As a follow-up to Julie Boesky’s Sept. 7 Maine Voices column on dyslexia (“As schools start, it is important to identify dyslexia early”), please allow me to make the following observations:

• First, there is a connection between dyslexia and school dropouts and prison incarceration that imposes a significant burden on the state of Maine. And yet, with all of the attention given to preventing high school dropouts and prison overcrowding, little or no attention is given to properly treating children with dyslexia.

• Second, don’t assume that even the best and most experienced kindergarten and first-grade teachers have been trained and are able to recognize and refer students who may have dyslexia. Every parent at the start of the school year should inquire with the school principal as to whether their child’s teacher has been trained to recognize and refer students with dyslexia.

• Third, don’t assume that just because students with dyslexia have been referred to a special education class that they are receiving the help that they need. It is not unusual for dyslexic students to end up in special education classes with as many as seven students. In comparison, the Children’s Dyslexia Center in Portland is successful because it offers one-on-one direct instruction.

• Fourth, while the Scottish Rite Masonic organization is due credit for its support of the Children’s Dyslexia Center, it could have achieved even greater success if it had used some of its resources in a legal manner to force school superintendents and school boards to provide one-on-one, multisensory Orton-Gillingham instruction to its dyslexic students. To be sure, it would be costly. But so is the cost of school dropouts and prison incarceration.

Let’s hope that the subject of dyslexia will become something that is discussed at school board meetings and in the State House.

Harold Parks is a resident of Gorham.

 

Copy the Story Link