Educators in two Tennessee counties are better equipped to help children with dyslexia this school year due to an MTSU institution and a community partner.

The Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia at MTSU made it possible for 39 teachers from Williamson and Sumner counties to attend a workshop over the summer in the College of Education building with a $10,000 grant from the Rotary Club of Murfreesboro.

“We brought them to the campus of MTSU for a five-day training on many facets of reading, particularly as they pertain to providing intervention or instruction to students with dyslexia,” said center director Jennifer Flipse.

The Murfreesboro Rotary Club’s donation paid for instructors from the AIM Institute for Learning and Research of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, to guide the teachers through the weeklong professional development event in mid-June.

Teachers received instruction in the areas of student assessment; sentence comprehension; spelling; phonology, which is the study of the relationships of speech sounds within a language; morphology, which is the study of how words are formed; and several other topics relevant to dyslexia.

Educator training is only one of the many services offered by the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia. The center also offers resources for parents, student evaluations, student instruction and more. 

— Gina Logue (Gina.Logue@mtsu.edu)

Photo: Jennifer Flipse, left, director of The Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia, accepts a ceremonial $10,000 check from the Rotary Club of Murfreesboro from the club’s 2018-2019 president Melissa Cassidy, center, and current club president Rev. Dr. John A. Hinkle at an Aug. 13 luncheon at the Stones River Country Club. (Photo provided)