Dear Families;

As you know, we have been collecting data on how our children acquire literacy skills.  Reading, in particular, is a skill that has been singled out as the most significant predictor of the ability to lead independent life.  

As a result of your help and participation we are very close to creating a Parental Guide accompanied by a Guide for Educators on what to expect and how to help individuals after hemispherectomy acquire reading most successfully and to their maximum capacity.  The Guides will be different for different etiologies and sides of hemispherectomy.

To be fully accredited in the Literacy field I enrolled and completed my California certification as a Reading Specialist.  As such, I am in a position to recommend services to schools and educators that they are supposed to follow.  Moreover, this fall we will be seeking a federal grant offering our kids 2 or 3 most promising reading interventions.  We reached for the best educators at Harvard and MIT to find interventions that would use specific strengths of our kids.  Depending on the needs we saw these interventions would be tailored to children who are having problems with learning to read (decoding, low-order skills) and those who can read but display difficulties with comprehension and critical reasoning as well as other higher cognitive skills.  

This Reunion in Baltimore, just like last year, I would be available to test your child if s/he has spoken language and is 6 years or older.  Every participant would receive a letter with strategies that can be used with IEP committees.  If you are interested in participation in this and, in the future, reading interventions, please, contact me directly at sdebode@ucla.edu.  You are also welcome to participate if you have done so before and interested in your child's progress.

Much love, Stella

Stella de Bode, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer and Director

Brain Recovery Project

www.brainrecoveryproject.org