Five Questions With: Lisa Bigney

"Having dyslexia can be challenging for all ages, but in particular for adults who never benefited from the appropriate interventions."

Lisa Bigney, the founder and co-director of Rhode Island Tutorial and Education Services, has been working with students, parents and educators in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts since 1997. Based in Rhode Island, the service, which became a nonprofit about five years ago, offers summer academic camps, Study Smarter Not Harder seminars, and parent workshops as well as one-on-one tutoring using multisensory techniques. Here she discusses the value and relevance of the services that the nonprofit provides.

PBN: Your organization started out focusing on reading help for young dyslexic students. How has the work grown and how common a problem is it?
BIGNEY:
According to the National Reading Panel, 17 to 20 percent of children have difficulty learning to read, so it is a common problem. This research has also shown that this difficulty is not due to lack of intelligence or desire to learn. When the service first opened, we used proven research-backed methods, such as direct instruction in phonemic awareness using the Orton-Gillingham method, to help young students learn to read.
Due to this success, we began receiving requests from families to work with older siblings who were struggling. We added reading specialists who had experience working with middle and high school students, as well as adults. With their older students, these teachers moved beyond “learning to read” to the next steps in the reading process: reading comprehension. Rhode Island Tutorial has grown from having only reading teachers that specialize in working with young students to having more than 30 certified teachers with different specialties and expertise in order to help students of all ages and with different types of learning styles.
There’s no better feeling, for all of us here at RI Tutorial, than to educate students in how they learn best so they can leave here ready and eager to learn for the rest of the school year, their academic life, and beyond.

PBN: How is the Orton-Gillingham tutorial method different than others and who benefits most from it?
BIGNEY:
Orton-Gillingham is simultaneous multisensory instruction, in which teachers use all the learning pathways at the same time to enhance memory and learning. Instruction is sequential and cumulative. Teachers follow a logical sequence, based on proper language development, and consistently review previous concepts to ensure retention. All instruction is delivered in- person, in an interactive way, in what is called “direct instruction.” This means the teacher is modeling and explaining the principle while continuously interacting with the student.
There is no inferential learning or guessing (the instruction is “explicit”) because implicit learning can be problematic for many students with dyslexia and language difficulties. Orton-Gillingham teachers also use what is called prescriptive teaching, in that the teacher continually assesses the individual need of the student and presents material to ensure mastery and success, improving the student’s self-esteem and lessening the student’s anxiety about reading and writing.

PBN: What are the particular challenges for adult students with dyslexia and how do you help them?
BIGNEY:
Having dyslexia can be challenging for all ages, but in particular for adults who never benefited from the appropriate interventions. Many adults were born before scientists had an understanding of what dyslexia is and how to treat it, so as children they were often told they were stupid or lazy. Many dyslexic adults believe these labels are true and that it is their fault that they are poor readers. This is often why they don’t ask for assistance and go to great lengths to hide the fact that their reading and writing skills are weak.
In reality, a teacher with expertise and training in working with dyslexics can help them vastly improve their reading and writing skills. Sometimes when we start working with a child who has been diagnosed with dyslexia, the parent realizes he or she had similar difficulties learning when they were children. Through the work we do with their children, parents begin to understand their own learning difficulties, and ask for training for themselves.
Rhode Island Tutorial’s certified teachers use the same methodology that we would use with our older students who are struggling to read, but use reading materials that are specifically geared towards adult learners to assist parents improving their literacy skills and improving their self-esteem.

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PBN: What makes tutoring so powerful as a teaching tool?
BIGNEY:
Individual tutoring can completely change a student’s attitude about himself or herself. Tutoring allows students to work at their own pace, have lessons designed specifically to meet their needs, and be with a teacher who is 100 percent there to support them. This individual attention instills a sense of confidence in students and increases their abilities. Many students feel defeated by school, so having someone who takes interest in their success, crafts lessons that meet their learning styles, and most importantly teaches them the skills they need to succeed, is what makes one-to-one tutoring so powerful.
Plus, for busy parents these days, it’s a far more effective and efficient way for students to learn than to sit in a group and try to follow along. Very often, parents have tried numerous other programs and are exasperated and ready to give up. Sadly, many families are reluctant to share the successes their students experience with RI Tutorial because of the stigma.

PBN: Which type of student do you find requires the most tutorial aid and what are the ways you supply that?
BIGNEY:
The most at-risk students who need the most tutorial aid are those with learning and attention difficulties. The distractions in classrooms with 20 or more children make it nearly impossible for some students to concentrate. Thus, they can miss directions that are given or skills that are taught by the teacher. Individual tutoring in a quiet space allows students the opportunity to work on skills that they missed in class, so they don’t fall behind.
There are also students who have learning difficulties that make it hard for them to process or remember what was taught in class. Again, working one-to-one with a teacher in a tutoring situation allows the tutor to present lessons to the student in a manner that will maximize what the student needs to learn and remember. Many of our students with learning difficulties are also in need of specific teaching methods that are not typically used in most schools. So, Rhode Island Tutorial’s certified teachers are trained in different various multisensory and intervention methods.

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