Bangor Children’s Dyslexia Center offers free tutoring to Maine kids

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) - The Bangor Children’s Dyslexia Center has provided free, one-on-one tutoring to children diagnosed with dyslexia for more than two decades. The program is primarily funded by the Scottish Rite Freemasonry of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction.

According to Literacy for ME, about 200,000 Mainers have dyslexia, including approximately 40,000 children.

What dyslexia is — and isn’t

Bangor Children’s Center Director Laurie Marcotte said a common misconception is that people with dyslexia see letters or words scrambled on a page.

She says it’s not about eyesight.

“They don’t see letters backwards, words backwards,” Marcotte said. “It’s being able to understand all of the sounds that we have in our language and how that translates to the symbols that we see on the page.”

Dr. Jane Pullman, an assistant professor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department at the University of Maine, also serves as a tutor at the center. She described dyslexia as “a specific learning disability” and “the inability to map speech sounds to print symbols.”

“Reading is part of our specialty in speech-language pathology,” Pullman said. “And I think we are finding that more students are being diagnosed with dyslexia and speech pathologists aren’t sure how to help them.”

How the program works

Students at the center learn structured literacy, which Marcotte described as intentionally teaching letter-sound correspondences.

“There’s nine different ways to spell the sound E,” Marcotte said. “So we have to very specifically and intentionally teach all of those letter-sound correspondences when they’re going to happen.”

Tutoring is offered twice a week for one hour per session. The center provides up to two years of service and accepts students from first grade through high school seniors.

Marcotte said dyslexia has no connection to intelligence, which can allow some children to compensate for the disability early in their schooling.

“A lot of kids find ways to kind of survive in the classroom,” she said.

One student’s experience

Eleven-year-old Elijah Patterson entered the program in fourth grade after being placed on a waiting list in kindergarten. His daycare teacher first raised the possibility that he might have dyslexia during first grade.

“I was behind everybody in my class,” Elijah said. “All the work, it felt like it was just a scramble of words.”

Before coming to the center, Elijah had begun asking a voice assistant to help him sound out words.

His mother said she noticed a difference quickly after he enrolled.

“He went from a second grade reading level all the way back up to fifth grade in just a year,” she said.

Elijah said the experience changed his outlook.

“First, I was like, well I don’t want to do extra school,” he said. “But it’s really helping me. I have way more confidence. I’ve gone through three series of books so far.”

His mother said her concerns about his future have eased.

“There was a lot of tears when he was younger between him and then me in my own setting, behind closed doors, just worrying what life would be like for him if he can’t learn to read,” she said.

Patterson smiles and then continues.

“Now I have no fears of what his future holds.”

How to apply

Parents must apply and have their child complete an evaluation to participate. A waiting list is in place.

It’s also no cost for teachers that want to train to become certified tutors.

The training is also considered a graduate level two semester course. You can register through the University of Maine at Orono and UMF websites. Please note, teachers do have to pay for the graduate credits.

Children’s Dyslexia Center of Bangor has a partnership with the University of Maine.

Once a teacher completes their training, they are considered a certified dyslexia practitioner.

The first year, students work with teacher trainees. The second year, it’s a certified tutor.