Today we speak with Emily Hanford.

Emily Hanford is a senior correspondent and producer for APM Reports, the documentary and investigative journalism group at American Public Media. She’s been covering education for more than a decade. Her work has appeared on NPR and in The New York Times, Washington Monthly, Los Angeles Times, PBS NewsHour and other publications. 
Her audio documentary and article “Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read?” won a 2018 public service award from the Education Writers Association. She is based in the Washington, D.C area. 

https://www.apmreports.org/documentaries
Here are a few pieces she has written about reading:
Op-Ed in the New York Times Why Are We Still Teaching Reading the Wrong Way?:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/opinion/sunday/phonics-teaching-reading-wrong-way.html
Follow up to Hard Words on APM Reports website What to do if your child's school isn't teaching reading right?:
https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/10/08/what-to-do-if-your-childs-school-isnt-teaching-reading-right
Story for Morning Edition, NPR Why Millions Of Kids Can't Read And What Better Teaching Can Do About It:
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/02/677722959/why-millions-of-kids-cant-read-and-what-better-teaching-can-do-about-it

This podcast was sponsored in part by Pediatric Associates of Dallas

Today’s show topic is about dyslexia, obviously, but today our guest shares a story that we hear so often. 
The story of love and dedication from parents who would do anything to make sure that their children have the proper support to be successful. A story that gets to see the history over decades in special education and reading remediation. The vast personal experience and firsthand knowledge of how the Lindamood reading intervention was developed.

This podcast was sponsored in part by Pediatric Associates of Dallas

Rachel and Stephen recap their trip to Washington, D.C.and they also speak to the founder of Mom’s 4 FAPE Marilyn Muller.

Marilyn Muller - Massachusetts 
Marilyn is the mother of Lauryn, a bright 12 year old dyslexic. When her daughter struggled
to acquire reading and writing skills in kindergarten, Marilyn decided that Lauryn’s
experience would not mirror that of her half-brother Jake, and so advocating for her
academic & emotional well-being became Marilyn’s 2nd full-time job. Lauryn attended local public school grades K-3, and just completed 5th grade at The Carroll School after being unilaterally placed there by her parents. Marilyn is committed to spreading awareness and facilitating positive change through her tireless advocacy efforts.

Virginia Spencer is the Principal of Lumen Advocacy LLC, a Special Education and parent Advocate with experience in Kansas, Illinois and Texas. She represents students in 19 school districts and 3 regions and is familiar with the challenges of securing appropriate school services under the IDEA. She has a background in parent training for ARD meetings, negotiating curriculum differentiation and non-attorney representation at dispute resolution. Additionally, she provides presentations to groups or organizations-such as the IDA
Austin as well in-service training to private related service providers and is a certified NAMI presenter for the Parents and Teachers as Allies program

This podcast was sponsored in part by Pediatric Associates of Dallas

Show #31 ADHD with Dr. Chris Dreiling, MD, FAAP
Dr. Dreiling sought out a liberal arts education as an undergraduate, as he knew he would be focusing on science in medical school. Within the Plan II major at UT-Austin, he had study concentrations in biomedical ethics and film history. Dr. Dreiling decided on pediatrics as his held during his third year medical school rotation and has not regretted it for a single moment.
 Dr. Dreiling has been happily married for 17 years to his wife, Rachel, who is a pediatric nurse practitioner, actress, and awesome mom. He has been blessed with two healthy and energetic children who keep them quite busy. Outside of the office, he continues to engage and study film and music and enjoy traveling with his family. He has played piano since he was six years old, and always tries to find time to practice!

Two high school students from a small town in Texas began
working on a school project about Dyslexia. They soon began to
feel an overwhelming passion about Dyslexia because one of the
participants Lily was diagnosed at a young age. To expand
knowledge about Dyslexia and the issues that many students face
they decided to start the 1-in-5 necklace campaign. 1-in-5 people
suffer from Dyslexia.

Lily just graduated from Midlothian Heritage High School. During her senior year she joined FCCLA and decided to do a STAR EVENT with her best friend, Genesis. After, throwing around many ideas they chose Dyslexia as their topic to compete in the advocacy category. As the project went on more and more opportunities presented themselves. Lily will be attending Tyler Junior College in the fall under General Studies for her first year. She also just got a job working for American Dance and Drill Team.

Genesis is a senior in High School. Last year I was president of FCCLA and decided to a STAR event project with Lily. We took our passion and determination and put it all into our Advocacy Project titled Decoding Dyslexia. This project brought home first at regionals and state. We also had the opportunity to participate in the National FCCLA conference. After a week in Anaheim California we were honored to receive a Gold medal and the highest score within our event in the Nation. 

Join Empower Dyslexia as we speak with Amber Carter Jones about her journey in parent advocacy.

Amber's real job is as an historic preservation consultant working throughout the state of Arkansas. She is a specialist in Federal and State Historic Tax Credits and listing properties to the National Register. Amber's three daughters are all affected by dyslexia, however, it was her youngest child, Rory, age 16 now, who struggled the most and could not figure out reading or spelling at all, the way her school was teaching it. The typical struggles with getting this child the appropriate educational services led Amber to become a passionate dyslexia advocate for other students and families affected by dyslexia. She is a founding member of the Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group which provides free advocacy services to parents of students with Dyslexia. The group has been effective at the state legislature with the passage of two dyslexia laws and four literacy laws passed concerning the Science of Reading for all K-12 students 

Today we had the honor to speak with Speaker of the Texas House Dennis Bonnen.  We speak about all of the new laws passed this year and his own struggles with dyslexia.

Speaker of the Texas House Dennis Bonnen (District 25) The Honorable Dennis Bonnen was unanimously elected Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives on January 8, 2019. Speaker Bonnen has served in the Texas House of Representatives for over 20 years, representing southern Brazoria County and the entirety of Matagorda County. Prior to his election as Speaker, Bonnen served as Speaker Pro Tempore beginning in 2013. He has previously served as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, as a member of the House Culture, Recreation & amp; Tourism Committee, Chairman of the Sunset Advisory Committee and the House Special Purpose Districts Committee, Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee of Oversight of Higher Education Governance, Excellence and Transparency; and as a member of the Natural Resources Committee. Speaker Bonnen resides with his wife, Kim, and their two sons in Lake Jackson, Texas. In addition to his legislative duties, he is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Heritage Bank.

Joining us in the studio today is Jennie Wegner and Michael Vitullo, who are currently attending college and happen to have learning differences/disabilities.

Michael Vitullo graduated as a top 10 student in the Class of 2016 from The Shelton School of Dallas. He is currently a student at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas and is majoring in Psychology with a minor in Spanish. He has studied abroad for a semester in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At Southwestern, he serves on the Honor Code Council and is an elected official in the Kappa Alpha Order Fraternity. He was diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia in the 2nd Grade and later diagnosed with Dysgraphia in the 4th Grade. He is spending this summer as an intern at a law firm in Dallas and plans to pursue law school following college graduation.

Jennie is a sophomore college student at Abilene Christian University majoring in special education elementary. She was diagnosed with dyslexia at age 5 and struggled with school ever since. She danced her whole life and taught dance to kids to distract her from everything going on at school. Her parents pulled her out of school to homeschooled from 8th-12th grade and is only reason why she decided to go to college. Having a disability she wants to be able to teach kids that have similar problems like she does. In the summer she enjoys volunteer at a special eduction clinic in Dallas. During her first year of college she has made the deans list twice, in a learning disability program, and is on the first ever dance team at ACU.

This podcast was sponsored in part by Pediatric Associates of Dallas

Please welcome back Penny Stack, OTD, OTR/L, CLT
Today we speak about Understanding the WHY of Dyslexia.
Penny has over 30 years of experience as an occupational therapist that include working with children who have special learning needs. Penny is also a mother of a child with dyslexia who has success in overcoming the real world difficulties living with dyslexia. Out of her own child’s needs, Penny founded Dyslexia Center of Tulsa serving Oklahoma since 2011. Nationally recognized as an expert in the team approach for the treatment of dyslexia, Penny is a professional speaker for PESI. Penny is certified in Handwriting Without Tears, received her Doctorate Degree in Occupational Therapy from Loma Linda University and Master’s in Occupational Therapy at Samuel Merritt College Penny has dedicated her research to dyslexia and its impact on occupation: The lived experience. Penny is a member of the Oklahoma Occupational Therapy Association and the American Occupational Therapy Association.
https://dyslexiatulsa.com
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This podcast was sponsored in part by Pediatric Associates of Dallas