The Kosciusko School District added another position to its staff directory for the 2021-2022 school year—Sara Beth Kelly as dyslexia therapist. Jerrelyn Jackson, the district director of Secondary Curriculum, Professional Development, and Title IX is currently studying in Mississippi College’s dyslexia program. Once graduated, Jackson will work with students at Kosciusko Lower Elementary. Kelly will work with students at KUE and KME.
Kelly is no stranger to the district; she has been serving as a special educator since 2014. She originally moved to the area with her son Ethan in 2007 after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Special Education from Mississippi State University. From there, she began her career in education as an Academic Teacher I at Kosciusko Group Home, a part of Hudspeth Regional Center and the Department of Mental Health. During her time there, she worked with adults aged 18-65 with intellectual disabilities. In 2013, she joined the Durant Public School District and has been with Kosciusko School District since 2014.
Kelly’s father, Roy C. Kelly, received his degree in Special Education from the University of Mississippi at the age of 41, but he was never able to teach due to health issues. Sara said she shares her father’s passion for helping struggling students — she relates to the “underdog.”
“I know what it’s like to struggle and have to work harder than my peers in some areas. Adults and children alike all have our own strengths and weaknesses, and we all need to feel like we are good at something,” she told The Star-Herald.
One in five people have dyslexia. According to Kelly, unlike the common misconception, dyslexia has nothing to do with vision. It is a deficit in the phonological component of language — it is about hearing, not seeing — so things like color overlays and special fonts cannot correct it. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. The deficits caused are unexpected when compared with students’ cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Dyslexia is not caused by not having been taught to read effectively. Dyslexia causes problems with accurate and fluent letter and word recognition, spelling, decoding skills, reading comprehension, and the overall reading experience.
By law, all students are required to be screened for dyslexia in kindergarten and first grade, and parents must be made aware of the results.
According to Kelly, characteristics parents might watch for in children under age 5 include reversing sounds in words, difficulty remembering or naming letters, and not recognizing rhyme. In school-age children, reading well below grade level, avoiding reading, and difficulty in spelling can be indicative of dyslexia. Self-assessments are available on the International Dyslexia Association’s website for pre-school and school-age children, as well as for adults.
“The students with dyslexia with whom I have worked are some of the brightest, most creative and kindest students that I’ve ever had,” said Kelly. “I love this quote by Dr. Sally Shaywitz of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity: ‘Dyslexia is an island of weakness surrounded by a sea of strengths.’”
When asked about techniques used to address dyslexia, Kelly explained that every dyslexia therapy program must include the following components: phonological awareness, phonics, the entire structure of the English language (morphology, semantics, syntax, pragmatics), linguistic instruction, and strategies for decoding, encoding, word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. It is multisensory. Dyslexia therapy is a very specific and structured program.
It is not magic nor is it a quick fix, she said, but it can actually “rewire” the dyslexic brain when done with fidelity.
Kelly said dyslexia therapy is very repetitive, but students with dyslexia need much more repetition than students without it in order to learn and to remember.
“Concepts must be over-taught,” she said. “Therapy is very repetitious and meets that need.”
Therapy is also comprehensive. It includes rapid letter/word recognition, phonological awareness, handwriting, spelling, oral language and even listening skills.
Kelly said the more she learned about dyslexia, the more passionate she became about helping students with the disability.
“I found my way into the Dyslexia Therapy program the way I do most things in life….I stumbled and fell into it, hitting several bumps on the way down,” she said. “I recognized that I had worked with children with this disability before and now I have the key to helping them.”
She is thrilled about her new position in the district, especially because dyslexia therapy is beginning to spread into public school systems.
In years past, parents have had to pay out-of-pocket for their child to get a diagnosis privately from a licensed dyslexia therapist. If a student struggled with reading, they would get sent to special education with a reading disability. Students would get accommodation and tutoring but would not get therapy for their sole issue, dyslexia. With Kelly’s new role, that will all change, and students with the disability will be able to get the treatment that they need.
KSD Federal Programs Director and Testing Coordinator Corrie Ramage said dyslexic students will get therapy at school for free, but students that already have a medical diagnosis will get therapy quickly and will be the first students that Kelly works with.
“It has been a huge push from the state because if you catch these students early, a lot of times it will correct the problem, and they won’t have issues later,” said Ramage.
Kelly said she is excited about her new role and is proud that KSD allowed for this new position
“I am absolutely thrilled. Dyslexia therapy is beginning to spread into the public schools and that’s a great thing,” said Kelly. “I’m proud to be part of a school district that wants to grow and help students in innovative ways, and I am so excited to be providing this therapy to students who need it and will benefit from it. I’m also happy to be providing a service that parents will no longer have to pay out of pocket or travel outside of Kosciusko to obtain.”
