August 15, 2008

5 Colorado Springs Women Receive National Certification for Teaching Students with Dyslexia; Bring New Standards in Teacher Training to Colorado in Time for New Dyslexia Legislation

(Colorado Springs, CO)  Five Colorado Springs women have become the first Coloradans trained within the state of Colorado to receive certification from the Academic Language Therapy Association (ALTA), a national organization dedicated to the remediation of written language skills. The five women are Anna Fitzhugh, Sandra Giorgetta, Peggy Johnson, Julie Leutz, and Jill Yochim.

“By achieving national certification, these five women will help raise the bar for quality instruction for children with dyslexia in Colorado,” commented Nancy Coffman of Dallas, TX, President of the Alliance for Accreditation and Certification and former president of ALTA.

On May 27, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed into law House Bill 1223, authored by House Education Committee Chair Michael Merrifield, which requires the Colorado Department of Education to help teachers identify students with dyslexia and teach them to read. Colorado’s House Education Committee voted unanimously to approve the bill.

“We are so proud of these women,” remarked Lynne Fitzhugh, Executive Director of  The Dyslexia Center where all five women received training. “They were truly pioneers and we know they will change the future for many students with dyslexia.”           

All five women began training at The Dyslexia Center in Colorado Springs in summer, 2007, and are certified as Associate Academic Language Teachers (AALT). Training was directed by Teresa Hinote, Certified Academic Language Therapist and Qualified Instructor from the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, TX.

According to the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition abilities and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. Research shows that individuals with dyslexia process information in different areas of the brain than do non-dyslexics, and that most are average to above average in intelligence.

For more information, contact The Dyslexia Center at

(719) 227-0026 or go to http://TheDyslexiaCenter.com.

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