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Cheryl armed us with…solutions that would help Rain learn to read and write.

Home The Successful Learning Blog Cheryl armed us with…solutions that would help Rain learn to read and write.

This is the story of Rain, an 11 year old little girl, who has Dyslexia. Rain is bright, creative, eager to learn and sweet as can be. As her grandmother I noticed many times while growing up that Rain seemed to pronounce her words incorrectly but I passed it off as “Cute,” uninterested in reading, and again passed it off as “active”.

My oldest daughter, a teacher in Copenhagen, Denmark,was visiting at Christmas 2006 and suggested that Rain might be Dyslexic. We went to Rain’s school teacher and asked that Rain be tested for Dyslexia. We were told that they (the school) did not do testing specifically for Dyslexia and that if Rain did in fact have Dyslexia they would be doing the same curriculum they are currently using with her. We trusted her teacher and just assumed they knew better than us. Rain continued in that classroom using that cirriculum for the remainder of the year. Rain made NO progress in the area of reading during that entire year.

At the beginning of the 2007 school year we approached the school and they agreed that Rain had some areas of concern. The school proceeded with their standard LD testing and we attended a seminar given by Susan Barton on Dyslexia. After attending this seminar we were convinced that Rain did in fact have Dyslexia. Our fear that our precious little girl would never learn to read was great. Susan Barton assured us in her seminar that in fact Rain could and would learn to read if taught in a way that dyslexic children can learn.

We returned to her school to talk to them about what we learned at the seminar only to be told again “we don’t test for Dyslexia. It is such a general term.” I began doing the research and after months of reading, attending seminars and talking to a Dyslexia Specialist we had Rain evaluated by Cheryl Anthony in October 2007. Cheryl is a specialist in the field of Dyslexia. Rain was found to be severely Dyslexic. Cheryl armed us with 25 pages of evaluation, suggestions, and researched-based solutions that would help Rain learn to read and write. Rain also has Dysgraphia. We received the written evaluation given to Rain by the school she attends, it was a two page evaluation with three recommendations. 1. Rain needs glasses, 2. Rain needs to seek help for her emotional problems, and Rain needs a specialized reading program. Rain experienced many intense emotional breakdowns. She couldn’t read, she didn’t know why, and she was scared.

After being evaluated by Cheryl we explained to Rain that we had discovered what the problem was and we were going to help her. As a result of the testing done by her school Rain was eligible for an IEP. Rain’s mother, her father, teacher and Special Ed. teacher sat down to discuss what it was that Rain needed to be successful in reading and to alleviate her emotional stress. We came to this meeting armed with what we had learned from our research on dyslexia. Again the school rejected our information and our concerns telling us they knew what would help Rain.

Being convinced that if you don’t acknowledge the problem you can’t fix it, we decided to take Rain to a center in Portland that works directly with dyslexic children. Rain has been enrolled at the Blosser Center for dyslexia since March of 2008 in the 10 months that she has attended Blosser Center she has made incredible progress. Rain is learning to read, her spelling has greatly improved, and her self- confidence has soared.

Rain no longer cries because she has to go to school, she no longer runs after her mother to take her home, and she tries now where she before the had given up. Her self-esteem has returned. Rain knows that this is going to help her. She loves going to the Blosser Center and she loves her tutor. Rain has said many times “they understand what is going on for me,” I think that the schools that claim to “not recognize dyslexia” as a specific learning disability are doing our children a great injustice. I will be forever grateful to Susan Barton and Cheryl Anthony for giving us the information needed to get Rain the tools she needs to be successful in her life

Terry J.