by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Here’s a real head-scratcher.
What do Gen. George Patton, Whoopi Goldberg, Nolan Ryan and Winston Churchill have in common?
The answer is that each of them overcame dyslexia.
Not everyone can. Countless people, an estimated 10 to 20 percent of the population, have dyslexia, which can put learning to read on the same level as trying to paint the wind.
“Like everyone who learned without much difficulty, I just assumed that everyone knew how to read, and to read well,” said Circuit Court Judge Karen Cole. “It came as a shock to me when I realized my assumptions were absolutely incorrect.”
Millions struggle with the problem, doing the best they can, ashamed to ask for help.
Others can’t handle the frustration. They make some early missteps and start a slide that threatens to go out of control.
Those are the ones Cole and the Juvenile Delinquent Literacy Project want to help.
There were approximately 7,000 juvenile arrests last year in Duval County alone. Eighty-five percent of those juveniles were found to be illiterate or functionally illiterate.
“I think that people involved in the criminal justice system have always recognized that there is a higher rate of difficulty with reading among defendants than there is in the general population,” she said. “As the scientific research has developed in recent years, we’ve come to realize that there are ways to improve that situation and reduce repeat offenses at the same time we increase employment opportunities for defendants.”
Young people with dyslexia lose self-esteem. They can become so frustrated with failures in school that they drop out. Most become angry; many hang out with the wrong people, use drugs and commit crimes.
The time-tested solution has been incarceration, along with anger management programs and a battery of mental health and substance evaluations.
“There are all these expensive, time-consuming services,” said Cole. “There’s the cost to society in crime, the personal cost to this child and his family because we did nothing when we had the chance. That’s why it’s our issue.
“Our job, as I see it, is not only to address the cases that are currently before us but to critically analyze how we can prevent others from entering the system.”
Learning to read is the key to that new approach.
The program is based on medical research developed at several institutions, including Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, Harvard and Yale.
Researchers have discovered that dyslexia is related to a difference in brain structure. Using non-invasive functional MRIs, scientists can watch brain activity as children and adults perform certain mental tasks. Specific parts of the brain light up when non-dyslexic people read and don’t light up when dyslexics try to read.
“One of the neat things about the science is we now know how to identify kids who are at risk of reading failure even before they start school,” said Cole. “There are some very simple warning signs that parents can look for.
“Once a child who is at risk for reading failure is identified early, intervention can occur, and the child never has to fail.”
Children who hear “chunks” of sound rather than distinct syllables may have a problem. So do those who don’t understand rhymes or how to sound out parts of words.
The Literacy Project will rely on Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes to help young people learn how to read. One instructor focuses on small groups of students with the same problem. The technique is intensive, systematic and structured.
It has also been phenomenally effective, Judge James Milliken recently told the Jacksonville Bar Association.
The presiding judge of the Juvenile Court of San Diego County said young people in the program “jumped four, five and six grade levels. They became readers.”
Funding right now is very important. A grant-writing committee has been formed that will prepare applications for philanthropic organizations.
Cole cannot take part in any fund-raising efforts, “But I certainly can acquaint anyone who was interested with the need for the program.”
Volunteers are also needed.
Cole and JBA President Jim Moseley Jr. called for attorneys to help, and the response has been impressive.
“We already have 32 lawyers who are volunteering their time and talent to become educated in the science of reading research and talk to community groups and parents,” said Cole. “I’m just thrilled.”
Meaningful improvement in overall literacy will also take the efforts of other segments of society, such as those in the medical, business and education professions. And society will reap the benefits, said Cole:
“Although my particular interest is in this Juvenile Delinquency Literacy Project, all of us in the criminal justice system recognize that, if there are effective early literacy interventions, we will be seeing fewer defendants in our courtrooms. Throughout the system.”