A local nonprofit will celebrate a milestone anniversary Wednesday, October 15, with an Oktoberfest event. The Springfield Center for Dyslexia and Learning opened 10 years ago.
Noel Leif is its executive director and founder. She started the organization after moving to Springfield more than a decade ago and not being able to find help for her dyslexic children.
The Center for Dyslexia and Learning began in her home but soon moved to the Turner Center – in space made available by the Cox Health Foundation.
Leif explained that dyslexia is neurobiological in origin. "It's familial," she said. "So, I am dyslexic. My husband is also dyslexic, which is why, in our case, we have three dyslexic children. And it affects the reading fluency, decoding comprehension and written language. So it's, you know, the whole gamut and can affect maths."
Dyslexia might lead to frustration with reading, anxiety and depression, according to Leif.
"Some typical characteristics for people are, if they're good readers, their writing is terrible," she said. "Like, their handwriting — they're unable to spell words accurately and efficiently. But more often than not, our dyslexic learners are very, very slow, laborious readers."
The center uses a program developed at Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas called “Take Flight.” It's designed to teach kids and adults using a multisensory method, she said, "using all the learning pathways, kinesthetic, auditory and visual.
Leif said repetition is key to helping those with dyslexia to learn. "They need between 500 and 1,500 repetitions of the same information before they're able to use it accurately," she said, "and in a classroom, I feel like maybe they get 10 repetitions." She said it takes about two years of working with students to get them on a better learning pathway.
According to Leif, dyslexia isn’t a learning disability where a person isn't capable of learning – it just means they need to learn in a different way. She believes it's the least researched of all the learning disabilities.
The center will host Oktoberfest Wednesday night (10/15) from 5 to 8 at 4X4 Brewing Company, 2811 E. Galloway, with free hot dogs and brats and drink tickets. It’s for clients and their families as well as anyone who wants to learn more about dyslexia.
