The LearningRx Programs

LearningRx centers sell one-on-one brain training services. It is important to understand the programs to be able to discuss the company intelligently.

LearningRx Inc sells its franchisees books and materials to do brain training. The names of the books become names of programs

ThinkRx is always at least 12-weeks in duration. I saw this sold as a program in 24-week or even 36-week ThinkRx program chunks.

When a student does a ReadRx program, they are working in both the ThinkRx and ReadRx books and the program is at least 24-weeks long. ReadRx is focused on looking at written (nonsense) words and reading them. In itself it is not a reading comprehension program.

When a student does a MathRx program, they are working in both the ThinkRx and MathRx books and the program is at least 24-weeks long. MathRx is focused on elementary skills such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, fractions, and logic skills.

ReadRx and MathRx are never done as stand-alone programs, but always along with ThinkRx.

As you might guess, the company has a program that includes ThinkRx, ReadRx, and MathRx which it calls Einstein and the program is 36-weeks long.

In recent years, the company has added other programs. LiftOff is like ThinkRx, but directed at younger children. It is also at least a 12-week program.

ComprehendRx is a reading comprehension program that is included with other programs. If a student knows how to read words on the page, but doesn't comprehend what is being read, this is the focus of this program.

BrainSkills is called the "digital product" which you can think of as software games played on the Internet. It is in direct competition with http://lumosity.com, but costs ten or fifteen times as much.

By the by, when you hear about studies being done on LearningRx programs, BrainSkills is being used. One-on-one brain training is incredibly difficult and expensive to do research because it is "customized to each individual student" and is incredibly dependent on the "skills of the trainer." When you hear that LearningRx doesn't have research backing it up, the only exception might be BrainSkills.

Even as I write this and previous posts, various customer, employee, and franchisee complaints come to my mind. Not all complaints are true and not all complaintns are equally true. Please be patient and I'll deal with the complaints in depth once I think we can do it with you having a deeper understanding of the company.

The Cost of LearningRx

As stated in a previous post, if you call asking for a range of prices, LearningRx will avoid answering the question. This is true when you call, but it is also true on the Internet. On its own website, LearningRx evades the question of costs when it answers the question of costs. Why?

Getting to a Price

We can make this very simple. If in a brief phone conversation, you tell me your child is behind in reading, we are talking $7000 to $10,000. If you tell me that you are also very concerned about her math skills, then you can increase that upper range to $15,000. If you only have concerns about math, then we are back to $7000 to $10,000. Why can't the person tell you this when you call instead of trying to press you into getting an assessment? Because she is told to avoid the cost question. Why?

Because they want you to be get all caught up in the emotions during the sales process before you are told the prices. By going through the assessment, you start to get curious and you watch the marketing video. You want to see what the assessment finds. During the consultation, by talking about your son or daughter, you'll have emotions rise to the surface.  I'll say it again, "When mom begins to cry, she is ready to buy."

Telling you the cost when you are on the phone, objectively comparing different alternatives of where you might find help will not cause you to have a huge internal drive to shell out the money and commit to driving to the center every day or every other day for 24 weeks.

Pricing Table

Here are the costs in a simple format:

12-week program: $3500 (partner) or $5000 (pro)
24-week program: $7000 (partner) or $10,000 (pro)
36-week program: $10,500 (partner) or $15,000 (pro)

Some centers use the digital product (BrainSkills) as the home training option. Others supplement the above with another $1000 cost to add the digital product to your program. Also, if you give signs that price is no cost, you'll get a bigger program.

In the center, the center director wasn't confident she could get results in a 12-week program so she would only sell that to motivated adult students. If it was a child, it would almost always be 16-weeks or more.

Know that the above prices vary depending on the center, because franchisees set their own pricing for their own market. In every market it is this simple.

[I'll explain the programs in another post: pro, partner, ThinkRx, ReadRx, MathRx, etc.... It won't all fit here.]

Reconciling to the Ad You Saw

And in the ad that said that programs start at $1500 (to lure you in), that is talking about using BrainSkills only. I heard rumblings that some centers were setting up computer labs to do this training in the center or in schools, but it could also be done in the comfort of your own home.

Inside the center, the Center Director would always say that BrainSkills was inferior to one-on-one brain training that the results weren't nearly as good. Yet, she would sell BrainSkills when she didn't think parents would be able to afford the in-center training.

Drive up in a Lexus, drive away with LearningRx will be your nexus.... for the next 24 to 36 weeks.

Sharing My Experience about LearningRx (Learning Rx, Learning RX)

This is my blog devoted solely to my experiences and knowledge about being part of a LearningRx.

My experience with LearningRx allowed me to see both the good and bad of the company and its service. I will try to remain balanced as I discuss, confirm, deny, or qualify LearningRx complaints. The company would only want me to share the good, but this would ignore the bad and the ugly.

I hope this blog is helpful to people who are considering paying for the services, people thinking of getting into the business as a franchisee or as an employee, or people considering getting out of the business. I have done all three, so I can speak from all of these perspectives.

Some people refer to the company as LRX or as Learning RX or as Learning Rx, but all of these really refer to LearningRx.