UCI Clinic Is One for the Books

‘I can read and write now and I feel good about myself’

--Eight-year-old reading disorder patient

Misty Joseph, a bright and talkative 8-year-old, realized in the first grade that she was not like her classmates.

While they moved quickly through their reading lessons, she faced sentences and words that seemed to jumble and confuse her. Testing revealed that Misty had a severe reading disorder.

“Linguistically, she was just fine,” said her mother, Kathy Joseph of Corona del Mar. “But as soon as she tried to read she lost it, and that’s when we noticed that her self-esteem also went down. She went from feeling very, very bright to feeling very, very stupid.”

Trying to get Misty to read was like “World War III,” her mother said. “She had so many negative feelings about it that it was a major struggle (just to sit down in front of a book).”

All that changed as Misty began third grade this fall.

“I can read and write now, and I feel good about myself,” Misty said with a grin.

A year ago, after learning of their daughter’s reading disorder, Misty’s parents enrolled her in afternoon tutor sessions at the Reading and Neurolinguistic Clinic at the University of California, Irvine.

The clinic, which specializes in treating people with moderate to severe reading disorders, was started in 1985 by reading specialist Anne Kaganoff.

Unlike most clinics, it uses university experts in the fields of pediatrics, psychiatry, education, speech pathology and medicine to help teachers design individual programs for each student.

The clinic, which operates at Rancho San Joaquin Intermediate School in Irvine, has seen a consistent improvement of the equivalent of 1 1/2 to 2 years of reading skills for every nine months to a year spent in the clinic, according to clinic officials.

That’s a “respectable” record, according to Dian DeMaio, president of the Orange County Reading Assn., a group dedicated to the study of reading disorders.

“If I can get a 1 1/2-month advancement for every month I spend with my students, I’d be happy,” DeMaio said.

Kathy Joseph said she has seen a dramatic improvement in her daughter’s reading skills. “In the nine months Misty has been here, she has gone from below kindergarten level to up to third-grade level and a little bit above,” she said.

Although the clinic accepts students of any age, most are younger than 12. Each begins with a diagnostic test designed to assess several potential problems, including speech, hearing, medical, psychological and neurolinguistic dysfunctions, Kaganoff said.

But assessing the students’ emotional states is also essential, she said.

“All students who experience reading failure, at whatever age, come to us with a lot of anxiety and a lot of fear,” Kaganoff said. “They all have very sensitive self-images, so the teachers have to have a nice feel for the child’s emotional needs.”

For Misty, books are no longer threatening. “If I do my work right,” Misty said, “she (the teacher) either hugs me or claps her hands or gives me a reward. . . . And that makes me feel good.”

The clinic also uses a “cognitive approach” to treat reading problems, Kaganoff said.

“We pay a great deal of attention to the thinking skills students use (while reading). Most students who have reading and learning difficulties have very poor organizational skills,” Kaganoff said.

“So, we show them how to categorize, how to detect and separate relevant from irrelevant information, how to make logical inferences, and how to evaluate information.”

One technique, Kaganoff said, is baking, which helps children relate reading to a concrete experience.

If a child misses an ingredient or misreads the recipe, the outcome is usually a fallen cake or messy brownies. “If you are not precise in what you are reading, you find out!” said Sally Zivitz, a teacher at the clinic.

But Kaganoff said the clinic has “no magic cures and no short cuts” for the treatment of reading disorders. “I don’t want it to appear that our clinic has any magic secrets.” And the tailored tutoring isn’t cheap. The initial diagnosis is $150; lessons cost $26 apiece. Some students attend for months, others for years.

Unlike most university clinics, the UC Irvine clinic is self-sustaining, Kaganoff said. The fees pay for materials and salaries; the university supplies the building and pays Kaganoff, who also works as a professor in the Teacher Education department.

The clinic has made a difference not only in Misty’s education, but in her home life.

“I’m reading the want ads now,” she said, smiling. “I threw a rock in the house and shattered a glass bathroom door. . . . I have to pay for it, so now I’m reading the want ads to find a job.”