Learning Centers Help Students Tackle Dyslexia
Sunday, November 14, 2004
By Veronica Van Dress
The Canton Repository [OH]

John Harter isn't much for reading, and he has a devil of a time writing a letter.

But when Rubik's Cube came out, he solved the enigma before others could read the cheat sheets to figure it out. The Jackson Township father of two depends on computer spell-check and his wife to correct his e-mails. But he can build a 3-D puzzle with little effort.

What he lacks in reading and writing, Harter makes up for in mechanical skills. He repairs equipment for the Timken Co. — a job that allows him to mask his dyslexia.

“When I was little, I didn't think about being smart or dumb, but I knew I definitely wasn't smart,” said the 40-year-old. “So much of school is based on a letter grade. When I got As and Bs in math, I knew I was doing good. But when I got Cs and Ds in reading and English, it made me feel like I wasn't accomplishing anything.”

Low self-esteem typically goes hand-in-hand with dyslexia, said Joseph Berlandi, executive director of 32nd Degree Masonic Learning Centers for Children.

“Most children and adults with dyslexia are extremely bright,” Berlandi said. “They have a creative genius and intelligence, but reading is an obstacle for them because what they see gets translated wrong in their minds.”

Dyslexia, a neurobiological and genetic learning disability, is common to roughly 15 percent of people, according to the International Dyslexia Association. The term comes from the Greek language — dys meaning bad, hard or unlucky, and lexis meaning word.

Through 53 centers in 15 Northern states from Maine to Wisconsin, the Scottish Rite Masons target their efforts toward helping children to manage dyslexia. The centers train tutors to use multisensory teaching methods — touch, sound, sight — in their after-school work with children. The group wants to expand its program into public schools by training more teachers to help during school.

“It's all phonetically based. We break down the word because children with dyslexia see a different way,” Berlandi explained.

For Harter, a V may become an F, or the order of the words in a sentence might get switched around. Sometimes he leaves out words altogether.

“It's not like it's a disease. It's just part of your life,” said Harter.

He never had a special tutor. Though dyslexia was first identified in the early 1900s, according to Berlandi, the Orton-Gillingham method of teaching (named after the man and woman who developed it) was adopted by the centers only 10 years ago.

Still, Harter learned how to manage the words and sounds his brain doesn't always process accurately.

“ ‘Together' is ‘to-get-her.' That's the way I spelled it since fourth grade.”

This year, 1,450 children are being served by the learning centers, including 22 in Canton. Harter's son is one of them.

Family history

“When he was 5 years old, he couldn't rhyme,” said Kathy Harter. “That, and the fact that my husband has dyslexia, tipped me off.”

The Harters also noticed Andrew, 11, had speech delays before he began school. Kathy Harter said Andrew's teachers recognized his dyslexia but weren't trained to teach him. She has been bringing him to the Masonic Learning Center at 836 Market Ave. N twice a week for the last three years.

“He was just memorizing words as much as he could,” said Andrew's mom. “He wasn't really able to sound them out, which isn't any way to learn how to read.”

Dyslexia is hit or miss in families. The Harters' other child, Liz, 13, is in a gifted language- arts class because she excels in reading.

Andrew must work much harder, double-checking his sentences for spelling and grammatical errors.

With the help of his tutor, Heather Galbraith, Andrew is reading at nearly his fifth-grade level. One technique she uses is having her students trace difficult words in rice or shaving cream.

Andrew wrote a sentence on the board:

Carly Brown and snoopy had the best custumes at the party.

Then he wrote: C.O.P.S.

The letters remind him to check capitalization, overall neatness, punctuation and spelling. Through the process he found the errors and corrected his work: Adding an “h” to Charlie, and noting the name can have more than one spelling. He also capitalized Snoopy and changed the “u” to an “o” in the word, costumes.

Compared to other students, Andrew says he's “not really that much different.” But he didn't always feel that way. First grade was especially frustrating.

“He used to get off the bus crying because of something he had to do at school that he couldn't do, and I would relive it with him,” said John Harter. “Now he understands the thought process and he doesn't use his dyslexia as a crutch.”

Harter was in his mid-20s before discovering why reading was so difficult for him. He made the connection when his aunt, Roberta Henshaw, 64, of California, was diagnosed while being retrained for a job.

“They said, ‘You're so severely dyslexic we don't know how you have managed,' ” recalled Vickie Harter, John's mother and Henshaw's sister.

Vickie Harter said she understood why her son never wanted to read aloud in class and avoided books.

“I had seen it in my family,” she said, grateful that her grandson is finding the help he needs.

Andrew figures seven of the 28 students in his class at Sauder Elementary School have a learning disability. His advice to them and others is this:

“Don't give up. Reading really helps you with writing and with school work,” said Andrew. “When I learned about (dyslexia) I got more confidence in myself.”