“when I was in grade school, and I’d sit down to do my school work, the amount of effort it would take me to do one math problem or read one paragraph felt like an eternity,” said the 17-year-old junior at Shoals Christian Academy in Florence. “But all that was before we had a name for it.”
After years of testing for everything from food allergies to attention deficit disorder, Stephen finally learned it was dyslexia that had hindered his academic progress.
He’s not alone. Estimates are that as high as 15 percent of school children in the United States have a severe form of dyslexia, which is a neurological disorder that impairs the brain’s ability to process information, particularly reading, spelling and writing. in Alabama, 20,000 students struggle with dyslexia, and often, these children aren’t diagnosed until it’s too late to totally reverse the effects of the
Officials at the federal, state and local levels say they’re meeting these students’ needs without giving them an added burden of being labeled as
Parents, however, say the schools don’t do enough to ensure their dyslexic children find success.
Alexa Posny, assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services for the U.S. Department of Education, said a label of dyslexia isn’t important to actually treating the disorder in the classroom.
“when we think of a child with a disability, we don’t need another category, and it’s not that I don’t believe dyslexia isn’t one of them,” she said. “to me, it’s irrelevant. if a child has a disability and needs support and services, we need to provide that.”
Melissa Edmonds, Stephen’s mom, knew long before he was diagnosed with dyslexia that something wasn’t right. Finding someone to put a name to the problem was another matter.
“we were all relieved when we knew what it was,” she said. “we felt like we could do something then.”
Edmonds didn’t just help her child cope with his dyslexia. She’s being trained in the Orton Gillingham method of learning, a method used by educators to help those with dyslexia.
“we were driving back and forth to (a specialist) in Decatur a few times a week,” Edmonds said. “I joke about having lost a car in all this, but we did because we put so many miles on one. how many parents can afford to do that, or would go to that kind of trouble? It’s not been easy.”
In schools, educators are taught to identify students who fall behind. when that happens, a problem-solving team steps in to initiate a more intensive, individualized approach to the student’s needs. if that fails to solve the issue, the student is then placed on an individual education plan to help overcome the problem.
Nowhere in all of this is the actual problem named.
Edmonds said that’s where the disconnect between educators and parents comes into play.
With her training in place, she has begun tutoring local students who have dyslexia.
“I’ve had parents come to me in tears and tell me that a teacher said there was no such thing as dyslexia,” she said. “when that happens, you know there’s a problem because the numbers are there. I’ve had teachers tell me they’ve not seen a dyslexic student in years. It’s not because there aren’t any; it’s because the teacher hasn’t identified any.”
While the education model has shifted the emphasis from categorizing learning disabilities to treating the group, Posny said stories such as Edmonds’ illustrate problems exist.
“Early on, we spent a lot of dollars providing assistance and how to do that effectively, and lately, a lot of time has been on response intervention,” she said. “It sounds like we may need to go back and look at diagnostics.”
Putting the focus back on how teachers are trained at the college and university level is one way to help alleviate the problem, said Mabry Whetstone, director for special education services for the Alabama State Department of Education.
“The core element that’s missing here is that dyslexia is primarily a general education issue, and it needs to be dealt with through general education,” he said. “There needs to be more opportunities for training general education teachers around dyslexia to help prevent dyslexia from ever becoming serious enough to qualify for being in special education.”
Vicky Hulsey, an associate professor of elementary education at the University of North Alabama, said
literacy and reading are the core elements in the
“if you have a child with dyslexia, it doesn’t mean he can’t master the content of the curricula; it means they need alternative ways to reinforce that content beyond the written word,” she said.
Some schools locally “work beautifully, while others still function as though its the 1950s,” Hulsey said.
At the heart of the matter for special education coordinators on the front lines, including David Jones at Sheffield, are resources.
“we do what’s asked of us with the resources we have, which are limited,” he said. “if we had unlimited amounts of money, there’d be no end to how we could help, but that’s just not how it is.”
Jones estimates there are an average of three students in the system at any given time who have been independently identified and diagnosed with dyslexia. At that point, he said, a system is in place to help them succeed.
“But I see that number growing,” Jones said. “Like autism, dyslexia is a hot-button issue. As parents become more educated and as pediatricians make referrals to early intervention programs, we’re only going to see more and more students with this.”
Where the money will come from to help those students is unclear.
Were the resources for meeting the needs of dyslexic children in place, Marcia Ramsey believes her facility, the Greengate School
in Huntsville, would be
“Children’s needs are not being met in public schools for one reason or another,” she said. “My perspective is that public school teachers are doing their darnedest; they’re not actively trying to sabotage it.”
Ramsey founded Greengate in 2002 because, like Edmonds, her son struggled in the public school system. She recalls the nights he’d cry over his school work, unable to complete the assignments. After being trained in the Orton Gillingham method, Ramsey began working with her son as well as other children who were identified with the problem.
Now, 37 students come to Greengate for tutoring each week from as far away as Blountsville, near Birmingham, and even Mississippi.
At a cost of between $60 and $120 a week, she said it can be cost prohibitive for some families.
“we understand we’re not within everyone’s reach, and that distresses us,” Ramsey said. “But we also know this is the method that works and what makes people come to us.”
Since 2002, parents have had the benefit of receiving free testing for dyslexia from the Scottish Rite Association.
Jerry Vurfitt, the foundation president for the organization, said dyslexia is often pushed aside in public schools because it’s fraught with legal connotations.
“by law, once a student has been identified with dyslexia, schools are legally bound to deal with it, so they’re reluctant to stick their necks out,” he said. “They kind of say, ‘Okay. what do we do now? and we have no way to deal with it anyway.’ They admit, basically, that the car is on fire, but they don’t have a fire extinguisher.”
Because his testing service is free, parents often seek the help of the association. At Greengate, the cost is $425.
But experts agree that catching dyslexia on time
is critical, especially if the goal is to alleviate the symptoms.
Scottish Rite won’t test a child until after he reaches the age of 7 and has been through half of the first grade.
Hulsey said that’s too late.
“we know that, if a preschooler is having significant language delays and it’s not treated, it will (develop to) an almost full-blown learning disability by the third grade.”
Suzanne Nester saw the delays early on in her third child, Livi.
“She just wasn’t getting it, and she was struggling,” Nester said. “I knew something was wrong; I just didn’t know what.”
Nester contacted Greengate and got Livi tested. The test confirmed that Livi,
who was 6 at the time, had dyslexia.
“I was relieved at that point because we finally had an answer,” she said. “Now, I could do something about it.”
Nester contacted Edmonds, and now Livi receives an hour of tutoring at school during the same hour her classmates spend reading.
Nester and Edmonds have gone a step further and are in the process of organizing a nonprofit organization, Dyslexia Shoals, that will serve as a resource for parents who are struggling with their dyslexic children. The center is expected to be housed in St. Florian and offer tutoring later this year.
At the state level, changes also are in the works.
Vurfitt said he has worked with Whetstone at the state level in order to incorporate the Orton Gillingham method throughout the curriculum, and about 40 teachers statewide have been certified.
Still, the gaps persist, and despite the state’s offer to pay for teachers to undergo training, too few teachers have taken up on the offer, Whetstone said.
“We’d hoped to train as many as 400 this summer at the sessions, but less than 30 have signed up,” he said. “It’s intensive, but that just means we have to be willing to work with the teachers where they are — in the classroom.”
Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 256-740-5745 or .