WCU Offers Dyslexia Therapy Master’s Degree
Hattiesburg, Miss., May 30, 2013 - William Carey University's School of Education will offer a Master of Education in Dyslexia Therapy degree beginning in Summer 2013. The inaugural cohort for this dyslexia therapy training program consists of 24 students who will begin the program with orientation on Saturday, June 1, from 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. in the Kresge Room of Thomas Business Building. Speakers at the orientation will be State Rep. Larry Byrd of District 104, author of the Dyslexia House Bills 1031 and 1032; Robin Lemonis, dyslexia coordinator for the Mississippi Department of Education; Martha Sibley, former dyslexia coordinator for the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas, Texas; Regina Boulware-Gooden, vice president of research at the Neuhaus Education Center (NEC) in Houston, Texas, and Rai Thompson, qualified instructor of dyslexia therapy at NEC.
The cohort program is a two-year graduate level course of study that is structured to accommodate the schedule of working teachers. As part of WCU's partnership with the Neuhaus Education Center, Dr. Boulware-Gooden and Thompson will teach the summer courses, as well as courses on two Saturdays each trimester. The degree requires 30 classroom hours and 720 supervised clinical hours that will begin in the Fall 2013.
This dyslexia therapy training program is a research-based program to train therapists to work with students with dyslexia and related disorders. The core of the training evolved from Orton-Gillingham, a scientific, universally successful, specific teaching approach that combines all three learning modalities: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. The training program has been strongly supported by both the National and Mississippi Scottish Rite Masons, and the Mississippi Dyslexia Therapy Association.
The program is also supported by House Bill 1032, which created the Mississippi Dyslexia Education Scholarship Program for college students who wish to pursue a Master of Education in dyslexia therapy at a Mississippi college or university. Scholarship recipients are then required to render one year's services as a licensed dyslexia therapist in a Mississippi public school for each year of scholarship award.
For more information, contact Dr. Cena Holifield, coordinator of the WCU Dyslexia Therapy Program, at cholifield@wmcarey.edu.