Rotary Program:11/12/03

Program Chairperson: Dan Stratton

Speaker: Ann Titsworth, East Kentucky Tutorial Program - James Still Learning Center

Ann Titsworth was a public school teacher for 20 years before she assumed her role as head-teacher and principal in 1994 at the James Still Learning Center, a school sponsored by the Hindman Settlement School. She has a Masters Degree in Education in Chemistry and Mathematics and developed the Alternative Education Program for Jenkins Middle and High Schools as well as its Gifted and Talented Program. She served as the High School Technology Coordinator and Math Cluster Leader as well as the Math Counts Coach and the Academic Team Coach. She completed 23 years teaching children to read before becoming involved with the East Ky. Tutorial Program as a tutor in the after-school program and the summer tutorial program. More importantly, she is the parent of a child with a learning differentiation who now has an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts.

Ann gave a power-point presentation about what is available to parents with children with learning differences. East Ky. Tutorial Program is a parent involvement program with every parent tutoring a child other than their own. It was started in the early 1980's by Lois Weinberg who had a learning disabled child and modeled from a program that she observed in Louisville.

The James Still Learning Center is an arm of the local school districts, initially affiliated with the Ky. Valley Educational Cooperative, and commissioned by the Ky. Dept. Of Education to work with students from several counties including Knott, Floyd, and Pike Counties. The school offers tutorial services in an after-school and summer school program. The after-school program is one evening per week for 3and ½ hours and lasts 13 weeks. The summer school program is an intensive 7 hours per day for six weeks. It is for children who have been screened and determined to have learning differences that make them unable to succeed in traditional classroom settings with large groups and heavy workloads. The children typically have difficulty with language especially reading, writing and spelling. They often exhibit impairment in discriminating auditory and visual stimuli, but do not have hearing or vision problems. It occurs because the brain does not properly decode the stimulus and may be compounded by other learning disabilities such as dyslexia in which directional and spatial orientation difficulties are manifested in frequent reversal of letters and numbers. These children also have poor organizational ability and often have inadequate concepts of time. Their performance may vary from very high on some tests and very low on others or knowing something in the evening, but not knowing it the next day in class. They have a short attention spans and may be slow in finishing tasks that others do quickly. Other motor skills may be impaired so it may be necessary to have technological help in completing their work. In tutoring these students, a multi-sensory approach is used to involve as much input as possible. Tactile stimulation is paired with hearing and sight to reinforce the formation of letters and numbers which helps the brain overcome the deficits experienced by these children. Ann said that too often parents believed that their child’s learning difficulty was caused by their environment or that the child was just lazy, and many times the parent’s discomfort or shame inhibited them from seeking help. The aim of this program is to let parents know that these kinds of attitudes are untrue and that help is available that can literally turn their lives around. If you would like to know more or if you know a parent who has a child with learning disabilities and who is not getting the help they need, you can call Lena at the James Still Learning Center at 606-785-4044. Submitted by J. Morgan Chapman