on the testing with which I could not argue. After testing, it was apparent he understood my daughter’s challenges and gave me feedback that I was surprised accurately describe my daughter’s conduct, conduct that you would only know if you lived with her (or apparently could determine through testing, observation, and understanding how a child like my daughter sees the world and how her brain processes information.) I could tell my daughter was comfortable with him .

Dr. Haytasingh is not an advocate for my daughter. He calls it as he sees it. He did assist by helping my daughter’s IEP (special education) team at her school to understand my daughter’s disabilities so they could better structure an appropriate learning program for her. He offered his analysis and recommendations for their consideration – advocacy was handled by another person. His input also supplemented my daughter’s private education team’s expertise to build her reading, literacy, comprehension, math and social thinking programs. After working with the therapy team, my daughter is now a self-assured, confident chatterbox. Tongue thrusts are gone and she speaks clearly with a mature vocabulary. She learned so much from social thinking on how to handle difficult emotional situations, you would be surprised at the before vs. after differences. She now reads at the 2.5 grade level, comprehends at the 3rd grade level, and is socially active and accepted in her class – I wish I could network like her. Math – eh, a work in progress.

While my daughter gets credit for her hard work and dedication; Dr. Haytasingh and the therapy team gets the credit for trying different approaches to find ones that work and that help build a learning foundation for my daughter. I hear often from friends, teachers and her IEP staff, and family regarding how incredible my daughter is doing and how far she has come. Without Dr. Haytasingh and the therapy team, my daughter’s future looked bleak. Now we will see how far she can go!”

Crystal Ruse, M. Ed., BCBA is not only extremely knowledgeable and intelligent, but she also cares sincerely about the well-being of her clients. After her initial data intake, Crystal was open to discussing the fine points with me as a parent and made sure we were on the same page. Crystal was also a great asset during my son’s IEP meeting, by advocating assertively while maintaining a positive, professional demeanor. I would not hesitate to use her services again in the future. Thank you! Mother of E. J.

What a difference Dr. Haytasingh’s evaluation has made for our child’s education! Let me first start out by saying how well respected he is in the education community. It seems everywhere we go, his work is recognized and extremely respected. Our child had had several tests, reviews of her abilities and her educational needs, but none had been as thorough and insightful as Dr. Haytasingh’s. It was ultimately his independent educational evaluation that assisted us in obtaining access to non public schools for our child. He has also been a wonderful resource for our child in that he gives advice for the benefit of the child, not the school, not the district, but the child. I can’t tell you how much that is appreciated when it seems that as parent’s we fight for every inch of assistance/services our child deserves, but struggles to receive. He was a godsend for us. We would highly recommend him to the struggling parent who needs assistance in explaining why their child is not successful in school and suggested resources a child will need for their future advancement. Thank you so much Dr. Haytasingh for everything!

Dr. Rienzi Haytasingh and Brain Learning has made a positive impact on my son’s educational experience, which carries over into his overall daily life. With a primary eligibility of autism on his IEP, the school district and school staff often dismissed the academic difficulties my son had as being solely attributed to autism behaviors. Communication issues prevented my son from explaining to teachers what his struggles were. I was frequently told that my son was avoiding tasks and simply being noncompliant as a part of his autism diagnosis. I was even asked to give up on teaching him foundational reading skills and focus on functional skills when he was only 8 years old. Many times he’d completely meltdown and have self injurious behaviors as a result of the frustrations he had with not being heard or understood. His self esteem was severely affected as he frequently received corrective feedback and punishments for his inability to do or finish school work, which he was not able to control. He asked why he couldn’t spell or read and made statements about letters moving or “being switched”, which were red flags to me that he may have learning disabilities. My concerns were brought to the district and although they performed tests, their evaluations were incomplete. The school and case manger downplayed my son’s struggles and completely dismissed any learning disabilities. Again, my son and his autism were to blame for the lack of progress. I disagreed with the district assessment results and exercised my right to request independent educational evaluations (IEEs) at public expense, which included a full neuropsychological evaluation. With that request granted, I asked Dr. Haytasingh to thoroughly test my son and it was discovered he is absolutely capable of learning, but he has profound dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia. Dr. Haytasingh and his staff took into consideration my son’s severe language deficits and other co-morbid conditions. Diagnostic overshadowing (when symptoms are attributed to the most prominent disability) by the district and school staff prevented my child from having his specific learning disabilities (SLDs) properly identified and created obstacles in accessing his education. My son has started to read with the help of a prescriptive reading program in a more appropriate placement as a result of Dr Haytasingh’s contribution to his IEP. Brain Learning also provided me and my son an optimistic outlook towards his future. Dr. Haytasingh has a strong knowledge of his profession and has been able to equip me with tools that are tailored to my son’s needs and goals. More importantly, my son is now happier at school and proud to share his academic accomplishments. I highly recommend Brain Learning and Dr. Haytasingh!

Amy Mitten-Smith
Mom and Advocate

Crystal Ruse, M. Ed., BCBA is not only extremely knowledgeable and intelligent, but she also cares sincerely about the well-being of her clients. After her initial data intake, Crystal was open to discussing the fine points with me as a parent and made sure we were on the same page. Crystal was also a great asset during my son’s IEP meeting, by advocating assertively while maintaining a positive, professional demeanor. I would not hesitate to use her services again in the future.

want to take this time to make a recommendation on  Brain Learning. Specifically towards Christy Himestreet and Crystal Ruse. My son went through a very terrible time through the district and several people failed him along the way. I was recommended brain learning through several people, and I’m glad I went with them. Christy went above and beyond to not only look to my son’s best interest, but to look beyond the walls and things that the school districts therapist failed to look at when my son desperately needed the help. Christy’s compassion, genuine personality, and her professionalism was beyond my expectations. I felt lost, alone and as if no one was on my son’s side. And when brain learning started working with my son, it opened up the doors for my son to finally receive the help and support that was needed desperately. Because of Christy’s knowledge and work ethic, my son was able to be placed with the support that he needed. In addition to her findings, she was able to collaborate with other therapist and doctors that were also able to help build my son an incredible plan. Some kids like mine who have ADHD, often get left behind because they don’t fall within the scope of the district or the state standards. It takes a very knowledgeable and understanding beyond so much to find that children  like my son do in fact need support although their disabilities seem invisible. I also worked with Crystal, she had the same genuine, professional, passion for helping children like my son. this is not just a job, this is something they were made to do, and I am very appreciative for them coming to help my son. Thank you.

Logan’s Mommy.

Hello Christy and Team,

 I have been in a bit of mourning about the experience we had with Daphne’s school. I harbored quite a bit of hard feelings about the events that led us to Brain Learning, so it was difficult to tease out the good from the bad- the beauty of what I experienced the moment I walked into the Brain Learning office, from the pain of leaving my daughter’s only school, and my entire community of parents, and my 18 year career as a school librarian. So much of my identity, time, and effort had been invested in the public school model, that I hurt for myself and my child like we’d been left by her father. The cut was that deep.

Christy was the  first  provider in this process that approached my daughter through a strengths based perspective. Everyone prior pointed out all of my child’s deficits, which were numerous. I was sort of beaten down. Battling the school, making appointment after expensive appointment with bad after worse news.

And then, I walked into Brain Learning’s beautifully welcoming office, with artwork on the walls, and a warm atmosphere that felt like a balm for my soul. I immediately felt at ease. Christy tested our child, thoroughly and quickly. She put her at ease right away. Christy pointed out the ways that even her deficits, could be used as strengths. and that my child even possessed strengths at all, which I knew deep inside, but had lost sight of in the all of the testing. Christy’s observation of my child at school was enlightening, and I learned more about the child my daughter was when I wasn’t the classroom volunteer. Her final report was strong, and solidly written- simply air tight. The assessment of my daughter was balanced, truthfully presented, and in line with her true abilities and needs, which were being obfuscated by the school. I wouldn’t wish the IEP/IEE process on my worst enemy. However, if you’re already in the thick of it, this is the best professional to have on your team.

Ms. Reid