October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month. The U of A Speech and Hearing Clinic is celebrating by hosting a free dyslexia simulation experience for the community. This hands-on simulation event will guide attendees through reading and handwriting activities in a way that allows participants to experience a sense of the challenge and frustration that individuals with literacy difficulties often face. 

The Dyslexia Simulation Experience will be held at the Fayetteville Public Library from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, and is open to all members of the community.

RSVP is required and space is limited. Reserve your seat now by contacting spclinic@uark.edu. 

About Dyslexia

According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), "Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It's characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities." The Dyslexia Research Institute estimates between 10 and 15 percent of the U.S. population has dyslexia and that only about one out of every 20 dyslexics are recognized and receive assistance. 

Dyslexia Services at the U of A Speech and Hearing Clinic

The U of A Speech and Hearing Clinic has expanded services to include evaluation and treatment of dyslexia and/or reading delays.   
One of the programs offered at the clinic is Take Flight, which was developed by the staff at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. The program is based on the research of Dr. Samuel T. Orton and Anna Gillingham and addresses the five components of effective reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel's research.   

These include the following: 

• Phonemic Awareness — following established procedures for explicitly teaching the relationships between speech-sound production and spelling-sound patterns. 
• Phonics — providing a systematic approach for single word decoding. 
• Fluency — using research-proven directed practice in repeated reading of words, phrases and passages to help students read newly encountered text more fluently. 
• Vocabulary — featuring multiple word learning strategies (definitional, structural, contextual) and explicitly teaching techniques with application to text. 
• Reading Comprehension — teaching students to explicitly use and articulation multiple comprehension strategies (i.e. cooperative learning, story structure, question generation and answering, summarization and comprehension monitoring). 

Clinic availability for speech/language and dyslexia services is filling up fast! Please contact the clinic (see details below) to learn more about scheduling and treatment options. 

About the Provider

Stephanie Hicks joined the program in Communication Sciences and Disorders as a clinical instructor in May 2022. She is a certified Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) and Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT) with extensive experience working with children with learning differences. Hicks has worked in a variety of settings, including early childhood, adult inpatient and pediatric outpatient settings; private clinics; and school-based settings. She will be providing evaluations and therapy for children and teens with reading difficulties, speech sound disorders and/or language disorders at the U of A Speech and Hearing Clinic.