Literacy intervention specialist Lynne Schneider’s first practicum student changed her life. So it goes with many beginning Literacy Intervention Specialists (LIS) who are starting their careers with a desire to help struggling children learn to read. Often the practicum student teaches the specialist more than he or she teaches the student. Lynne knew she was interested in becoming a Literacy Intervention Specialist 10 years ago when she worked as a substitute teacher at her daughter’s school. She watched another teacher use the Alphabetic Phonics program with struggling readers, and she could see it helped teach reading to some of the students who were slower to learn. At the time, Lynne h
Kim Hiebert was used to hearing people say her daughter Ava, 5, was “behind” — until the family found hope at Fundamental Learning Center. Ava’s infectious smile and outgoing spirit charm people she encounters. Her charisma has never coincided with her delayed development in other areas, so those who meet her might never suspect she is anything but a typically developing child. But Ava was born 10 weeks early, and, as a result, since birth she has faced challenges many full-term babies do not. She stayed in the hospital for 49 days. Kim knew in her heart Ava was a fighter. She remembers Ava’s neonatologist pointing out how Ava, so tiny she was quarantined to her isolette in the hospital to m
