Center Aids Dyslexic Children
Thursday, October 28, 2004
By Lynn Tukey
Bangor Daily News [ME]

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the northern district of the Masonic learning centers - places where children and teens with dyslexia receive help in learning to read. The northern district runs north from Delaware to Maine and west to Wisconsin. "And we were one of the first half-dozen [centers] to open," said Patricia Martz, director of the 32nd Degree Masonic Learning Center for Children Inc. in Bangor, which opened in April 1997 on the corner of Main and Water streets with two tutors and five children.

By September of that same year there were about nine tutors and some 14 to 16 children were receiving services, she said. The 2003-2004 school year had 33 tutors and 46 children, and Martz expects about the same number for each for this year. There is a waiting list of about a year and a half for children wanting services. One hundred and fifty-two children have received services since the Bangor center opened in April 1997, Martz said. "I can't imagine a better place to take my children," said Tricia Smith of Palmyra, adding that she appreciates the praise and recognition that young people get at the center, such as awards and ice cream parties.

She also appreciates the confidence that the overall experience brings to children who are having difficulty with reading. Smith's two children, Teddy, 12, and Molly 9, were identified as dyslexic at the elementary school level. Smith said that the resource room at the school offered "very limited one-on-one" instruction, and she and her husband knew right away that their children would not be successful. They learned of the Masonic Learning Center from an article and pursued it, appreciating the private rooms and "intense one-on-one" instruction that their children receive. Teddy has been attending the center in Bangor for a few years and his whole attitude toward school has changed, Smith said. Before he began sessions at the center he would be in tears - both going to and returning home from school. Now he looks forward to school and can see the gains that he's made, even to the point of feeling that he's the top reader in his group at school. "So he's reaping the benefits of his hard work now," Smith said.

Molly has a high IQ, scoring in the top 1 percent in the country, Smith said. Yet she has experienced a lot of frustration in school from difficulty with reading. "It's hard," Smith said. Molly attended the center's summer session and is starting her first school year there. Smith expects the same positive outcome for her as for Teddy. "It's such a positive experience that I think it really turns [children with dyslexia] around scholastically," Smith said, adding "and I feel truly that it will change my children's lives." She encourages other parents who have children with reading problems to look into the Masonic Learning Center. Dyslexia affects about 10 to 20 percent of the population, depending on the criteria used, Martz said. A child who is not progressing in reading the way he or she would be expected, while doing fine in most other activities, may have dyslexia, she said. Such children may be working too hard for what they get out of the effort.

Dyslexic children may have language problems at the preschool age as well. "I've found that most parents are pretty perceptive," Martz said. The center's regular year runs from October to May, and kids come from all over. One high school-aged boy drove himself to the center from Cherryfield, Martz said. The summer program, which runs for five weeks from the last week of June through July, tends to draw young people from even greater distances, such as Machias and Calais. Each child comes in for 50 minutes twice a week, "and they're individual sessions," Martz said. "Well, our goal is to get them reading with their peers. That seems to take an average of three years," she said. Children need to be of school age, kindergarten through high school, in order to receive services.

The services are free to children, but each must be evaluated first to make sure that the child will benefit from the program. Most children are appropriate, Martz said. There are five levels of reading instruction, but they do not correspond to grade level. Ice cream parties are held regularly for all children who pass a level. Children "graduate" from the program when they are reading at grade level. Martz said that children's attitudes and self-esteem improve, as well as their school work. Kids often bring in report cards, she said, and they come to the center with a smile on their faces - even after being in school all day. The tutors also enjoy the program and say "this really works," Martz said. "They come here because they get such rewards," she said. Martz commutes from her home in Auburn, staying three nights each week in an apartment in Bangor, because she finds her job so rewarding.The center offers two training cycles for tutors - one beginning in May and one beginning in September. Training is at no cost to tutors except for textbooks, Martz said. "The training is pretty extensive," she said. The process includes 100 supervised practicum hours and 55 class hours. "I get calls for private tutors all the time," Martz said.

The fire on Jan. 15, which destroyed the historic Masonic building, also took with it the original home of 32nd Degree Masonic Learning Center for Children Inc., where it had been serving children since it opened in 1997. "Everything was lost. Nothing was saved," Martz said. She recalled news photos that showed her office window being broken and her books sitting in their places on the shelves as the fire blazed. Three weeks after the fire the center relocated to its current home at 84 Harlow St. in Bangor, thanks to the help of a parent whose child receives services.Teddy bears line the windows. Two partitioned rooms and three partitions in the main room provide seven areas in which children and teens with dyslexia receive the help they need to be able to read successfully. One room is set up for the tutors so they can prepare for their students.

The facility also has a small kitchen and two bathrooms. Tables, desks, pencils, pens, crayons, markers and "a huge donation of paper" are some of the items that have been received in donations. "Response after the fire was wonderful," Martz said. The program is a charity of the Scottish Rite Masons, funded through donations, Martz said. Donations can come from anyone - from businesses such as MBNA, grants and foundations, she said. Individuals have donated also. The center is open Monday through Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Children are seen from 1 to 7 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, and 1 to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Martz said.