DYSLEXIA
TEACHER

Dyslexia treatment center offers children a free hand up

Abbey made it through kindergarten without learning the alphabet and made an F in reading during the first nine weeks of first grade. Her parents knew they needed to get help.

Abbey's mother, Lori, a nurse practitioner in Jackson, Tennessee., first went to the psychologist at her daughter's school. Then, a few months later, she learned about the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia, which helped her get the proper services for her daughter in the Madison County school system.

Since then, Abbey has begun to turn the corner and catch up.

''The center's really remarkable,'' Lori Anthony said. ''It's definitely responsible for her not being a dyslexia statistic.''It's helping me sound out letters and spell letters,'' said Abbey, who's now 9 and in the third grade.

''I was struggling really bad.'

'The center, established in 1993 at Middle Tennessee State University, moved to a new, $1.5 million building in October.

The long, one-story building contains testing rooms that use natural and incandescent light because dyslexic children are often disturbed by pulsations in fluorescent light that most people don't notice. It also has two parent conference rooms, a family waiting room and a multimedia classroom for teachers learning to identify the problem.

Director Diane Sawyer says it's the only dyslexia center in the country that's fully funded by its state, receiving $218,000 a year. It offers free access to children, adolescents and adults across Tennessee.

The center doesn't provide classroom instruction, and it has no authority to force schools to do anything for the people it sees. But it does test reading ability, recommend intervention for dyslexic clients and follow up on their progress.

Sawyer and her staff also train teachers to spot dyslexia, a biological learning disorder that makes it difficult to read and to process sounds, and deal with it appropriately. All but 17 of the state's 95 counties have had significant contact with the center, which also does research.

''We have the full spectrum of means for addressing this problem,'' said Sawyer, who holds the Murfree Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies at MTSU.

Yet some people don't realize the nature of the genetic disorder, which was first reported in a professional journal in 1897.

''There's more understanding than there used to be, but there are still many misconceptions,'' said Tara Joyce, coordinator of adolescent and adult dyslexia at the center. ''People still sometimes think these kids are not motivated or not trying. Often, they're extremely motivated. But when you can't read, the older you get, the tougher it is, the more humiliating it is.

''Sawyer said the resulting frustrations often lead children and teens to trouble. They may drop out of school or start skipping it routinely. More than half of the young people entangled in the state's juvenile justice system struggle with the disorder, she said.

So the center works to identify the problem as early as possible, preferably before the end of first grade.

''We're thrilled when parents call us early,'' said Janet Camp, supervisor of educational services. ''And if they have a well-founded fear, it needs to get addressed.''Sawyer said treatment can only be successful if teachers engage all of a child's senses and use plenty of repetition, making sure the child masters a subject before moving on to the next one.

''You don't ever really get over it,'' Sawyer added. ''You can learn to read effectively and write, but there's always some residual (effect). They are never going to really be good spellers

.''Yet steady progress is well within reach. After three visits to the center, with two more scheduled at six-month intervals, Abbey Anthony should be fully caught up with her peers by the end of fourth grade, her mother said.

Full story in the highly recommended TENNESSEAN.com.

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