Beth is a specialist in reading readiness and in handwriting, its developmental stages, fine motor issues, and the critical role it plays in reinforcing reading, spelling, and written language.
With many years of experience as an educator of dyslexic children and a Fellow in the Academy of Orton Gillingham Practitioners and Educators, Beth is a specialist in reading readiness and in handwriting, its developmental stages, fine motor issues, and the critical role it plays in reinforcing reading, spelling, and written language.
Beth has trained teachers through the Orton Gillingham Associate Level course at the Chandler School in South Carolina and the Adelson School in Nevada, as well as many years of teaching Orton Gillingham Associate and Certified courses in Joppa, Maryland. She also taught this 70-hour course at Hiram College in Cleveland, Ohio, and at Middle Tennessee University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She offers the Practicum component of Orton Gillingham training to those who have completed Associate Level course work.Beth has presented numerous times at the International Dyslexia Association Conferences and the Academy of Orton Gillingham Practitioners and Educators Conferences, and has completed a two-day workshop at the American School in Mexico City, Mexico.
Beth works privately to evaluate and remediate children, and also acts as a parent advocate for children needing services in public schools. She is the resource teacher for Oak Grove Classical Christian School in Churchville, Maryland.
Her book, Readiness for Reading, came about as a result of working for eighteen years with 5- to 7-year-old children at a private school in Baltimore for dyslexic students. She realized that current readiness materials to prepare children for their reading journey, especially those children who learn differently, were incomplete. There were some fine phonological awareness books, some visual training ones, but nothing that really addressed the kinesthetic component, developing writing readiness. By combining these three learning channels, the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, into a multi-sensory whole, she organized a step-by-step progression of skills necessary for success in beginning reading. She offers full-day workshops on getting children ready to read, customized for pre-first, kindergarten, and first grade teachers.