LONDON SCOTTISH RITE LEARNING CENTRE

Some Success Stories

Our "Learning Centre year" is approximately thirty weeks, consisting of two one-hour sessions per week. The course includes one hundred and eight lessons, divided into five levels.

One of our children was in grade seven but her reading comprehension skills were still at the grade three level. Within fifteen weeks of tutoring at the Learning Centre - London she had achieved a three year advancement in her reading comprehension! Her mother (in tears) told us that when she did not respond to a call for dinner, which was very unusual, she went looking for her and found her curled up on a couch in the living room READING A BOOK!

One day at the Centre there were some very loud shouting and commotion. Our Centre Director rushed to see where it was coming from and intercepted one of our children, a little boy, who was waving one of our books over his head as he ran down the hall to his mother shouting "I CAN READ." He wanted to take "HIS FIRST BOOK" home and we couldn't part with it until we got another supply - but a guess who's getting a copy with all our signatures in it?

Here's a story about a special lad who had a one-hour commute each way. His single Mom had to rely on Grandad to do most of these trips twice a week. This lad has a high I.Q. (Most children with dyslexia are bright) and is also Attention Deficit, Hyperactivity Disordered. During the first three sessions it was tough to get him to come. Then we are told he wanted to hurry up and get here sooner. When he started his one-to-one sessions, he could be in front of, behind, or under the Tutor's table. The Tutor was told by the Centre Supervisor to finish the lesson no matter where the child was in the tutoring cubicle because at his I.Q. level this child could pick up all he needed to successfully "GET" the lesson. IT WORKED! He has now had several awards for most improved at school. His Grandad said he almost had to pull off the highway one day because on the way home his grandson said "Guess what! I'm reading all of Harry Potter!" and Grandad couldn't see for tears.

How about Adam? A 2006 graduate from our Learning Centre Program, Adam came to us in Grade 5 but working two or three grade levels below this. Just over two years later, he graduated at approximately two grade levels ABOVE his grade at that time. In September, Adam and his parents were invited to attend the Scottish Rite Supreme Council session in Ottawa where he delivered an address to six hundred and fifty Scottish Riters and their ladies about his experiences at the London Learning Centre. He spoke with great self-confidence and charm, and certainly was a highlight of the Supreme Council activities.

Our Centre Director was privileged to attend the commencement exercises at a London high school. She and a large family group were there to see Brenna, also a 2006 graduate of the London Learning Centre, receive the grade 9 applied English award with the highest mark ever achieved in this course - 97%! Brenna was also awarded the grade 9 mathematics award, attaining a final mark of 87% and was on the principal's list with an overall average for the year of 88%! Not bad for a girl who started with us in 2004, three grade levels behind in language skills!

There are lots of these stories starting to come out. Fifty-two years ago, Anna Gillingham said that her system of multi-sensory, one-to-one tutoring was re-wiring the brain! Of course, you can still hear the laughter from the medical community of the day. Now Dr. Sally Shaywitz from Yale has written a book called "Overcoming Dyslexia." She proved with her research with special fMRI scanning that Anna Gillingham was right! There are two parts of the lower left side of the brain that are our "Dictionary and Library,"and her scans showed that a dyslexic brain has very few, or no neural paths to these sections of the brain. That means that every time they see a word it is for the first time and they have to right-brain analyze it. A dyslexic also has a larger right side brain hemisphere. Einstein was dyslexic and did lineal math using his fingers. Multi-sensory? That is their learning difference � they either need much more time, or need a multi-sensory learning program of remediation that re-wires the brain so they can begin to use their brain's own dictionary/ library and begin to LEARN TO READ so they too can begin to READ TO LEARN.