Reading Connections Helps Children With Dyslexia
February 25, 2023 at 12:32 a.m.
Reading Connections Helps Children With Dyslexia
By David [email protected]
Reading Connections - a relatively new tutoring program through Joe’s Kids - is providing children with dyslexia the skills they need to become successful readers.
Program Director Tara Carlile knows first hand how children with dyslexia struggle because two of her own three kids were diagnosed with it years ago.
“My oldest one that has dyslexia is a junior in high school, but we knew she had some kind of issues going on, but bright child, interacts in class, but struggled to read. Dyslexia is basically like an unexpected difficulty in reading when the child is bright. It doesn’t make sense, right?” Carlile said in an interview Friday at Joe’s Kids with Rebecca Bazzoni, director of Joe’s Kids.
She said the schools were great and did everything they could, but no one really knew what the problem was or how to help. Carlile said they took her daughter to many different places to try to help her. Finally, she was diagnosed with dyslexia, though Carlile said she had no idea what that was.
“So, basically, we started searching. We’d gone to places in Michigan, we’d gone to places in Fort Wayne. We ended up going to a place in Mentone. And then my son came along and he also had some struggles, which we found out later was the same,” Carlile said.
She kept running into Bazzoni and suggested maybe Joe’s Kids could help the children in the community who struggle with dyslexia.
“They’re bright kids, but what happens is that they get in the classroom and their brains - it’s neural-biological in origin. It is actually identified by a gene. It is genetic and these kids, their brains just fire a little differently, and in a regular class setting, it just makes it so hard for them to learn, so what happens is that their confidence just breaks down and then they hide,” Carlile said.
She ended up having to homeschool her son for a year to try and get him caught back up.
“When doing that, a friend of mine had been trained in this Orton-Gillingham. It’s a 70-year scientifically researched approach to teaching kids with dyslexia,” Carlile said. Her son did that every day for a year straight and they saw great growth.
She and Bazzoni kept meeting for several times a year for several years. There were a couple families in the community who had been affected by dyslexia, too, and they were supportive of getting a local program going.
“We got some seed money, gathered up about five amazing women who have teaching degrees and put them through the Orton-Gillingham training process. It’s been incredible. These ladies worked hard and we opened doors in September and we’re up to 13 kids, which is kind of our max right now, and we just started a new co-hort of gals that we’re training, so we’ll have four more girls up and running, hopefully by mid to late April,” Carlile explained.
The tutors are trained and certified in Orton-Gillingham, which is a language-based, multisensory, structured, sequential, cumulative, cognitive and flexible approach to teach reading, writing and spelling. They come alongside the schools and offer more resources and support to children, as well as families, struggling with dyslexia.
Warsaw Community Church has allowed Reading Connections to use the lower level of their building so the tutors meet with the children Mondays through Thursdays, mostly after school.
The first step for the program is for the child to be screened in Warsaw.
“What we do is we take four standardized tests and we take out about nine sub-tests from there,” Carlile said. “We are not medical professionals, so we can not diagnose dyslexia, but we can just look for signs, flags, different signs that we know.”
After the screening, she said they will sit down with the family and go over all the strengths and weaknesses that the child has. They will then tell the family about their program and if they think it can be a benefit to the child. If the family agrees, the kid is then placed with a tutor.
“It’s one-on-one. We meet with the kiddo twice a week, and we go from there,” Carlile said.
Since the first group of kids started in September, she said they’ve been doing good and they’ve seen growth.
“There’s been so many cool success stories that we’ve had. Even like little things. A mom came to me with tears in her eyes and said, ‘On the way here my son read a billboard.’ It’s crazy, I know, but I’ve been there. When you have a kid that’s 8 years old and they have never read a sign to you or a billboard to you ...,” Carlile said. “We’re seeing these stories that may not sound huge to some people, but to a parent who has a kid who hates to read, won’t look at it, is embarrasses or ashamed, all of a sudden they have the courage to try and to start doing it, it’s super emotional. It’s pretty cool,” she said.
The program is focusing on younger kids, beginning in kindergarten, but they don’t want to turn anyone away. One of their students is in the eighth grade.
“It is more focused on children, and ultimately, as we build capacity we want to identify and help young because that’s where we can have the best impact, but right now we’re seeing some older kids,” Bazzoni said.
The tutors are paid and it’s a fee-for-service program, but scholarships are available to families who need them. Tutoring fees are $55 per session, according to the brochure.
For any parent interested in the program for their child, they can contact Carlile at [email protected] or call 574-378-7078.
A person with dyslexia will always have it. “But we give them the tools they need to make the best of it,” Carlile said.
It varies on how many sessions a child needs, but she said it is a long process “because we are literally rewiring the brain and helping these kiddos. So it can be two to three years. It could be shorter.”
Bazzoni said, “Tara’s been talking to me a couple years, but ... I was hearing it in both ears. There were others speaking this need who really probably approached me first and education wasn’t my wheelhouse. Tara came along and has learned a lot, and has gotten the support we need through some other educators and another center that has been helpful in our startup. And so, it very much fit into the mission of Joe’s Kids, which is help each reach their full potential.”
She said the research is out there validating and supporting Orton-Gillingham that “we just see the value of being able to offer something. It’s just a tool that can unlock the whole world for a kid.”
Bazzoni said it’s been amazing to see the program start and, “I’m really excited to see where it’s going to go.”
Joe’s Kids is at 902 Provident Drive, Suite C, Warsaw. More information can be found on the website at joes-kids.org.
Reading Connections - a relatively new tutoring program through Joe’s Kids - is providing children with dyslexia the skills they need to become successful readers.
Program Director Tara Carlile knows first hand how children with dyslexia struggle because two of her own three kids were diagnosed with it years ago.
“My oldest one that has dyslexia is a junior in high school, but we knew she had some kind of issues going on, but bright child, interacts in class, but struggled to read. Dyslexia is basically like an unexpected difficulty in reading when the child is bright. It doesn’t make sense, right?” Carlile said in an interview Friday at Joe’s Kids with Rebecca Bazzoni, director of Joe’s Kids.
She said the schools were great and did everything they could, but no one really knew what the problem was or how to help. Carlile said they took her daughter to many different places to try to help her. Finally, she was diagnosed with dyslexia, though Carlile said she had no idea what that was.
“So, basically, we started searching. We’d gone to places in Michigan, we’d gone to places in Fort Wayne. We ended up going to a place in Mentone. And then my son came along and he also had some struggles, which we found out later was the same,” Carlile said.
She kept running into Bazzoni and suggested maybe Joe’s Kids could help the children in the community who struggle with dyslexia.
“They’re bright kids, but what happens is that they get in the classroom and their brains - it’s neural-biological in origin. It is actually identified by a gene. It is genetic and these kids, their brains just fire a little differently, and in a regular class setting, it just makes it so hard for them to learn, so what happens is that their confidence just breaks down and then they hide,” Carlile said.
She ended up having to homeschool her son for a year to try and get him caught back up.
“When doing that, a friend of mine had been trained in this Orton-Gillingham. It’s a 70-year scientifically researched approach to teaching kids with dyslexia,” Carlile said. Her son did that every day for a year straight and they saw great growth.
She and Bazzoni kept meeting for several times a year for several years. There were a couple families in the community who had been affected by dyslexia, too, and they were supportive of getting a local program going.
“We got some seed money, gathered up about five amazing women who have teaching degrees and put them through the Orton-Gillingham training process. It’s been incredible. These ladies worked hard and we opened doors in September and we’re up to 13 kids, which is kind of our max right now, and we just started a new co-hort of gals that we’re training, so we’ll have four more girls up and running, hopefully by mid to late April,” Carlile explained.
The tutors are trained and certified in Orton-Gillingham, which is a language-based, multisensory, structured, sequential, cumulative, cognitive and flexible approach to teach reading, writing and spelling. They come alongside the schools and offer more resources and support to children, as well as families, struggling with dyslexia.
Warsaw Community Church has allowed Reading Connections to use the lower level of their building so the tutors meet with the children Mondays through Thursdays, mostly after school.
The first step for the program is for the child to be screened in Warsaw.
“What we do is we take four standardized tests and we take out about nine sub-tests from there,” Carlile said. “We are not medical professionals, so we can not diagnose dyslexia, but we can just look for signs, flags, different signs that we know.”
After the screening, she said they will sit down with the family and go over all the strengths and weaknesses that the child has. They will then tell the family about their program and if they think it can be a benefit to the child. If the family agrees, the kid is then placed with a tutor.
“It’s one-on-one. We meet with the kiddo twice a week, and we go from there,” Carlile said.
Since the first group of kids started in September, she said they’ve been doing good and they’ve seen growth.
“There’s been so many cool success stories that we’ve had. Even like little things. A mom came to me with tears in her eyes and said, ‘On the way here my son read a billboard.’ It’s crazy, I know, but I’ve been there. When you have a kid that’s 8 years old and they have never read a sign to you or a billboard to you ...,” Carlile said. “We’re seeing these stories that may not sound huge to some people, but to a parent who has a kid who hates to read, won’t look at it, is embarrasses or ashamed, all of a sudden they have the courage to try and to start doing it, it’s super emotional. It’s pretty cool,” she said.
The program is focusing on younger kids, beginning in kindergarten, but they don’t want to turn anyone away. One of their students is in the eighth grade.
“It is more focused on children, and ultimately, as we build capacity we want to identify and help young because that’s where we can have the best impact, but right now we’re seeing some older kids,” Bazzoni said.
The tutors are paid and it’s a fee-for-service program, but scholarships are available to families who need them. Tutoring fees are $55 per session, according to the brochure.
For any parent interested in the program for their child, they can contact Carlile at [email protected] or call 574-378-7078.
A person with dyslexia will always have it. “But we give them the tools they need to make the best of it,” Carlile said.
It varies on how many sessions a child needs, but she said it is a long process “because we are literally rewiring the brain and helping these kiddos. So it can be two to three years. It could be shorter.”
Bazzoni said, “Tara’s been talking to me a couple years, but ... I was hearing it in both ears. There were others speaking this need who really probably approached me first and education wasn’t my wheelhouse. Tara came along and has learned a lot, and has gotten the support we need through some other educators and another center that has been helpful in our startup. And so, it very much fit into the mission of Joe’s Kids, which is help each reach their full potential.”
She said the research is out there validating and supporting Orton-Gillingham that “we just see the value of being able to offer something. It’s just a tool that can unlock the whole world for a kid.”
Bazzoni said it’s been amazing to see the program start and, “I’m really excited to see where it’s going to go.”
Joe’s Kids is at 902 Provident Drive, Suite C, Warsaw. More information can be found on the website at joes-kids.org.
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