Few School Programs Seek to Help Dyslexic Students
August 2004
By Kim Hooper
Indianapolis Star [IN]

Eleven-year-old Amy Warren deftly flew through the flashcards until she   
stumbled on one word.                                                     
She said was .                                                        
The flashcard read whose .                                                
Amy is dyslexic. Her options at school to help overcome her learning      
disability are limited. That's because individual classroom instruction is
rare for dyslexic students.                                          
So parents turn to private tutors or options such as the 32nd Degree      
Masonic Learning Center , where Amy and 34 other students are getting free instruction this summer.                                                  

"She has improved tremendously. We're very blessed to find this program,"  said Amy's mother, Beth Warren.                                      
Parents say there aren't enough options, and some suggest that school      districts should pick up the tab for private lessons. They complain that  
by pooling all learning-challenged children together under the umbrella of special education, these children, some of them highly intelligent, fall  
behind.                                                                   

Dyslexia is a language-based disorder. It interferes with the brain's     
recognition of individual sounds, the sequence of sounds and the syllables within words. The reading disorder is the most common learning disability, affecting an estimated 15 percent to 20 percent of schoolchildren nationwide.      
                                                         
There are no specific numbers for Hoosier children.                   
In Indiana, dyslexic students usually are classified as learning disabled 
-- a group that also includes mildly or severely mentally handicapped.    
While dyslexia is a brain abnormality, it is not linked to intelligence.  
So a highly intelligent child could be dyslexic -- but not excel in school
because of the way lessons are taught.                                    
Last school year, more than $525 million in federal and state money was   
spent on 155,206 special education students in Indiana's 294 school       
districts.                                                                
"If kids aren't excelling, there's not enough funding," said Diane Badgley
, co-founder of the Parents Coalition for Literacy, a group of 150 parents
statewide.                                                              
Her son, Kyle, struggled with reading for years in elementary school. He  
wasn't tested for dyslexia until she insisted. Even then, she felt he     
wasn't doing well enough without private lessons.                         
Now 17, Kyle is heading to college.                                   
Indiana Department of Education officials say state funding is adequate.  
However, they said it wasn't until 1992 that a law was passed allowing    
dyslexic children to qualify for state dollars.                           
The Dyslexia Institute of Indiana, a nonprofit group based in             
Indianapolis, is hoping to join with schools to provide critical          
one-on-one and small group tutoring.                                      
"In traditional classrooms, kids get lectures, and they're supposed to    
take it in and process it," said Lana Taylor, executive director of the   
institute. "That doesn't happen with dyslexic kids."                      
Many dyslexic children, particularly those struggling to learn to read,   
thrive with one-on-one instruction that uses multisensory approaches      
combining visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning -- a way of having    
touch connect to the brain.                                               
That's the approach at the nonprofit Masonic center, a no-frills operation
housed in the basement of the North Park Masonic Lodge, 5555 Michigan Road.                                                                  
There are seven private rooms where tutors work individually with children in 45-minute sessions. The reading instruction approach uses phonetics and the multisensory Orton - Gillingham method .                              
"It's teaching reading using the eye, the ear and the touch," said tutor  
Jan Mays , who is a special education teacher at Holy Angels Catholic     
School in Indianapolis.                                                   
At their own pace and in their own way, the students learn the            
relationship between letters and their spoken sounds. Words and consonant combinations are introduced in sequence. Using their index finger,  students "finger write" words or letters on a bristly carpet pad to
stimulate their sense of touch as they say them aloud. They tap out word
syllables on their arm as they are sounded out. Then, they write the word on paper.                                                                 
The tutoring program is a philanthropic outreach of the Scottish Rite     
Cathedral, which funds the Indianapolis location and three others in the  
state. It costs between $125,000 and $150,000 for each program, said Jeff 
Saunders, Scottish Rite executive director.                               
There are 32 Scottish Rite learning centers nationwide for dyslexic       
children.                                                                 
"Schools do what they can in these areas, but it's not enough. We wanted a
charitable outreach that would affect a widespread population, and we    found it," Saunders said.                                                 

The need is there, judging from the list of 30 children waiting to get    
into the program. Other organizations in the city offer tutoring for      
dyslexic students, but it can cost from $31 to $60 a session.             

Beth Warren simply can't afford that. Twice a week, she makes the drive  from Hamilton County to bring daughter Amy to the center. Amy said the sessions have allowed her to realize that she can overcome her disability.
Amy said she used to be afraid to read aloud in class. "I like doing it   
now," she said.