May 29, 2007 

(Colorado Springs, CO) The Dyslexia Center of Colorado Springs and Penrose-St. Francis Hospital have announced a partnership to provide remediative services to children in Colorado Springs. The center will become one of the few hospital-based reading disabilities programs in the United States, joining Massachusetts General in Boston and Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas.

“We’re extremely excited to continue our mission of nurturing the health of our community by providing these desperately needed services to the fifteen percent of our children affected by dyslexia,” commented Rick O’Connell, President and CEO of Penrose-St. Francis Health Services.

The Dyslexia Center at Penrose-St. Francis will be the first comprehensive reading center of its kind in Colorado. Services include evaluation and remediation for children as well as teacher training and professional development in conjunction with the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs Department of Psychology. The center will conduct research and its implication for instruction under the guidance of a scientific advisory committee and will serve as a state resource on reading.

“Despite massive No Child Left Behind reforms, we still have large numbers of children who are not reading or are reading below grade level,” reported Lynne Fitzhugh, Ph.D., Director of The Dyslexia Center. “Through our on-site programs as well as our professional development, we know we can make a difference for so many children in our community who struggle with reading. Most children want to read when they start school. Unfortunately, too many of them lose this desire through continued struggles and failure. The secret to effective reading instruction is not in a single curriculum but in knowing what to teach and how to teach it.”

The Dyslexia Center will offer professional development in reading intervention and remediation. Training is aligned with the standards of the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council and adheres to stringent training requirements of the Academic Language Therapy Association, the professional organization for all who are eligible to be registered as Certified Academic Language Therapists or Associate Academic Language Teachers.

The Dyslexia Center at Penrose-St. Francis officially opens its doors on June 1, 2007. The Dyslexia Center is located at 825 East Pikes Peak Avenue, Suite 109, in the St. Francis Health Center. For more information, contact The Dyslexia Center at (719)227-0026 or go to http://TheDyslexiaCenter.com.

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