Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Lynne Thrope.
Dr. Lynne, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Having spent my undergraduate and graduate years teaching students in a variety of grades in Boston and in San Diego, I pursued my Ph.D. in Reading Education at Claremont Graduate University – thankfully graduating in 1986 whereupon I accepted the position of Director of Reading for a startup ed-tech company – Jostens Learning Corporation. Little did I know it would become the most successful deliverer of reading, math, and writing curriculum delivered on the first CD-ROM network to K-8 classrooms around the world!
After eight years of developing and supporting this integrated learning system, I left the company, but my design continues to serve as a model to online literacy programs today, So… I then took myself to the beach to figure out what to do next. Having played an active part in the boom of .com(ers), my entrepreneurial sensibility drove me to open The Reading Room, a reading clinic that would privately serve struggling students with neurological differences, such as dyslexia, autism, and Tourettes Syndrome.
Unsure if anyone would take advantage of my services, I turned one of the rooms in my home into the Reading Room. Only my husband encouraged me, “If you build it, they will come,” I, however, was quite unsure about offering a private, clinical approach to students with IEPs or 504s since my colleagues (at SDSU) assured me that it would fail because there was “no model available for parents to compare it to.”
Twenty-three years later, The Reading Room continues to thrive as the place where students learn to read in order to read to learn. Each student is enthusiastically met at TRR door by Cooper and Woody, two Labrador companions, trained to be effective reading partners and stress reducers. In 2000, I had published an article about the positive effects of using dogs in the education setting to increase reading ability.
It’s wonderful to see so many schools and libraries today inviting dogs to read with kids! In addition to providing pet therapy, re-focusing breaks at The Reading Room are taken by turning kids upside down in yoga ropes attached to a wall located by the bookshelf. Homework is assigned in the form of yoga poses designed to increase focus, concentration, and memory. I could say so much more about what happens at The Reading Room, but we’ll save that for the interview!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The Dali Lama once wrote, “Do something every day that makes you feel uncomfortable. Only then will you grow.” These words have been my mantra since I first encountered them years ago.
In the context of The Reading Room, I have experimented with teaching adults to read, teaching children with brain tumors, teaching people who have lost their ability to read because of brain damage caused by a car accident, and teaching writing to those who cannot because of dysgraphia.
Always feeling uncomfortable about learning new strategies to reach and teach these populations of difficult learners today, I welcome all challenges… Together with parents as partners, children succeed in reading and writing. Every pebble in my shoe causes me to take stock and take a different teaching approach – all in the name of students achieving success.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Reading Room – what should we know?
I love it when a parent calls my office with the question, “Is this the place where kids learn to read with a dog?” Knowing that parents talk with other parents about the services offered at The Reading Room thrills me still after 23 years since the day I opened my professional door.
Against all odds and always working outside the conventional walls of education, I have gone it alone – teaching reading my way, not because of a political shift in power or dollars spent on materials chosen by administrators who don’t teach, or because of a pathway to a better position that provides better pay. I do this work because I love working with families who cannot be served adequately by their school (districts).
There was a time in CA when reading specialists were assigned to schools to improve student performance, but those days are long gone. Accountability and testing have replaced specially trained professionals whose job it is to teach students how to read so they can read to learn. That is the business of The Reading Room. However best I can “get through” to a learner is what I do.
Mistakes are embraced as an integral part of the learning process because defeat and resilience must be taught. All students are served at TRR one-on-one as in the Sylvan Leaning model, but that is the only similarity to SL. Before instruction begins, the student who works with me is assessed using tools that provide me with cognitive information about his/her visual and auditory processing – two learning channels necessary for decoding new words, understanding unknown words, comprehending difficult texts, and writing in response to what was read.
Learning is hard. So breaks need to be taken. During each one, students are either directed to do some yoga poses that refocus their attention, or they are directed to the rug where I and a dog can talk about the challenge.
Pricing:
- $110/hour
Contact Info:
- Address: 8383 Center Drive Suite B La Mesa, CA 91942
- Website: www.TheReadingRoom.net
- Phone: 619.464.3647
- Email: info@TheReadingRoom.net
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReadWithADog/
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