I’ve been working to link with North Carolina State Representatives, Superintendents, and Administrators. I have a plan and my plan is to come straight to you to share my family’s experiences of weaving through the public school system with two children with specific learning disabilities, trying to point out some of the holes we’ve found in the system and hoping that someone will not only take the time to read about our experiences, but maybe take action to make things better for the at least 15% of dyslexic students right here in North Carolina that struggle with reading. Sharing my family’s experiences comes with some risk as it might look like I’m continually bashing our public school system but I’m not. I am a graduate of the Ohio Public School System and I’m proud of it. However, I went through school not having a specific learning disability like my son whom is dyslexic and dysgraphic and because of that, his experience is vastly different from mine. I’m looking for school administrators with the guts to honestly look at their students' reading proficiency levels and if their schools are below where they should be, work to fix it, it’s that simple. If you have a program that isn’t working, please look at an Orton-Gillingham Multi-Sensory Based Program and consider bringing it into your school. I was recently in touch with a state entity that let me know that they just disperse funds to different districts, but don’t dictate which programs are used by each district. So, here’s my thought on that, hopefully some of our superintendents and school administrators take the time to read this and consider a different way, a better way for our students in North Carolina that struggle to read.
Worried about the cost of trying an O-G based program in your school? How big will the cost be of continuing to hold back children that struggle with reading again and again? Do you run a school where all students' reading proficiency is spot on? If so, congratulations, wonderful and thank you. I realize there are already programs in place, but if they’re not working, take a deep breath, grab your courage, give them the boot and bring in something that works. Maybe it could be on a trial basis with a few teachers trained in the program, working with a few students, monitoring the progress and then decide if it works for your school. Here is an article from Camp Spring Creek which works with children who struggle with reading, “Yancey County Principal Believes Orton Gillingham Training Played Critical Role In School Turnaround.” After you read the article you will see that Principal Sherry Robinson from Bald Creek Elementary took a chance and my hope as the mom of a dyslexic student, a mom who works as a volunteer O-G Tutor in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System is, that you will at least explore the option for our awesome North Carolina Students in your district.
My son was put into a class that used READ 180 and the teacher invited me in to watch how that program worked. I watched as he sat at the computer, repeatedly misspelled words over and over again and learned nothing. He was very engaged when it came to sitting around with the teacher and a small group of students but when it came to silent reading time, he wasn’t reading, he struggles with reading so he had no interest in it. After class, the teacher took the time to speak with me about the program and I gave her a copy of Dr. Sally Shaywitz’s, "Overcoming Dyslexia." I asked her how much experience she had working with dyslexic students and I could tell, she was a little offended so I apologized because I wasn’t there to offend her, my son really liked her, so I explained that I was just curious as to how much training they received in dealing specifically with dyslexic students. She then shared her schooling and training with me and shared that she had her masters degree in special education and even though she received no training in working with dyslexic students, her masters in special education qualified her to work with students with dyslexia. That explained why we would get notes sent home from her with concerns when our son took quizzes that consisted of a word spelled differently five times and my son had to pick which was the correct spelling. Sometimes he received high grades and sometimes very low grades. So, I shared with her the huge fluctuation, was because he was just guessing and that sometimes he got lucky. I will never forget her response, which was, “Well, if he’s guessing, we’ll make him the best guesser that he can be.”FACEPALM. At the end of the year, she suggested that even though she thought he was a wonderful student, READ 180 was not for him and just seemed to frustrate him. I think many schools use READ 180 but it certainly wasn’t the program for my dyslexic son and we wasted a year on a program that wasn't designed for him.
Wanted: School Administrators With Guts! Are you willing to take the chance that Orton-Gillingham may help raise your schools reading proficiency levels? I hope so.
Resources for more information on dyslexia & Orton-Gillingham Based Training:
Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity
http://dyslexia.yale.edu
READWS
http://www.readws.org/
Dyslexia Training Institute
http://www.dyslexiatraininginstitute.org
Headstrong Nation
http://headstrongnation.org
Dyslexic Advantage
http://community.dyslexicadvantage.org
International Dyslexia Association
http://eida.org/
Learning Ally
https://www.learningally.org/
Bright Solutions for Dyslexia
http://www.dys-add.com
Understood
https://www.understood.org
Eye To Eye
http://www.eyetoeyenational.org