I earned my Master’s degree in Special Education and Rehabilitation with a primary focus in working with children who have visual impairments.
While attending the University of Arizona, I took classes on learning disabilities, my other passion. One of the classes was taught by Dr. Nancy Mather, an expert in this field. She taught on learning disabilities and how they affect the education of students at the elementary level. Another one of my classes was taught by Dr. Carl J. Liaupsin on the introduction of high incidence disabilities. Both classes were very vigorous, but enjoyable.
I took the time to also take a class at San Francisco State University on how children without disabilities learn to read so I could have a comparison between the average development of reading skills and how students with learning disabilities tend to develop. I felt that by knowing both sides, I would be better at supporting students in guiding them.
Since I graduated, I have taken classes on how children who have dyslexia need to learn through a multi-sensory system through the University of San Diego.
With my education and experience, I have found the Barton Spelling and Reading Program to be the most efficient at teaching students who have dyslexia. It is straight forward and and systematic in his growth. I also found that I could use it with individuals who are low vision or blind with minimal difficulty.
I have been teaching/tutoring for around 15 years. I have experience working with multiply-disabled students, students who struggled with only visual impairments, students who had dyslexia to overcome, and students who struggled with a variety of combinations of the three. Many people do not understand how someone who is blind could have dyslexia or other learning disabilities, but dyslexia actually isn’t due to visual difficulties. It seems surprising because they visually flip their letters around. However, that is only a symptom and it is seen in the visually impaired as they flip their braille letters around. Dyslexia has more to do with sound processing than anything else. Flipping things is a symptom and one to watch out for after they have been reading and writing for more than two years. It is something that, at that point, should be a red flag and I would encourage you to have the student (and/or yourself) assessed for dyslexia.