Scottish Rite Learning Center

Scottish Rite Learning Center

Written by Candace Birkelbach Friday, 22 August 2008

Although one in five children has some degree of dyslexia, it is still often missed diagnosed or misconstrued as another type of learning disability, said Diane Broadway, community outreach coordinator at Scottish Rite Learning Center.

Dyslexia is a language-based disorder that causes difficulty with reading, writing and spelling, and the staff at Scottish Rite Learning Center is dedicated to raising awareness of the disorder to help children and their families cope with it.

“We are working to get information out there so teachers can spot a child with dyslexia,” Broadway said. “It’s important to address the special needs of each child individually.”

Scottish Rite provides low-cost dyslexia evaluations to determine the needs of each child. The evaluations facilitate the early identification of dyslexia and provide intervention for language learning differences, Director Linda Gladden said.

Students do not have to be evaluated at the learning center, but they need a diagnosis of dyslexia to enroll in classes. Speech, language and literacy evaluations, performed by speech language pathologists are geared toward children around age 4 who exhibit signs of language learning deficits. Psychological and educational evaluations consist of eight tests to determine any type of learning difference or attention issues. These evaluations are performed by licensed psychologists for children age 7 and older who have had exposure to reading and classroom learning.

Scottish Rite also offers free academic language therapy for its students and an extensive teacher training program.

When the center opened in 1989, it offered only videotape therapy sessions to children with dyslexia. In 2001, Scottish Rite began offering a two-year academic therapy language program for children taught by certified psychologists and teachers-in-training.

At that time, it also launched an extensive two-year teacher training program for educators from all over the state using the Scottish Rite Hospital methodology. During the program, classroom teachers are trained to become Certified Academic Language Therapists to help children with dyslexia. The teachers must complete rigorous requirements and pass a national exam.

The center uses a “Take Flight” curriculum developed by the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas. The classes are offered at no charge to families and are funded through workshops, fundraisers and funding from the Scottish Rite Masons.

Although a person with dyslexia will always have it, developing reading skills can make him or her more successful later on, said Broadway, who has a dyslexic child.

“If there are enough early predictors, parents can start intervention at a younger age,” Gladden said. “Research supports that early intervention leads to greater success.”

Gladden said there are approximately 25,000 school-age children in Texas with dyslexia, but the public school system cannot reach them all due to lack of funding.

Broadway said it is important to get dyslexic children to the point where they can function with their peers, even though it may always take them more time to complete certain tasks.

Detecting Dyslexia

Warning signs for dyslexia are different for each age group: students in grades kindergarten through third have trouble segmenting and blending and poor letter-sound recall, students in grades four through eight are usually reading below grade level and may reverse letter sequences and high school students may avoid writing or have trouble summarizing.

Scottish Rite recommends that parents have their child tested if they exhibit signs of dyslexia or have a family history of it.

Scottish Rite Learning Center, 12871 N. US 183, Ste. 105, 472-1231, www.scottishritelearningcenter.org