Not all students learn equally. Many children have learning differences that cause them to struggle with reading, writing, mathematics or paying attention in class. It’s estimated that 20% of the world’s population has dyslexia, which affects the ability to read, with other learning differences like dyscalculia, dysgraphia and ADHD following.
Students with learning differences often benefit from different instructional practices along with accommodations and modifications for their learning. The Pittsburgh New Church School (PNCS) provides these for its students. The private religious school is one of only two schools in the Pittsburgh area with extensively trained and certified staff to meet these students’ needs —the other is the public Provident Charter School.
An Instructional Gap in Pittsburgh
The New Church School’s principal, Cyndi Glenn, notes that Pittsburgh is lacking in adequate resources for the number of children with language-based learning differences in the area. While community organizations such as the Pittsburgh Children’s Dyslexia Center and the Laughlin Children’s Center in Sewickley have spent many years offering aid for children with learning differences, efforts to incorporate these instructional techniques into schools meant to help these students did not begin in earnest until the late 2010s.
“We added dyslexia support in 2018 when we realized that a large percentage of our student population was struggling with reading,” recalls Glenn, who is herself the parent to a child with learning differences. “A few staff members got certified in the Orton-Gillingham [OG] approach, an incremental, sequential, cumulative, comprehensive, explicit instruction in the English language using multisensory practices. We saw amazing results, so we decided to train and certify our entire staff and add that focus to our offerings, because there’s a huge need in the Pittsburgh area.”
The Success of a Multisensory Approach
The PNCS uses this multi-sensory OG approach to educate its students, incorporating more hands-on activities that utilize the five senses. Students with learning differences often need to engage more brain regions to read or perform math, and multisensory activities help create stronger neural connections.
“It’s a teaching approach that works for all kids,” Glenn adds. “It works for everyone, but it’s essential for kids with dyslexia, ADHD and other language-based learning disabilities.”
More Than Dyslexia
The school’s primary focus is on dyslexia, but children with dyscalculia (which affects a student’s ability to understand quantity in math) and dysgraphia (which affects writing) are also among its student body. These learning differences are less well researched than dyslexia, but methods similar to the Orton-Gillingham approach are used for students with them.
There are many students at PNCS who do not have learning differences, so the school’s faculty works to make sure all students get what they need to be successful.
“We teach kids to be loving, kind and useful citizens in this world and the next,” Glenn says. “We want our students to grow to their fullest academic potential, but it’s more important to teach them to be kind.”
