DYSLEXIA

Scottish rite to offer a helping hand

* It plans a one-on-one tutoring program for dozens of dyslexic children

By Tom Beyerlein DAYTON DAILY NEWS

The Scottish Rite is laying the groundwork for a local program that will provide one-on-one tutoring for children with dyslexia, a learning disability associated with literacy problems.

The Masonic organization plans to hire a full-time director and some part-time tutors and begin providing tutoring to dyslexic students in the fall. The service will be offered free.

"We wanted to do something to help get these kids on an equal (level) with their peers," said John Smith, executive secretary of the local Scottish Rite group.

Dyslexia is a neurologically based learning disability that interferes with the acquisition and processing of language. It varies in severity and often runs in families. There is no cure, but dyslexics can be helped with early intervention.

The Scottish Rite project will have a budget of $100,000 a year, funded mostly by member donations.

The organization is remodeling a card-playing room in the Masonic Temple near downtown Dayton to create six tutoring rooms, a director's office, a conference room and a reception area.

The Dayton program - to be called the Valley of Dayton 32nd Degree Masonic Children's Learning Center - is one of 10 planned for Ohio and 55 planned for the northern United States. A dozen centers are operational, including ones in Cincinnati and Youngstown. A Toledo center is to open soon.

The Scottish Rite, which has historically supported programs to combat schizophrenia, has turned its attention to dyslexia because federal funding of schizophrenia programs has lessened the need for philanthropy, Smith said.

Experts estimate that 2 percent to 10 percent or more of the population are dyslexic. According to the International Dyslexia Association, "Their problems in language processing distinguish them as a group. This means that the dyslexic has problems translating language to thought (as in listening or reading) or thought to language (as in writing or speaking)."

"They're not slow learners - there's absolutely nothing wrong with their IQs," said Thomas Hubler of the Scottish Rite, a retired Clinton Massie school superintendent who is chairman of the new center's board of governors. But dyslexia "definitely can be a problem for reading - and if you have a problem there, you have a problem everywhere."

The center is to serve about 36 students, each of whom will attend two one-hour tutoring sessions per week. The center will be open Monday through Thursday. It generally will serve students in third to seventh grade. Prospective students must first be diagnosed as dyslexic in testing at their schools or by private testers. Students will get free tutoring until they achieve their appropriate grade level in reading, Smith said.

Hubler said a side benefit of the program may be the demystification of Masonry for the community.

"That's definitely one of the objectives - to do something for the community and also for the community to understand a little more about Masonry," he said.