Sports stats



CHL Mississippi RiverKings

RiverKings to spotlight The Bodine School for dyslexia

October 25, 2004 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Mississippi RiverKings News Release


SOUTHAVEN—A little more than 30 years ago, Richard and Virginia Bodine's son was diagnosed with dyslexia in Germantown, but there was no one in three states to help him learn how to cope with his disability.

So he was enrolled in the nearest school dealing with dyslexia—in Florida. Meanwhile, his parents began work on putting together a special school in Memphis dedicated solely to working with dyslexics and their special needs. And so The Bodine School was born.

The Bodine School will be the featured non-profit of the night at the Memphis RiverKings game on Tuesday, Oct. 26 against the Topeka Tarantulas at the DeSoto Civic Center at 7:05 p.m.

The Bodine School is the only non-profit, independent school in the Mid-South solely dedicated to educating children with dyslexia in grades 1-8. The school will be promoting the month of October as National Dyslexia Awareness Month through their participation at the RiverKings game.

Specialized educational methods for dyslexics, says Michael Todd, Director of Development and Public Relations at Bodine, is important to the health of every community.

Studies show that 35 percent of students with learning disabilities drop out of high-school, 62 percent are unemployed one year after high school graduation, and 31 percent are arrested three to five years after graduation. The two most common impediments to keeping welfare clients from becoming and remaining employed are substance abuse and learning disabilities. A high school special education student drop-out has a greater likelihood of going to jail than a smoker has of getting cancer.

"I think many times dyslexia and learning disabilities go undetected," Todd said. "We want people to understand that once you have dyslexia, you always have it. But you can learn how to compensate for it. Early intervention is the key."

Many people don't know that dyslexic individuals have average or above average intellectual ability because of their struggles with reading, writing, and spelling. Math is often the best subject for a dyslexic, although immediate recall of number facts or spatial errors in computing problems can be problematic.

Many dyslexics are quite verbal and perform well orally in school. However, their written work is slow and often looks like the work of a younger child. The dyslexic processes written symbols more slowly than a normal reader and is often slow in completing work. Auditory comprehension of stories is generally average or above average.

Famous dyslexics include Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Cher, Walt Disney, Whoopi Goldberg, Nelson Rockefeller, Franklin Roosevelt and Mark Twain.

"We are here to provide a service to those students who are diagnosed with dyslexia," Todd said. "Most of our students stay here on average for three years. We're not a destination school. We want to help kids work through their dyslexia and get back to a traditional school as soon as possible."

Today, The Bodine School is serving its students and the Memphis community with the latest in technology and teaching methods, including a multi-sensory approach to learning and outreach programs.

Classroom settings are small and intimate, limited to 10 students per teacher. Students are provided with intense reading remediation.

As a non-profit, independent school, The Bodine School does not receive any state or federal funding, relying instead on donations and fundraising like their "Sponsor A Student" program. The school provides tuition assistance to as many students as possible, but there are many more children in need.

The school also has community programs open to the public, like professional development speakers, a professional newsletter, teacher training, quarterly community workshops, summer school, tutoring, and art classes.

For more information about the school and its programs, visit www.bodineschool.org or call 901-754-1800.



Central Hockey League Stories from October 25, 2004


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Mississippi RiverKings Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central