New reading system introduced

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Ask any educator and he or she will tell you: teaching a child to read is no easy task. And if that child happens to be dyslexic, the task becomes infinitely more difficult.

To assist new teachers who may have students with dyslexia or other reading disabilities, the school system’s special education department sponsored a two-day workshop last week.

The workshop focused on the Wilson Reading System, a research-based, 12-step reading and writing program the special education department has used since the mid-’90s. Leading the workshop was Wilson Reading System trainer Anita Jekkel.

Unlike many traditional reading programs, which can often overwhelm students with rules and exceptions, the Wilson program is presented to students in a more structured and cumulative manner which is easier for many with reading disabilities to understand.

Many people, program officials said, are unable to acquire sharp reading and writing skills because their learning style has not been properly addressed. The majority of these individuals are subject to a core deficiency at the most basic level of language skill – that of phonological coding.

“The Wilson program takes reading to a very basic level,” said school system speech and language therapist Chris Walter. “For example, it stresses that the alphabet is actually made up, not of letters, but of sounds. It also teaches how words are constructed.

“It basically teaches teachers the how and why of reading. I have learned so much about my own language just by teaching the program.”

Special education director Linda Wilson said the program has seen its share of success in Warren County. She and Walter cited the case of a third-grader who could not, by his own admission, read the word “us.” Now a ninth-grader, the student is “functioning beautifully” and needs no extra help of any kind, in large part due to the Wilson program.

The program is so effective it is now being used not just by special education teachers, but also by adult education teachers and Title 1 reading teachers.