2008 Woodie Awards
Dyslexia Center helps students get experience
Kelsey Franklin
Issue date: 11/24/08 Section: News
The Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia is joining its efforts with MTSU graduate students to give them the opportunity of hands on experience in dealing with people suffering with dyslexia.
Students in the Psychology Department and the Education Program at MTSU are being given this experience along with students and teachers around Tenn. The program provides testing and monitors the progress of the students while under the supervision of the staff.
"There are many misconceptions about what the symptoms and affects of dyslexia are," said Karen Jones, supervisor of Dyslexia Services and former psychology student. "Dyslexia is not reading backward but instead is a specific learning disability that makes reading, spelling and related skills difficult."
The Katherine Davis Murfreesboro Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies was established in 1989 as a professorship in the College of Education and Behavioral Science at MTSU. Diane Sawyer is serving as the chair of the organization.
A $230,000 financial endowment allowed the center to be opened in October 1993. Sawyer oversees the center and works to keep a stable environment to help insure the continuing of her practice.
The Tennessee Center for Study and Treatment of Dyslexia offers services to K-12 students in the form of assessment. It also provides professional development workshops for K-12 teachers so they can better assist their students. The center is affiliated with MTSU and provides awareness workshops for attending students who are in pre-service education programs.
Sawyer has been working with students and families trying to evaluate and support students with dyslexia. Sawyer proposed that the Tennessee General Assembly provide a grant to establish a centralized center for the study and treatment of dyslexia.
The goal of the dyslexia center is to help not only students but also school personnel who have been unable to address the specific problems children with dyslexia face.
Students in the Psychology Department and the Education Program at MTSU are being given this experience along with students and teachers around Tenn. The program provides testing and monitors the progress of the students while under the supervision of the staff.
"There are many misconceptions about what the symptoms and affects of dyslexia are," said Karen Jones, supervisor of Dyslexia Services and former psychology student. "Dyslexia is not reading backward but instead is a specific learning disability that makes reading, spelling and related skills difficult."
The Katherine Davis Murfreesboro Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies was established in 1989 as a professorship in the College of Education and Behavioral Science at MTSU. Diane Sawyer is serving as the chair of the organization.
A $230,000 financial endowment allowed the center to be opened in October 1993. Sawyer oversees the center and works to keep a stable environment to help insure the continuing of her practice.
The Tennessee Center for Study and Treatment of Dyslexia offers services to K-12 students in the form of assessment. It also provides professional development workshops for K-12 teachers so they can better assist their students. The center is affiliated with MTSU and provides awareness workshops for attending students who are in pre-service education programs.
Sawyer has been working with students and families trying to evaluate and support students with dyslexia. Sawyer proposed that the Tennessee General Assembly provide a grant to establish a centralized center for the study and treatment of dyslexia.
The goal of the dyslexia center is to help not only students but also school personnel who have been unable to address the specific problems children with dyslexia face.
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