Summary

In this episode of Literacy Now, we meet an amazing parent advocate, Jenine Hanson. Jenine is from Naperville, Illinois, a city which is consistently listed in the top 10 U.S. cities in which to raise a family, particularly because of its excellent schools. So when her oldest child was having difficulty with learning to read as early as 1st grade, Jenine started asking a lot of questions. She takes us through her family's long and arduous journey to identify the source of her child's challenges. Only after receiving a dyslexia diagnosis in 5th grade by a private neuropsychologist did the school district agree to do an educational evaluation. By then, Jenine was connecting with a lot of other parents with similar stories, all asking, how does a world class school district miss the most common learning disability? What started as a parent support group shifted to advocacy and the formation of the Dyslexia Action Group of Naperville. Jenine led the effort to engage with the District and the school board of education to change how reading was being taught. Listen and learn how these efforts ultimately led to the district adopting a reading program with a structured literacy approach (with parent input in the process), a dyslexia screener, and professional learning for teachers in evidence-based reading instruction. Prepare to be inspired!

Resources

Dyslexia Action Group of Naperville (DAGN)

Barton Reading & Spelling System

IEP/s504 Accommodations Matrix and related conversation about it on Twitter

Naperville professional learning day

DAGN dyslexia simulation day

Everyone Reading Illinois (ERI)

International Dyslexia Association

Illinois State Board of Education - The Dyslexia Guide

Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE)

Book- Shifting the Balance, by Jan Burkins and Kari Yates

Sold a Story podcast, by Emily Hanford

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