The Pennsylvania Branch of the International Dyslexia Association held its annual conference Friday, October 10 in Trevose, PA. This year's theme was Dyslexia: Taking a Closer Look and featured speakers and presenters who led the 300-plus attendees in dialogues about how we as educators are doing in our efforts to help students with learning differences.

Thomas Jennings, The Reading Connection's full-time psychologist, was the co-chair of the conference for the second straight year and emceed the event. Nancy Jennings, TRC's director, was the volunteer chairperson and the staff of The Reading Connection made up much of the volunteer pool. We encourage our staff to take part in the conference every year as a way of supporting the local IDA and also as a part of our staff's ongoing training.

Maryanne Wolf, Ph.D., delivered this year's keynote address on assessments and interventions, past, present and future. Dr. Wolf is Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University and a Professor of Child Development in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development. She focused on the history of reading development and how the phonological core deficit model and the Double-Deficit Hypothesis became the basis for dealing with reading disorders. Dr. Wolf asserted that these models were "necessary and insufficient." Through the results of a five-year NICHD (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) study, Dr. Wolf showed the importance of naming speed and fluency in reading failures, as well as the success rate of students tutored in these areas in addition to the traditional approaches of phonological awareness. Dr. Wolf talked about moving students forward through these types of broader approaches rather than work solely at the phonological level.

Dr. Wolf's presentation validated for us the approach we use at The Reading Connection, based on published findings by the National Reading Panel. Our students benefit from systematic methods such as Lindamood-Bell and Wilson Language, combined with fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and word recognition exercises in every session. Students are taught skills of symbol imagery, concept imagery, morphology, short-term memory, and higher order thinking. This broader approach allows for easier applications of skills to books and schoolwork, which is also integral to successful remedial work. Every session at The Reading Connection ends with the student reading aloud at his or her functional level to help the student to feel a sense of accomplishment and to ensure they are progressing in naming speed and fluency.

For more information on this year's conference, click here.