Dyslexia Can Be Ovrecome
The Denver Post
February 7, 1999

Henry, my childhood classmate, never learned to read. Oh, he was able to get by. But he never really could read. He had plenty of attention from his parents and teachers. But, something in his brain just didn't connect and he couldn't learn to read.

As I've followed the debates about public education, I've always wondered how much they meant to a kid like Henry. We had good teachers. We had tiny schools with strong parental involvement. Our community watched out for all of us. None of this helped Henry. We'd never heard of dyslexia back then. We didn't know what kept kids like Henry from learning to read.

Recently, I talked to Nanci, another classmate from long ago. She started working with dyslexic kids in the early '70's and discovered some astonishing things. Many of these children could read letters and form sounds, but they could not link a series of sounds into words. Others could identify letters, but not put them together as recognizable patterns-words--in their brains.

Nanci and her partner developed techniques to help dyslexic students make the necessary connections in their brains to read. Soon, they began training teachers. As word spread about their successes, their business boomed and, today, they have nineteen clinical centers across the country. Clearly, they are onto something very important.

With the advent of brain imaging techniques, they have actually watched the brain activity of their young clients. They showed me the image of a child's brain with normal reading capability and one of a child with severe dyslexia. After six weeks of intensive, six hour per day, reading help using their techniques, the dyslexic child's brain activity during reading was virtually like that of the "normal" child.

Nanci told me about Kevin, a Denver third grader who couldn't read the word "if". He could recognize the "i" and say the sound correctly. Same for "f". But, he couldn't put the two sounds together. Kevin can't read because his brain doesn't connect sounds, so he can't put them together into words. Vouchers won't help Kevin. Tutoring for three years hasn't helped Kevin. With Nanci's methods, Kevin would be pulled out of class for six hours each day for six to eight weeks. Nanci can prove, with clinical successes and now with brain imaging, that Kevin will be able to read with this kind of help.

Henry ended up as a ranch worker. Thirty-five years ago, there were lots of jobs for kids who couldn't read very well. Today, good jobs require the ability to read. Kevin can't afford to be a non-reader, and we, as a society, cannot afford to have illiterate adults.

We must do whatever is necessary to teach kids to read. That may mean pulling them out of regular classes for as long as it takes, for as many hours a day as they need, to give them special help. It certainly means that each school needs to have one highly trained teacher to provide that intensive help. And it also means that we citizens need to make that commitment to all children like Kevin. The price we pay for illiteracy is too high.

Second, there are no easy answers to raising student achievement. Some students may do well in a charter school; others in a private school. But precious few private schools accept kids like Kevin. Public schools-and, charter schools are public schools--must do that. With well-trained teachers and our willingness to invest in our kids, they can succeed. That is our responsibility as a society. We can't afford to have any more Henry's. And, we can teach Kevin to read.