Leah's Week in Pennsylvania

In May 2005 (shortly before the end of 5th grade) Leah spent a week with Marcia Maust of Laurel Highlands Dyslexia Correction Center. Marcia is a trained facilitator in the Davis Dyslexia Correction® method. This is Leah's journal - in her words - of what happened that week. (click on any of the images to see a larger view.)

Make sure you scroll to the bottom to view proof of the program's sccess.

Monday afternoon:
I made a word that showed how much creativity my mind has. My word was "creamy-senson-of-fluffy." First I made the word out of clay, then I made a model. (It looked like mousse, tasted like ice cream, and was the color of blue cotton candy and had a maraschino cherry on top with little chunks of dark chocolate at the bottom.) During one of our breaks Miss Marcia gave me 2 koosh balls, which we will use later in the week. I also learned how to do release, which helps me calm down and concentrate. Finally I learned about my dial setting and what setting I should have it on for different things.

Tuesday morning:
First I made a model of me. Then I worked on some of my trigger words (me, become). Then I worked on cause (or consequence) and how I make things happen. I also worked on punctuation marks. I made them out of clay and wrote them in colored markers. I discovered which punctuation marks are complete stops and which are short stops and pauses. (dashes, semicolons)

Wednesday morning:
We worked on koosh ball tossing and balance (called fine tuning.) Fine tuning is where you stand on one foot and catch koosh balls while making sure you’re on your point, and that is suppose to help you with your balance and helps you find exactly where your point is supposed to be. And helps you to feel when you are off point and when you are on point. And I also learned how to do sequence. There are 5 types of sequences – size, amount, importance, a sequence that always goes in the same order, and time. We also talked about order and disorder. Order has to have the right place, condition, and position. If just one thing missing from order and it automatically becomes disorder.

Wednesday afternoon:
We did more work on order and disorder. (Mostly as review) Then we worked on math. First we started with counting using little balls made from clay. After that, we worked on addition and subtraction using the little clay balls. Then we started working on multiplication using 100 clay balls and two pink ropes. This shows me a mental picture of a multiplication table that I can see to solve multiplication problems.

Friday morning:
Today was the day that I mastered my long division monster and my “big number” times tables. Then Miss Marcia had me close my eyes and spell all of the words I learned this week forward and backwards. She also had me review some of the things I learned early in the week, like what colors my dots and lines were (for my orientation point) and what my dial looked like (for having the right amount of energy for a task). She also complimented me on my new Converse “Chucks” that I wore that morning!!

I'm glad I came here. During this week Miss Marcia helped me overcome my old habits (guessing, skipping, avoiding/ignoring and giving up) and I knocked them down with a big wrecking ball. She helped me see new ways that were easier for me, more fun and more helpful than the old solutions that I’d used.