​Sadly the behaviors we observe in a classroom setting or similar learning environment are often mislabeled as lack of attention, not being ready to learn, or the child is not interested in learning.  Often we make bold assumptions about a child's motivation and level of ability ability based on a few behavioral observations. I'm not saying that Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or other behavioral problems aren't possibilities.  I am cautioning parents and professionals about making those statements BEFORE precise measures of specific skills have been gathered.  It is human nature to avoid situations and expectations that are unpleasant and challenging.  Every time I have to buy a pair of pants in a larger size I feel awful but I know exactly what needs to be don't to prevent this from happening.  So I may find the initiative to begin an exercise regiment and I may be fairly committed for a few weeks, but since I am older now and terribly out of shape it takes longer for me to get any reward from all those efforts.  I become discouraged and eventually reason with myself that it's not SO bad going up one pant size.  Well 3 pant size later, my challenge and frustration are greater resulting in more excuses and less motivation.

Motivation is a powerful thing but it is also very fragile.  When children come to me to test or even to begin intervention often the first hurdle is convincing them that I know what I'm doing.  If you think about it that is a valid concern the child has because in his mind there is a school full of teachers, a house full of adults, and sometimes tutors that have come before Mrs. Melissa that all claimed they were going to "help" him and things are still hard and he is still not successful.  The child often feels stupid and has no reason to believe Mrs. Melissa will be any different.    

Children enter school with skill sets that vary significantly.  Some children enter school and with little effort from themselves or the teacher these kids thrive in the educational environment.  Some children begin school just a little behind and everything is so new they are excited and in awe of it all.  These kids will often seem to get off to a slow start but after a few weeks turn a corner and join the first group of peers.  Some children start off and are clearly lacking the skills needed to be successful in the classroom.  Most of the time these children, if not already identified, are easy to recognize and begin the process of referrals for testing, intervention, and possibly speech language or occupational therapy services.  

There is at least one more group of children.  Now these students are the trickiest because our first impression is that they fall into one of the first two groups mentioned, immediate success or a slow start but quickly succeed.  Maybe these children have great communication and social skills.  They are eager to share a wealth of knowledge that impresses the teacher because surely if they are that successful orally that will transfer to success in written language.  Maybe they start out weak in some areas but seem to "catch up".  However typically after Christmas when classroom demands change parents and teachers witness these students begin to separate from their peers in their progress and level of success on critical academic skills like reading, spelling, and writing.  Everyone is baffled because "he is so smart" and "he is so articulate and engaging".  

The desire for answers and the need to come up with a plan to promote success begins to add pressure to both parents and teachers.  Teachers have to begin to make decisions for the next school year so bold statements are made without tangible factual evidence as to possibly reasons WHY this child has moved into a different group.  Here are some of the statements I have been told.  Even though I am using the pronoun "he/his/him" these comments are not unique to boys it's simply that boys are most often the ones who stand apart.  I know these things are said about girls as well because my parents were told some of these things about me!

1.  The work is getting harder and the he isn't trying or he isn't motivated to do the work.  
2.  He is lazy and gives up easily.  He doesn't care about school.
​3.  He is successful if he likes what he is doing but he simply doesn't like school.
4.  He isn't on task and is frequently doing other things, I think he may have some attention issues.
5.  He is struggling with the increased responsibilities of middle school.  He just needs to grow up.
6.  He needs another year to mature so retention is in his best interest.
7.  He just needs to read more.
8.  He watches too much TV or spends too much time on some other electronic device.

In order to be able to support these statements many other possible causes need to be ruled out.  Here is a list of some things that could explain the same kind of behaviors children exhibit in the classroom.

1.  Different people process auditory information at different rates and levels of accuracy.  Some children need more time to process information or they need the information and instructions to be delivered in smaller chunks.  Since we have a lot we are trying to accomplish each day in the classroom we will often rattle off a list of things for the students to do.  For children who processes information at a slower rate or have a limited memory capacity, often hear the first part of the instructions or the last part but ultimately "loose" or miss a part.  As a result the child does not perform the desired action because they can't remember it.  So they either stall out at whatever the last step they remember thus looking like they are refusing to do the activity or got distracted in the process.  Sometimes the child does what he thinks he heard because he knows there is something else and he doesn't want to get in trouble.  The behaviors that are observed are often attributed to being distracted, not following directions, or being noncompliant.  But if I need more time to process information or I struggle to hold information in my working memory I honestly don't remember or didn't accurately process what the teacher said.

2.  Some children have a set of strengths in their oral language skills that allows them to be successful in the classroom in early elementary years because the nature of the classrooms provide a lot of visuals they can rely on to help them remember information.  Also the books they are expected to read and discuss are often on topics they are familiar and therefore can rely on their prior knowledge to "read" a word even if they say turtle when the word is actually tortoise but they see in the picture an animal with a shell and they know the word turtle so it is a logical conclusion.  Their comprehension of the material is not compromised because they know enough about the topic the book doesn't really add to any information so I can answer the questions regardless of how inaccurately they decoded each word.  

Also one of the first strategies we encourage children to use when reading is to look at the pictures "read" an unknown word.  I'm not sure why these strategies are taught and encouraged because research has repeatedly proven they work less than 10% of the time when pictures are available.  As for the child, the teacher observes success and then suddenly, usually later int he school year or in the next grade, the child isn't experiencing the same level of success.  He must not like reading or isn't trying hard, right?  He must not be paying attention to what he is reading, right?

Well think about the environmental and curriculum changes that naturally occur as a student progresses through school.  The ratio between the number of words and number of pictures on the pages in a book changes until there are only words and no more pictures.  The strategy, look at the picture and think about what you are reading, we have encouraged from day 1 of instruction, the strategies the child has not relied upon are no longer available.  So now the child is forced to rely on his decoding skills in order to read but have had very little practice with this skills therefore it is not his first line of defense.  Besides sounding the word out will slow him down so he can just skip it because it can't be that important, right?  

Also, less and less information is displayed in the classroom and eventually children begin going to different classrooms for different subjects so even if something helpful like a word wall was displayed the child may not be in that classroom when he needs that support in order to be successful.  

Finally, as a child progresses through school there is a shift away from learning to read towards reading to learn.  This means there is no more direct instruction provided in how to read, decode, or spell.  We assume that if the child can read single syllable words with relative ease they will generalize that skill to multi syllable words.  The thing we forget is that some of the sound symbol connections change as we increase the number of syllables in a word and one needs knowledge of syllable rules and spelling rules in order to be able to independently read those unfamiliar words.  Also the vocabulary and content in the written material is beyond the child's oral language comprehension and vocabulary.  So the strategy of stumbling through words and/or sounding a word out until it matches a word they know steadily decreases which is exacerbated because the words the child is being exposed to are the words he needs to grow and develop his oral language skills.  It's a viscous cycle.

I've only given two possibilities here but there are many more and all can be rules out by assessing specific skills.  If a child is experience anything described above the behavior they will exhibit is similar to the behavior we attribute to attention deficits, behavior problems, or laziness.  Can you confidently claim ADHD, behavior, or laziness are the culprits behind the behaviors observed in the classroom or at home?  Of the two examples given above is there anything mentioned  that could possibly describe your child or a student in your classroom?  As educators, the decisions we make for children and the comments we boldly make can impact not only a child's progress in school that year, but also set the stage for academic progress and opportunities years down the road which sets the stage for the possibilities available to the child in adulthood.  For me that is a lot of responsibility and I do not want to make a judgement based on observed behaviors without tangible and reliable information to support my claims.  I wouldn't want a surgeon performing surgery where he thinks I need it based on observations.  I would demand specific tests because I would want surgery at all to be the last resort.  Shouldn't we apply that same expectation when making decisions about children?

​Through out history there are periods of time where an opportunity to be educated was a privilege of the wealthy.  An education or lack there of separated classes of people.  The ability to read was not a skill everyone had mastered or had the privilege to learn.  One would think that hundreds of years and many generation later that the opportunity to be educated would no longer be limited to a few thus making it more of a privilege than a basic human right. 
 
To my knowledge, neither of my grandparents had a college education.  I am uncertain if my paternal grandfather even completed high school.  My father was the first in his family to receive a college education.  After graduating high school, my parents were not expected to go to college but had the opportunity if they wanted it.  Many from their generation did not go to college or at least not immediately.  That was not necessarily unusual especially since there were many trade schools available for people to train specifically for a job.  As my parents raised my siblings and me it was always assumed we would each get a college education.  I don’t remember a time my parents said we had to, it was just expected because they worked hard to make sure we had the opportunity. 
 
Of the four of us 3 have college degrees with two of us having advanced degrees.  We are all successful professionals in our respective fields.  The commonality between my siblings, my parents, and myself is that we all had the OPPORTUNITY to make a choice to go to college or pursue specialized training because we had a high school education.  As we each graduated high school we were literate adults who could effectively communicate using written language.  In short we could read and write.
 
There is an assumption that if you have a high school diploma you are a literate adult.  It is assumed that you have the ability to read and to write to the level that provides you the opportunity to go to college if you wanted or you could pursue a career of your choice.  Sure there would be some who graduated better prepared and suited for continuing their education in college, but regardless of their decision for the future those high school graduates could read and write. 
 
In the past week HERE 4 Kids has been contacted by 3 different 19-year-old individuals who graduated from high school in 2015 and are struggling to begin careers because they cannot pass the various tests that give them the opportunities to pursue these careers.  Every single one of these young adults lacks the necessary reading and writing skills to move on to the next stage of their life.  These young adults all come from either a working class or middle class family.  These young adults attended school regularly, received diplomas, and were deemed ready for life as a productive and contributing citizen in our society.  So why can they not pass the necessary pretests to join the military or get a drivers license or enter a technical training program?
 
Some of you reading may assume that these young adults have some kind of cognitive deficit.  Well, I have looked at two of the three full psychoeducational evaluations completed by the schools these young adults attended and the results indicate at least two of them actually don’t have average cognitive ability because they have ABOVE average cognitive ability with IQ scores ranging from 118-130, average is 90-110.  So I ask you again, why do these young adult high school graduates not have the basic level of proficiency in reading and writing needed to enter specific careers?
 
Some may claim these young adults did not have good attendance or maybe they were behavior problems and that interfered with them learning.  Again, after reviewing school records I can confirm not only were they not behavior problems but they attended area schools regularly and these school have a reputation for being one of the stronger schools in central Arkansas. 
 
A few weeks ago I met individually with one of these young adults whose parents had paid for additional tutoring after school for many years.  Since graduating this parent continued to encourage her son to find help to improve his reading and writing ability so he can pursue training in a specific profession.  In the beginning this young man was resistant because whose is to say that after 13 years of attending school regularly that someone else could help him now.  He immediately began two different jobs working 7 days a week to make enough to live.  His options for jobs are limited and therefore he works hard physical labor 7 days a week.  Once the cold weather set in and his body began to feel the effects of this labor, he felt motivated to pursue other career options but knows he can’t get far unless he improves his reading and writing skills.
 
My partner met with a young woman tonight who wants to enter the military but could not pass a written test, which is the first step in the process.  This young person is angry because even after 13 years of an education she can’t pursue a career in the military because she does not have a necessary level of proficiency to read and write.  If asked the questions she could be successful but when expected to read and write she is unsuccessful.  My partner met with her tonight and like all first sessions she tested her knowledge of the basic sounds and symbols of our language.  Like all other struggling readers, this young woman new most of her consonant sounds because those consistently make the same sound for the most part but was not proficient with reading vowel sounds like knowing the “ea” can be the long or short vowel E sound.  If you can’t decipher the code, i.e. the letters and words, how can her knowledge be assessed except orally?
 
There are many people through out history who fought for the opportunity to be educated because it is well known that an education equals opportunity.  We have laws that require all children to regularly attend school.  We have countless educational initiatives, better-trained teachers, and quality materials.  So I ask again, how is it that we have three high school graduates who have few opportunities for their future?  Maybe you think these young adults are not representative of a typical high school graduating class but when 68% of children are not reading on grade level, statistically these three young adults are the few brave enough to admit their weaknesses and pursue assistance.  The next barrier is that with the jobs they are qualified to work they do not have excess time or income to support the typical tutoring and reading intervention fees.  These three young adults will learn to read well enough to pursue the futures they want through our program because of the generosity of others.  Sadly there are too many others that have already given up on their future.  Maybe they are doing what they can to survive in life or maybe they are self medicating like many end up choosing.  The statistics paint a very limited and grim future for those who cannot read and write. 
 
We have already failed one generation.  Please help us change the face of education and use instruction that is supported by scientific research.  Support our efforts to train current and future educators on the science of reading supported by countless studies on the brain and the neurological signature of learning differences such as Dyslexia.  Stop arguing that we are doing it correctly.  Stop making excuses that the problem is poverty or lack of parental support.  These three young adults don’t meet that criteria and still can’t read and there are many children who succeed in spite of their socioeconomic status or the level of support of their parents.  These three young adults, when they start their families, lack the basic reading and writing skills needed to help their children so do their children deserve the same limited opportunities because we failed their parents?
 
We cannot move backwards and make education a privilege for a few.  An education, especially the ability to read and write, is a basic human right because it is the key to opportunities in the future.  The fewer literate high school graduates we produce the fewer competent and able people we have for our work force.  We are heading in the wrong direction.  Help us help others.  Help us give children the basic human right, the ability to read and write, so they can accomplish whatever goal they set in the future. 

​As a speech language pathologist I am required to complete a comprehensive evaluation before I begin providing services.  The evaluation serves 2 purposes.  The first is to determine if the child is in fact in need of the therapy services.  The second is to use the information from the evaluation and outline a treatment plan specific for the child’s strengths and weaknesses in order to promote success and encourage development of specific skills that are the cause of the identified disability.
 
This protocol is second nature to me regardless if I am providing speech and language therapy, teaching an entire class, or providing Dyslexia intervention.  Yesterday I was reminded that this is a very foreign concept for too many professionals.  There is a tremendous misinterpretation of the purpose and usefulness of gathering quality diagnostic information and progress monitoring data.
 
This brings me to my next point.  This diagnostic data should be used to outline an appropriate treatment plan and then additional data should be gathered in order to measure the effectiveness of the intervention I am providing.  So when a professional explains….”He is not making huge progress but he is making some slow progress” I want to know exactly what that means.  If I don’t understand that statement and I live in the world of data how can we expect parents to understand much less accept it?
 
So what is progress for a child who is not reading on grade level?  If a child is in 1st grade and is currently reading on a level 4 would that be considered good?  You be the judge. 
 
At the end of kindergarten this child was on a level 1.  After intensive summer intervention the child began 1st grade reading on a level 3.  As of yesterday the child is on a level 4. That probably doesn’t sound all bad because it wasn’t explained to the parent what is expected for children in 1st grade.  
 
So here is the reading level progression expected for 1st grade children in this school district.  At the end of the first 9 weeks the child should be reading on a Level 4-6.  At the end of the 2nd 9 weeks the child should be reading on a level 8-10.  We are very quickly approaching this cutoff for the student who has only moved from a 3 to a 4.  By the end of 1st grade a child should read on a level 16-18. 
 
Do you think the child I mentioned above who has only moved from a level 3 to a level 4 is making adequate progress?
 
Would your answer be different if I told you this child not only receives regular classroom instruction, but extra individual instruction from his classroom teacher and another extra reading intervention provided in a small group every day by a reading interventionist?
 
This is a child with average to above average intelligence.  This is a child who has been diagnosed by 2 different unrelated specialists as having Dyslexia.  Both the classroom teacher and reading interventionist want to help this child and I believe they are working hard to promote success in this child.  HOWEVER, because the intervention and instruction is not aligned with the methods proven by research to work for children with Dyslexia, this child is only moving 1 level every 12 weeks of so.  At that rate how many weeks will it take this child to reach the desired end of 1st grade reading level of 16-18?
 
I do not share this to point fingers or insinuate professionals  are not good at what they know how to do.  I share this because for whatever reason this very slow progress is deemed acceptable and instead of investigating what methods would work best for this child’s needs, professionals in certain positions are refusing to explore proven Dyslexia intervention for this child.  The parent was actually told that providing a proven Dyslexia intervention would actual “set the child back”.  Instead of being open to learning new methods that have been proven for almost a century to work for kids with Dyslexia, certain professionals are determined to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.  And when that doesn’t give the results desired the suggestion is to simply do it more often or for longer periods of time.  Does anyone else see this a ludicrous?
 
If I were sick and the prescribed antibiotic was not making me better I would go right back to the doctor asking for something else.  My doctor listens to me and adjusts the treatment plan.  He doesn’t look at me and say, I know you still have an infection and feel horrible but your fever is no longer 106 its now 100.  That’s progress!  Thankfully I would have the option to seek a second opinion and different treatment options but our students don’t have that luxury. 
 
Reading is just as important as our physical health.  If I am not physically healthy my life is in jeopardy.  If I cannot read my future is limited and for many that results in substance abuse, incarceration, and/or limited job opportunities.
 
At some point we have to do what’s in the best interest of our children, not what is in the best interest of someone’s outdated ineffective teaching methods.
 
#saydyslexia  #successstartsH.E.R.E.

​While meeting with a parent today we were discussing how the Dyslexia law was being implemented in her area.  She shared with me a conversation she recently had with a school administrator about implementing the law.  Apparently this particular administrator stated there would be limited implementation of the law because ”Dyslexia Is Just a Fad.”  Oh how I would love to have an opportunity to speak with this administrator.
 
Now here IS a “fad” I wish would pass…illiteracy.  I have searched and searched for information about the literacy skill level of children in Arkansas and for over a decade the vast majority of children are reading BELOW grade level (e.g. proficient).  We know that the research-based proven methods of instruction that work for a dyslexic child will work with ALL children regardless of the reason they are performing below grade level.  You can say Dyslexia is a “fad” if you want that is your prerogative but the fact of the matter is TOO MANY CHILDREN cannot read on grade level and there is a tremendous amount of research that indicates once behind always behind or your level of literacy competence at the end of 1st grade WILL determine your level of success in 9th grade.  So why do we wait? 
 
More food for thought, 30 minutes a day of intense strategic intervention in kindergarten and 1st grade will remediate the vast majority of skill deficits that result in reading failure.  However for those same children it takes 2 hours a day, every day, of intensive intervention to remediate the reading deficits of a child in 4th grade and beyond.  Hmm, seems to me it would be more cost effective to target 30 minutes a day for kindergarten and 1st grade.
 
I agree there will be a lot of children that meet the profile of Dyslexia that may not be Dyslexic but that is because we are failing to teach them the foundation skills critical for reading success.  So call the children who are not reading what you want, I don’t care, BUT STILL TEACH THEM TO READ and guess what….the methods and the system in place is not working and hasn’t been for too many years.  If you really want to separate the Dyslexics from the non-Dyslexics that are all reading below grade level then provide them with the right support and intervention.  Those that are not Dyslexic will respond quickly to the intervention and their progress will look different from those that are Dyslexic.  The other bonus is that the children who are not Dyslexic will not need the intervention for very long because they will catch up.  But the fact is regardless if they are or are not Dyslexic, if they are NOT reading on grade level we have limited the options they have in life.
 
So #saydyslexia and give children the opportunity to live the life they want.  Arm them with the literacy skills to help them break out of the cycle of poverty so many of them are trapped in simply because they cannot read.  Call it a fad if you want but we have been failing children for too many years to continue to ignore the reading failure rampant in our state and in the country.

One of my favorite parts of my career is doing comprehensive evaluations.  I am a firm believer that there is a real cause to difficulty in the classroom and even though it can take time and a lot of effort to figure out what is going wrong, a good comprehensive evaluation will help get parents and professional on the right track.

Dyslexia evaluations are the trickiest.  These kids keep me on my toes.  Just when I think I have them "figured out" and know which tests are best to give I will test a child that challenges all of that.  For this population in particular it is critical not to over focus on standard scores.  The speech pathologist in me is conditioned to look for the scores that are "low enough" to make a child eligible for services either through their school or a private clinic.  Those are rules we have to follow but what most evaluators don't realize and often miscommunicate to parents and teachers, is that the scores don't dictate the presence or absence of a disability, the entire profile of strengths and weaknesses does.

Most people like for things to be either black or white, right or wrong, Dyslexic versus not Dyslexic.  It feels good to sort things into defined categories that match.  So when you come across a child who doesn't quite fit most people assume an all or nothing mentality.  This CANNOT be the mentality when doing a Dyslexia evaluation.  So many of these children are incredibly intelligent and find ways to compensate which often results in a scatter of scores, some in the average range while others are not.  Then to compound the problem certain types of interventions further build the child's strengths and compensatory strategies that their weaknesses, the real source of the difficulty, remain hidden.  It's in these situations that I hear comments like, "He isn't trying hard enough" or "School's just not her thing" or "Your lazy".  In some instances, it's easy to draw that conclusion but can I support that with any data?  How do you measure ones effort in order to determine if they are trying hard enough?  If you evaluated me by effort and work ethic on my ability to play the guitar or any musical instrument you would be very disappointed.  No matter how hard I try I simply can't do it and I even took guitar lessons for a few years.  Sheer effort isn't enough if you lack specific foundation skills.

Now that some children are getting the right kind of intervention the test score profile is changing.  To further complicate the problem not all test instruments that say they are measuring the same skills actually get the same results.  Some are more sensitive to identifying weaknesses and areas of deficit than others.  You have to look at the entire picture and I know for many people one of the biggest factors is the quality of classroom instruction the child has had.  I agree that sets the stage BUT how do you measure ineffective instruction?  If I find deficits in a child's literacy skills and I attribute them to lack of instruction what do I do next?  These kids don't get recommended for services and yet research has proven that once a child gets behind they stay behind.  What about that makes sense?  Suddenly staying in that environment that has already failed the child is somehow going to yield different results?  Why are we hoarding help and the right kind of intervention?  Why are we reserving this help and intervention only for the most severe when those who have more mild deficits could be remediated and be successful in a much shorter period of time?  But our plan is to wait until their deficits get more severe and then try and help?  Then the child has an even larger mountain to climb.

This "wait and see" attitude, or "it's only the 5th week of school", or "you know his daddy didn't do well in school that's just what it is", or "we don't have there resources" IS NOT WORKING.  Over 65% of children in Arkansas are not reading on grade level.  So our education system is only successful 35% of the time?  If you were seriously ill, would you go to the doctor that wanted to "wait and see" and on top of it and had a 65% FAILURE rate?  It's easier to see how choosing doctors could be a life or death choice.  The reality is that choosing to a allow 65% of our children to fail were are robbing them of their future and for too many that will result in substance abuse, incarceration, poverty, and in some cases death.  

So I challenge you to #sayDyslexia.  I challenge you to TEACH CHILDREN TO READ regardless of the reasons they are failing.  At 10 years of age my teacher told me I would never go to college and I would be lucky to graduate high school because I needed to "try harder", "school wasn't my thing", "you know she's just a dumb jock".  THANK GOD my parents not only didn't believe that but had the resources to remove me and find me an environment that not only expected me to be successful but also give me the the tools and support to accomplish it on my own.  Imagine how different our world would be if we did that for this and future generations.  

JUST TEACH THE KIDS TO READ and stop worrying about the scores or sorting everyone into neat diagnostic boxes.  Look at the entire child and the future that is before them THEN figure out how to build the bridge that will get them from failure to success because IT IS POSSIBLE!

Meanwhile children in Arkansas are waiting to learn how to read.  

My goal for October which is Dyslexia Awareness Month is to encourage people to say DYSLEXIA.  It is not a scary thing.  Sure school is difficult but with those challenges come many gifts which we recognize in many famous people who are also Dyslexic.  Most of those Dyslexics did not get help and some didn't even know they had it until much later in life.  That does NOT have to be the case in Arkansas any more!!!!!

As many of you know the Dyslexia law is now officially in effect in our state.  I spent the summer with the help of Shawnda Majors, Tammy Benson, and several other members of the University of Central Arkansas College of Education staff working to educate professionals not only on Dyslexia but also what they can do to help these children.  We trained on how to administer and interpret Level 2 Screening/Assessments.  We discussed the specific stages of reading development and things teachers can begin doing immediately to promote success in their classrooms.  We had a great turn out but the best is the continued dialogue with these professionals now that the school year has started.

One other amazing thing we did this summer was a free Dyslexia screening and community awareness seminar in El Dorado, Arkansas.  We had an incredible turnout and have decided to have a repeat performance in October.  What better way to celebrate the gifts of Dyslexia then to help identify children exhibiting characteristics and provide training for professionals and awareness and education for parents.

Sure we have a long way to go and some days it feels as if we are fighting a loosing battle.  Like most things as awareness spreads more and more people seek help.  This is wonderful but has also led many people to shy away from saying DYSLEXIA.  What I want people to know is that no matter what you call it, Dyslexia, Reading Disability, Specific Learning Disability the "symptoms" are all the same....the individual is NOT performing at a level consistent with their age, grade, or cognitive ability in the area of reading and writing.  The good news is that a label doesn't change the fact that sound teaching based in scientific research will yield positive results for EVERY child.  Just think if we embrace this change, stop fighting it and simply #saydyslexia, we won't only be helping children with Dyslexia but ALL CHILDREN.  There should never be a reason why 60% of the children in your state are not reading on grade level.  

So this October which is Dyslexia Awareness month #saydyslexia because if we start saying it we will discover all the gifts it brings and maybe won't be so fearful of the challenge these children face learning to read and write.  Thank you to all the parents and professionals who have selflessly joined our efforts.  If you would like take a minute and share your story of your fabulously unique 1 in 5!!!

At the end of the school year one of the families with who I work received an email from their daughter's classroom teacher about the progress she has made. Because of all the snow this winter we really did not consistently begin working with one another until the beginning of March and then we had spring break, etc. I meet with this little girl in the 2nd grade once a week. I use the principles and techniques of the DuBard Association Method in conjunction with her school spelling program. She has responded phenomenally. Here are the results that her teacher reported at the end go the year after only approximately 9 weeks of interventions......

Child X -- STAR reading scored grew from the 22 percentile to the 62 percentile in comparison to 2nd graders nation wide. Her grade equivalent on the same test went from a 1.5 (1st grade 5th month) to a 3.2 (3rd grade 2nd month).  Her score on the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) was a 34 and end of second grade expected in 28-30.

These results are not the same for every child BUT since the program is tailored to the needs of that individual child progress is there, the rate may vary.  The above-mentioned child and I will begin working again next week after a month break. I can't wait to see where she is performing before school starts in August. I didn't perform magic...I simply used a proven multi sensory program that teachers in a systematic and incremental way. I can't wait to train others on how to get the same results from their students!!! 


Thank you to the DuBard School for allowing me this opportunity.

There is alway something else to learn.  There are new ideas and methods as well as a reintroduction to things overlooked or forgotten.  The more you know the more you can help others.  I love learning new perspectives and approaches especially if it could possibly hold the answer or the key to success for a child.  I encourage you to join us at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas.  UCA has graciously provided the opportunity for professionals to come together and learn more about Dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities.  Please check out the descriptions for each training.  We hope to see you there.  Meanwhile, in Arkansas, children are waiting to learn how to read.