Imagine being a teacher, possessing every tool and talent necessary to inform a young 5-, 6-, or 7-year-old about the joys of reading and general knowledge.
Now imagine being a teacher, and despite all the training and education you possess, your own child is going through kindergarten, first and second grades struggling to read, tie their own shoes or rhyme words.
According to Christian County Public Schools K-6 Instructional Supervisor Michelle Walden, this was her fall 2015 experience — when she and her husband finally turned to Vicki Jones and the Dyslexia Association of Christian County, seeking help for their young son, Drew.
In a Tuesday testimonial with the Hopkinsville Rotary Club, Walden said it took several years for them to realize a sincere disability was paralyzing their child’s mind.
Walden said she felt two waves of guilt after this moment: the first as a parent not wanting to believe something was wrong with her child, the second as a teacher who couldn’t fix her own family.
From there, though, everything became an action plan — and fears of illiteracy and other disadvantages melted away, as she toured and learned more about Jones and the Association.
A former math teacher, Walden turned her attention to Barton programming — a system still used today to work struggling students, young and old, through the alphabet and phonetics, all the way through complex passages and concepts.
Once Drew was enrolled, Walden said parents were required to learn the tutoring system, but weren’t allowed to teach their own son — a unique way to create understanding, without introducing new familial stress.
For two nights a week and from second through sixth grade, Walden said Drew went through intense, fastidious tutoring — a span of five years.
Fast forward to now, and Drew is a succeeding junior at Christian County High School — a reader, thriving in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Walden, meanwhile, has since served on the Association’s board of directors, and with CCPS has turned her focus toward reading success.
Furthermore, Walden said she has turned to Jones and the Association for a unique partnership for interventions at Freedom Elementary.
For Walden, this has become a full-circle journey, made even more so when she recently turned in a grant request to the Hopkinsville Rotary Club.
If awarded, she said the funds would be used to continue this pilot programming at Freedom Elementary, and perhaps beyond in the district, with many students having completed their first books.
