A time for learning

submitted photo-- Tri-Valley Developmental Services Life Enrichment Supervisor Desa Arnold helps TVDS client Russell Johnson using the Laubach Literary Program. The reading program helps Johnson and other people in the community who cannot read to learn the skill.

At the age of 47, Russell Johnson is learning to read.

Johnson, a client at Tri-Valley Developmental Services, meets once a week with TVDS Life Enrichment Supervisor Desa Arnold to practice reading using the Laubach Literary Program, a reading program provided to the agency through Fort Scott Community College.

"I like reading, but I get a little aggravated," Johnson said as he glanced hesitantly up at his teacher.

"You're doing great," Arnold says to him, and the encouragement has him back at work.

Harold Hicks, an English instructor at FSCC, taught Tri-Valley staff members Arnold and Marlene Arndt how to use the program, and they are in turn teaching TVDS clients.

"The strength of the Laubach program is that it addresses different modes of learning," Hicks said. "We're not all visual learners, or audio learners or able to understand phonics. With this program, the teacher or mentor doesn't have to worry about what avenue is best for each individual. They are all addressed."

Hicks trains mentors to work with people in the community who want to learn to read.

"Interestingly, I can find volunteers easier than I can find students," he said. "I think that speaks to the willingness of people in this part of the country to help others."

But Hicks said he knows it is also indicative of the reluctance of those who can't read to seek help.

"Friends and family need to advocate for those who want to learn to read," he said. "Often, the individual will not come forward on their own."

For those people served by Tri-Valley, the ability to read may not have been a high priority when they were growing up. Family members didn't always feel it was worthwhile for their developmentally disabled child to learn to read.

Perhaps they didn't believe the individual was able to learn to read.

"There are so many types of learning disabilities," Hicks said. "With the Laubach method of teaching, we don't have to get bogged down by them."

Founded in the 1940s, the program is named for a missionary who was working in the Philippines. After the Great Depression, funding was cut for the reading program. When the missionary told the tribal elders of the elimination of the reading program, the leader, who was impressed with the benefits for his people, refused to let the program end.

The missionary told his people, "Each one teach one, or die." These words were strong encouragement for a mentoring program.

The motto remains attached to the program -- with the exclusion of the "die" aspect.

The program depends on one tutor working with one student.

"The program has provided a real benefit for our clients," Arnold said. "We're doing an assessment now to see who is interested in reading classes and who would gain from them."

Russell, who never had the chance to read as a child or young man, is now dictating stories to staff, and reading the words back to other clients at the local center.

TVDS, headquartered in Fort Scott, provides services, training and employment opportunities for children and adults with developmental disabilities in Allen, Bourbon, Neosho and Woodson counties. The agency also operates a service center in Chanute.