BY GREGG L. PARKER

Two Madison women are helping children with dyslexia at Lindsay Lane Christian Academy in Athens.

Cindy Hall and Cathy Orosz both completed the Orton-Gillingham Foundation training for dyslexia.

The academy’s dyslexia center opened in August. “The center began at Faith Christian Academy in 2010 and came to Lindsay Lane with the merger of the two schools,” Hall said. “We serve children in kindergarten through sixth grade with our dyslexia program.”

Hall defines dyslexia as “extreme difficulty learning to read, spell or complete language tasks in one’s native language, despite at least average intelligence and adequate instruction.”

They provide remedial instruction so students can succeed in the regular classroom. “The dyslexia program is a team effort involving parents, students, the specially trained teacher and certified classroom teacher,” Hall said.

Hall and Orosz help students notice, think about and work with individual speech sounds in multi-sensory teaching. “Students (need) to see, hear, speak and touch as they interact with sounds and words — for example, tracing sandpaper letters or on a fuzzy board,” Orosz said.

Hall and Orosz closely coordinate student assignments in their small groups. “We’re excited about working with classroom teachers to help them understand our students’ needs,” Orosz said.

In addition to college study, Orosz has taught for several years and has tutored for four years. “In this work, my education, experience and passion to work with children come together,” Orosz said.

Hall has 30 years experience as a teacher and tutor. “I began tutoring people with dyslexia in 2005, after receiving Orton-Gillingham training at Greengate School in Huntsville,” Hall said. “I had my own private tutoring practice until last fall when Faith Christian recruited me to develop and implement a dyslexia center.”

The academy’s address is 1300 Lindsay Lane in Athens. For information, call 256-262-5323 or visit lindsaylanechristianacademy or Facebook/Lindsay Lane Christian Academy.

For more information about dyslexia, visit interdys.org.