Springfield, MO – July 24, 2021 – Dyslexia is a common disability diagnosed in over three million individuals annually in the United States. It significantly impacts spelling, reading, and writing skills and makes learning challenging for even the brightest students. The good news is that, while there is not a cure for Dyslexia, there are ways to effectively manage it to ensure children are receiving a fair and equal education.

Arkansas law requires that each school have a staff member trained to be a Certified Academic Language Practitioner or a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT). All teachers must have the training to understand Dyslexia and accommodations that can be put in place to address the disorder effectively. Arkansas law also requires children from kindergarten to second grade to be screened for Dyslexia. By law, students that are experiencing written-language problems are screened in grade three or higher grades. There are also laws requiring in-service and pre-service for teachers and laws about the interventions provided.

Springfield Center for Dyslexia and Learning provides training for an educator to become a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT) and meet the requirements of Arkansas State Law that ties dyslexia screening and intervention to school accreditation. It is better to know what teachers should be doing as professionals to help students better and ensure they meet the legal requirements than to guess. To ensure children are receiving the education they deserve, and teachers are practicing within the guidelines of the law, Springfield Center for Dyslexia and Learning now offers Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT) training; a curriculum called “Take Flight: A Comprehensive Intervention for Students with Dyslexia” for Arkansas teachers and educators.

The “Take Flight” training is a therapist training program that focuses on providing multisensory language therapy and focuses on all five components to providing reading instruction effectively. The key focuses are vocabulary, phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.

Certified Academic Language Therapists provide diagnostic, explicit, systematic Multisensory Structured Language intervention, which builds a high degree of accuracy, knowledge, and independence for students with written-language disorders, including Dyslexia. The “Take Flight” program focuses on teaching the five components and teaches educators how to teach students with Dyslexia what they need to know to be successful, independent readers. It provides them the opportunity to grow their skills in reading. It is most effective when therapists are trained in how to provide the intervention. The lower the reading skill, the greater the benefits students can have from the “Take Flight” program.

Research further indicates that children who have completed the program continue to receive benefits from the therapy and continue to improve. Students in the program grow in all the five areas of reading skill. When teachers are trained, they can provide the educational, supportive services students deserve and Arkansas state law requires.

Learn to deliver research-based multisensory teaching methods that ignite the strengths of dyslexic students and inspire life-long learning by contacting Springfield Center for Dyslexia and Learning today at (417) 269-0259 or on their website at https://dyslexiaandlearning.com/services/training/academic-language-therapist-training/!