Vanderbilt Register:Peabody Reading Clinic targets students with reading difficulties

Peabody Reading Clinic targets students with reading difficulties

by Ann Marie Deer Owens

Starting this fall, a reading clinic at Vanderbilt's Peabody College will offer one-to-one instruction for students in kindergarten and the early elementary grades who have significant trouble with reading. A limited number of spaces are available for the clinic, which is expected to continue through the school year. Students will be tutored at the John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. The cost will be approximately $30 per hour.

Graduate students in Vanderbilt's Department of Special Education will provide instruction. The tutors, who will be under the supervision of an experienced special education teacher, will use research-based strategies to promote reading.

Students will be tutored a minimum of two - preferably three - times a week, for 45 minutes a session. All students will be evaluated to determine specific reading needs, according to Douglas Fuchs, one of the directors of the clinic and professor of special education at Vanderbilt's Peabody College.

"One in five children has difficulty learning to read in school," said Fuchs, who is also co-director of the Kennedy Center Institute on Education and Learning. "Since reading is the foundation for all learning, this is a crucial skill for success in school."

Parents will receive initial assessments as well as a written report at the end of the tutoring period.

The clinic is also under the direction of Lynn Fuchs, professor of special education and co-director of the Kennedy Center Institute on Education and Learning, and the Department of Special Education. For more information, call Anneke Thompson at 615/322-8291.

[Register FrontPage | Register Archive | News & Public Affairs Office]