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Getting in tune with dyslexic students

More schools are ready to help students with difference in learning skills

Published: January 28, 2015   

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Aprille Hanson
Catholic High School sophomore Tyler Meyers, 17, works with Kim Head, the school’s recently hired dyslexia specialist and structured study hall teacher. Head’s program tutors students with dyslexia and dysgraphia.

In Catholic High educator Kim Head’s home, her two sons, Noah, 9, and Isaac, 8, argue over who is more dyslexic. She emphasizes it is not a learning disability, rather, a difference and one that should be celebrated.

“It’s an advantage,” said Head, pointing to strengths many children with dyslexia tend to have, including talent in the arts, architecture and engineering. It’s this mentality that Head is bringing as the Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock teacher of structured study hall and the school’s dyslexia specialist.

“They can do whatever they want to do. That’s kind of my mission statement, my goal,” Head said. “Shame is the great killer of children (with dyslexia). That’s ultimately what puts the nail in the coffin. If it’s pushed under the rug … they draw their own conclusions, ‘I’m stupid, I don’t get it, I never will, my parents are ashamed of me.’”

Since the start of the 2014-2015 school year, Head has been giving new confidence to 14 students who struggle with reading and writing because of dyslexia, defined as “a neurological difference in the brain that affects the processing of sound, sometimes affecting memory and rapid recall,” she said. Often times, dyslexia affects a child who is intelligent, making it harder to understand why a student is struggling, Head said.

Head’s program comprises active study strategies along with two classes focused heavily on dyslexia and dysgraphia. Dysgraphia is difficulty with writing, both the actual motion of writing and transferring thoughts onto paper, Head said.

“I teach them about themselves, who they are and about their gifts and weaknesses, how to ask for extra time on tests, to speak up for yourself and actively seek out your education,” Head said. “To realize you’re different and that’s OK.”

Though there are many methods out there to help children with dyslexia, Head explained that for her classes, teaching language as a “symbolic code,” has helped the students.

“Our language has all these different influences: Greek, Latin, Anglo-Saxon. I go back to that basic, explicit instruction of sound and explaining, ‘You can break the code.’” Head said only 15 percent of our language can be memorized by sight, while the other 85 percent can be solved in a code format.”

For 17-year-old sophomore Tyler Meyers, Head’s dyslexia program has transformed the way he is able to learn.

“It was tough. I had trouble reading and understanding my work, but now I can read a lot better. I feel more confident when I read,” Meyers said. “I think it’s a big help for kids that don’t feel like they’re good enough for school and this is a tough school.”

Catholic High principal Steve Straessle said this program allows students with learning differences to strengthen needed life skills.

“Catholic High has long sought ways to marry its emphasis on independence with the various needs of students who learn differently. We know that the first skill a boy — any boy — must learn in order to be successful at the next level is the ability to advocate for himself, to articulate what he needs in order to learn better. So, we sought a program that would help those who learn differently while simultaneously teaching independence. Thus, our structured study hall program is now augmented with the dyslexia program,” Straessle said.

Straessle said many children that need structured learning environments end up in Catholic schools long before their parents realize it’s because of conditions like dyslexia. He chose Head after she conducted an in-service for the faculty last year.

“I found her to be very intelligent, creative and not prone to knee-jerk, cookie cutter approaches to teaching boys. Instead, Kim digs deeper and intertwines her classes with our need to teach independence to the boys,” Straessle said. “She slices through the Gordian Knot on a daily basis and our boys are better for it.”

Before coming to Catholic High, Head made great strides in dyslexia for Arkansas, all starting with her son Noah. Head, who has a doctorate in physical therapy, was working in pediatrics with kids struggling with handwriting and speech development when she noticed her son struggling.

When his self-esteem began declining in kindergarten, “I kind of started on this journey to discover what was going on with him. It was just really general, we weren’t getting answers on how to help him,” she said.

Then that word — dyslexia.

“It all started to snowball from there,” Head said. “It wasn’t just a disability, it’s about brain function.”

Her sons, the youngest also diagnosed with dyslexia, are both thriving in their education now that they have found a new way to learn. Head didn’t just stop with her sons — she wanted that same relief for parents throughout the state.

“I realized Arkansas is pretty far behind other states in addressing kids who have dyslexia in the public schools and private schools. There was no law in place to support them; they did not qualify for special education, so they would just kind of be passed on in school.

“We have all this medical and scientific evidence and you walk into these schools and they don’t realize there’s help for this,” she continued. “It’s just really a civil rights issue because you have so much evidence to prove this is going on.”

Head became certified in teaching programs for dyslexia and started a nonprofit called “The Dyslexia Project,” (thedyslexiaproject.com) a grassroots effort comprised of teachers, psychologists, speech pathologists and parents who wrote a bill pushing for dyslexia programs in schools. Sen. Joyce Elliot sponsored Senate Bill 33, which became Act 1294 in April 2013. Screening was required to begin this fall statewide, while program implementation must happen next school year.

“In a nutshell, it is mandatory screening for dyslexia in kindergarten through second grade. Early identification is most important. Then they must be placed into an intervention program. It could be in the realm of special education, general education or more of a pull-out with a therapist,” Head said. “It doesn’t mandate that they do a specific program. It specifies the components based on scientific literature,” that programs should include.

Head, a member of Antioch Baptist Church in Conway, said faith drove her desire to help children with dyslexia.

“There was a moment in time when I felt God calling me to do this. I don’t want to be all weird and creepy here, but I had a vision of what God wanted for the children of Arkansas and my own children and that was the beginning point for me,” Head said. “It’s completely changed my life. I stepped out into this world that’s unknown with questions — Is there still good in education? Can these kids still make these great strides? Am I capable? God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called. It’s his goal, it’s his plan and his vision.”

All the hard work is paying off for her students.

“I had a student who started out at a fourth-grade reading level and is now up to an eighth grade level. He used to be a loner and isolated and now he’s talking in the hallway and a participant in class,” Head said. “Another boy was on a very low level of reading and writing and spelling. He showed one of his essays to me and I thought, ‘How could this happen? How can somebody be pushed through and not be helped?’ People think it’s an intelligence problem, and that’s misinterpreted. He’s very smart and capable; he’s kind of now a different kid. He was always looking down, depressed, not there at all. Now he’s excited, he wants to go to college out of state. He’s engaged, he has Bs in his classes and he was making Fs.”

For the future, Head wants the program to evolve into a course that allows dyslexic students to explore their strengths to create enthusiasm for a career.

“They need to be made aware of those skills and how they can use those skills they have now in high school … so they can say, ‘I’m going to blow the top off of this thing,’” Head said.

Click to see related article, “Helping children learn"

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