PIERCE COLLEGE : Event to Aid Learning-Disabled

The second annual Los Angeles Learning Disabilities Walkathon and Free Information Fair on Sunday at Pierce College will raise funds to expand support for people with learning disabilities.

Registration begins at 8 a.m., with 5- and 10-kilometer walks around the campus beginning about 9:30 a.m.

Proceeds will be distributed equally between the Orton Dyslexia Society and the Los Angeles chapter of the Learning Disabilities Assn. of California, said attorney Larry J. Hanna, event chairman.

The two nonprofit organizations will use the money to promote public awareness of learning disabilities and for teacher training, support groups, scholarships, tutoring programs for libraries and testing for children in public schools, Hanna said.

He said he hopes to raise $15,000 this year. In 1991, about 400 participants raised $12,000 in the walkathon.

The information fair will give the public an opportunity to find out if they have a learning disability and about available services, said Wynne Good, Orton Dyslexia Society president.

A learning disability is “commonly referred to as the silent handicap because although you immediately know someone in a wheelchair is handicapped, with the learning-disabled you can’t really tell,” Hanna said.

Because of this and because the schools are not actively looking for learning disabilities, a problem for the dyslexic and other learning-disabled is the difficulty in getting diagnosed, Hanna said.

About 10,000 people in the United States have been diagnosed as having learning disabilities. Another 15,000 more are undiagnosed.

“Dyslexia is probably the most well-known of the learning disabilities,” said David Phoenix, learning specialist and therapist at Pierce. “Dyslexia is also the most catastrophic of the learning disabilities because people in our culture have to read to get along and to cope.”

Phoenix said he works with 345 Pierce students with learning disabilities, 90% of whom are dyslexic.