WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY . . .

Dr Arina Lanser Educational Psychologist Independent Consultant to the Practica Program Roodepoort, Gauteng

I have literally tested thousands of children for school readiness during the two decades in private practice that preceded my involvement with the Practica Program, which started in March 2008. To this day I still see large numbers of children in my private practice every year.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that parents who actively use the Practica Program are exceptionally confident and well informed about their children's needs and development, and that their children blossom as a result.

Every child is naturally born with a potential that is unique to himself. Nonetheless, I have never assessed a 'normal' child, whose parents have regularly played the Practica games since he or she was relatively young, who failed to test above average or superior in the standard battery of school readiness tests that is used throughout South Africa . I find that astonishing!

Some areas of development obviously test weaker than others, even in the most gifted children, but when I discuss these 'weaker areas' with Practica parents, they respond with insight and confidence, ready to grab the bull by the horns.

I've seen a slogan on one of Practica's delivery vehicles that reads: "You can spot a Practica child." I feel that I need to add: "You can spot a Practica PARENT!"

All I can say is that I find their positive confidence intensely refreshing.

The child who has been stimulated with PRACTICA
By Dr. Johan van Niekerk

Since 1995 it has been my privilege to evaluate hundreds of children who have been stimulated with the PRACTICA Program.An evaluation is done by means of a battery of different tests, including the following:
A general aptitude and developmental test
A visual perceptual test
A motor development test
An evaluation of language skills
An evaluation of emotional development

Through the course of my career I have evaluated thousands of children at the Department of Education, as well as in my private practice.

The “PRACTICA child” generally responds to evaluation in a way that is noticeably different from the way in which other children typically respond. Some of my observations follow:The “Practica child” is more independent and more mature than the average child of his age. He doesn’t come across as being overconfident or demanding of attention, but he definitely displays a level of self-confidence that is generally found in much older children.

He has more insight than most other children and his ability to reason is far better developed. This enables him not only to provide the correct answers to questions, but also to elaborate on his answers. This ability is usually only observed in older children.

As a rule, Educational Psychologists evaluate children that are found to have very high IQ’s, as well those with IQ’s that are above average, average and below average. Prospective clients will probably find it interesting to hear that I have never tested a child that was properly stimulated with the PRACTICA Program, and found his IQ to be below average! In fact, in the 9 years that I’ve been doing evaluations for PRACTICA I have seldom tested a child with an average IQ. Almost all the PRACTICA children score ABOVE AVERAGE or VERY HIGH! And the parents of most “average” children usually admit that they haven’t really been using their programs.

I’ve noticed two typical characteristics of PRACTICA children: I am consistently impressed by the high level of EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT that I observe in them and they typically display a special sense of initiative and creativity. PRACTICA parents usually find it hard to contain themselves when they talk about the ingenuity of their children. These children do things independently and they hardly ever ask: “What can I do?”

An interesting last comment – as I test a child, I can clearly see whether the child has really been stimulated with the PRACTICA program or not. Parents are usually amazed at how ‘insightful’ I am. I don’t mention this to intimidate anyone – my goal is to motivate parents to use PRACTICA!


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