The gift of reading: OHS graduate discusses work with dyslexic students

“Reading should not be pre-sented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift,” children’s author Kate DiCamillo once said.

Ogden High School class of 1976 alumna Cindy (Leaf) Hall’s passion is sharing that gift of reading as director of the Dyslexia Center at Lindsay Lane Christian Academy in Athens, Alabama, a large pri-vate school with approximately 500 students.

As many as one in five stu-dents in the United States suffers from dyslexia, as ex-treme difficulty learning to read and spell in one’s native lan-guage despite at least average intelligence and adequate in-struction. Dyslexia can be re-mediated using special teaching methods developed specifically for dyslexic learners. Hall uses the Orton-Gillingham ap-proach.

“I love getting in there when students are struggling, helping them make progress and seeing them going on to be successful,” Hall said.

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