Dyslexia Tutoring of Utah

February Newsletter

Happy Valentines Day!

February 14th is a great day to take the time to show those that we love and care about just
how much they mean to us. I would like to take this time to tell all of you how much I
appreciate you as parents and supporters of our center. Without all of you, we would not have
the great facility that we do, and I am very grateful for that. I recently had a Board of Directors
meeting, and all of them commented on how much we have grown over the past year, and
what a great organization that we have. I told them it was because of the support I get from all
of my parents and the help that I get in “spreading the word”! Thank you so much!

I want to remind all of you of the upcoming Parent Workshop. It is Thursday February 3 rd at
7:00. The location is the Sandy Library. The address is 10100 South Petunia Way (1450 East). We
will be holding the workshop in one of the conference rooms and it is FREE to the public. The
guest speaker will be Linda Smith from the Utah Parent Center. Linda is the parent of a learning
disabled child, and is a parent advocate for the Canyons School District and the Utah Parent
Center. She will be focusing on how to get a 504 for your dyslexic child, how the laws have
changed over the last few years, and what to do when you come up against a BRICK WALL. I
think this will be very informative to all parents, so please come and learn! If your child is
currently on an IEP, she will be talking a lot about how to get the best IEP for your child also.

Presidents Day is Monday February 21st. I know that many of you will be taking the day off, but I
am leaving it up to my tutors as to whether or not they will be holding tutoring sessions that
day. Please contact your child’s tutor to make plans for that day.

We are changing the pictures in the office and creating a new picture wall. Many of the pictures
that we have are out-dated, so we are asking that each of you bring in a CURRENT picture of
your child. It does not have to be a school picture, but one that is basically a HEAD SHOT of your
child. If you do not have one, we can take one of them, but we are trying to keep down the cost
of developing. Please bring these in as soon as you can, and give them to your child’s tutor.
Thanks in helping us with this.

Saturday February 5th, Paul Genesse will be at the Whitmore library. Paul, a writer of children’s
fantasy, has been a great advocate for Dyslexia Tutoring of Utah. He will be speaking at the
library at 12:00 noon, and we will be having a table set up to promote our center. He will be
signing his books and open up some time for questions and answers about writing. We are
happy to have him support our center, so if you have time that day, please go and listen to him
speak.

Friday March 4th is the LDAU annual conference. This will be held in Provo this year, but well
worth your drive! They always have some great classes, and if you have not ever gone through
the “Putting Yourselves in the Shoes of a Dyslexic” simulation, I will be doing it that day. It is an
eye-opening experience, and a way for you to feel just what it is like to be dyslexic. You can go
online to register by going to the LDAU’s website. The cost is $40.00 for non-members and
$35.00 for members. It is an all-day event and scholarships are available to those that have a
hard time paying.

Saturday March 5th is Literacy Night at the “Utah Flash” The Utah Flash is the training team for
the Utah Jazz and play their games at UVU in Orem. The Utah Flash has allowed us to use this
night as a fundraiser, and we will be selling tickets for $8. With that ticket, you will get a t-shirt
and we will be sitting in a section all together. It should be a FUN NIGHT, so please come and
support this event. The games usually start at 7pm. All proceeds will go to help those families
that are in need of scholarship money.

Well I think that this is about it. There is so much going on, but I hope that you will try and
make it to all those events that you can fit into your busy schedule.

Recently someone asked me what I thought were the top 10 Assistive Technology devices for
dyslexia. I have attached to this newsletter what I felt were the top 10 in my opinion. That does
not mean that there are not others that are good, these are just the ones I feel are good for our
kids.

I have also included an article that I feel is very insightful. It talks about why Special Education is
failing in this country and what needs to be done to make sure that our kids don’t FAIL. I hope
you enjoy it as much as I did.

Well, have a great month. As always, if you need help with anything, or feel that your questions
are not being addressed, please either e-mail me at nanci@dyslexiatutoringofutah.com, or call
me at 801-259-7005. I do much better with e-mail than voicemail, but I will return your message
one way or the other.

Sincerely,
Nanci Ross
Executive Director