Successful programs for students with dyslexia

The most successful programs and schools for students with dyslexia offer smaller class sizes, student-centered instruction that draws on children's interests and initatives, and curriculum based on multi-sensory methods.

For example, one high school language arts teacher offered a performance-based Shakespeare course in which students acted out scenes in order to learn the text and the story. The combination of kinesthetic, aural, and visual modalities along with collaborative learning allowed students to read a text that uses complex and unfamiliar language when they might otherwise have become frustrated and given up. (Johnson, 1998)

The Lab School of Washington, a non-profit educational institution that includes an independent school for students with severe dyslexia, has been using strategies of multi-sensory and student-centered instruction since 1967. Many of the studens from The Lab School go on to attend colleges and universities.

The Woodward Academy in Atlanta offers a transition program for students with diagnosed learning disabilites to receive an education that will prepare them for college. Faculty are committed to their students' holistic development; they teach students to celebrate their strengths and learn to manage their weaknesses so they can succeed in an academically rigorous environment.