Ben Lippen Podcast

The Ridge at Ben Lippen

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Unlocking the mystery of dyslexia and revealing the transformative power of specialized instruction, this episode takes listeners deep into the world of neurodiversity through the lens of Ben Lippen School's innovative program, The Ridge. 

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley and Mrs. Sara Smithson, experts in Orton-Gillingham methodology, break down the complex realities of dyslexia with clarity and compassion. They offer a powerful analogy comparing the dyslexic reading experience to navigating a highway filled with potholes and detours – a vivid illustration that helps parents, educators, and community members understand the daily challenges these students face.

The conversation dismantles harmful myths that have long surrounded dyslexia. Letters aren't actually "flipping" or "dancing" on the page, and most crucially, dyslexia has absolutely nothing to do with intelligence. In fact, many individuals with dyslexia possess extraordinary cognitive abilities and unique strengths, with approximately 35% of entrepreneurs identifying as dyslexic, including visionaries like Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein.

What sets this discussion apart is its integration of faith and specialized education. The Ridge program stands as a testament to what's possible when schools embrace neurodiversity while maintaining their core values. Students can receive the specialized instruction they need without leaving their school community or sacrificing their faith-based education. As Smithson shares from her dual perspective as both an educator and mother of a child with dyslexia, "It's been a huge answer to prayer for my family."

Whether you're a parent concerned about your child's reading development, an educator seeking to better support diverse learners, or simply someone interested in how schools can become more inclusive while staying true to their mission, this episode offers both practical insights and inspirational possibilities. Join us as we celebrate how each child is "fearfully and wonderfully made".

Mrs. Erin Kay:

Welcome to another episode of the Ben Lippen Podcast. This is your host, Erin Kay, and today I have two of my wonderful co- workers, Mrs. Sara Smithson and Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley, and we are here to talk about some of our wonderful learners that we have at Ben Lippen and a program that we offer here at Ben Lippen. So I'm going to turn it over to these two ladies to let them introduce who they are, and then we're going to get into some of the material that we are here to share with you, ladies, today. So, Sarah Beth, take a minute to introduce who you are and what you do here at Ben Lippen.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

Hey everybody. Like Mrs. Kay said, I am Sarah Beth Helsley and I am the director of The Ridge here at Ben Lippen School and I just get the awesome opportunity to serve students in The Ridge and love their families and support their families and help them walk through this transition of diagnosis of dyslexia all the way to services with our wonderful Ridge teacher that we have on staff and currently I'm working on my associate level for OG and so I have my classroom educator certification and this summer, Lord willing, finish our associate level credentials. So we're so excited to have you all here and I'm going to introduce our wonderful teacher, Sara Smithson, joining as the guru of all things OG and dyslexia.

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

So I'm Sara Smithson and I have been in education since 2011. I've taught second grade and kindergarten and I've been at Ben Lippen for about five years now. I am currently credentialed at the classroom educator level with the Orton-Gillingham Academy and, like Mrs. Helsley, I'm pursuing the associate level currently, with plans to finish up this summer.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

Wonderful, and we'll get into a little bit more about what is OG, what is dyslexia, what are these buzzwords surrounding this as we get into this podcast? Now, Mrs. Helsley, how long have you been in education and how long have you been at Ben Lippen?

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

Yes, so I've been in education since 2011. I started out as a special education teacher, did that for numerous years, and then I got my master's in administration, and so I moved over to Ben Lippen two years ago as the academic specialist, where I was providing support through intervention for our students, and now I'm a part of The Ridge. So it's been a really fun transition to see my passion for students that have unique challenges in their learning and how to support them, and it's really such a blessing that Ben Lippen now has this opportunity to serve these students.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

I couldn't agree more, so let's dive right in so what is dyslexia?

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

I'll turn that over to you, Mrs Smithson. What is dyslexia? Well, dyslexia is very complex but to try to simplify, dyslexia is a language-based learning difference and it's characterized by difficulties with like accurate and fluent word recognition, spelling and reading. It's basically like an inefficiency in how sounds and language are heard and then connecting those sounds to the symbols that represent them. So for people with dyslexia, they're going to have a really hard time discriminating sounds within a word, which is really the heart of reading and spelling. So if you think about like a brain, just to make an analogy, if you think about a brain like a highway system, a neurotypical person would get in their car and hop on the interstate and get from point A to point B pretty seamlessly. But a person with dyslexia would hop in the car and get on the interstate and they're going to hit potholes and traffic jams and have to go through detours, which makes the journey just really slow and frustrating for them.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

Yeah, and I can imagine it would be exhausting too, once you get from point A to point B after hitting all those potholes. So, when it comes to dyslexia, is it something that you're born with or is it something that you develop over time? What does that look like?

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

Yeah, so dyslexia is neurobiological in origin, which basically means that it's like a different brain processing system. So people with dyslexia are born with it. It's not caused by you know something going wrong in utero or dropping your baby or not reading enough to your child when they're little. It is a different brain processing system.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

Okay, so it's a developmental in utero process.

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

Yeah. So if you think of like, if you look at the brain, they've been, they've had studies, mri studies, which is just a functional MRI, and so when they've had those studies, you can physically see the difference in the left hemisphere of the brain, which is where we create the circuitry for reading. So the difference is there's like a hypoactivation in that area, which means that things aren't lighting up the way that you would expect them to in the area of the brain where reading happens.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

So is dyslexia something that people who study dyslexia? Is it something they have discovered that is hereditary?

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

Yes, it does run in families.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

And is it something that goes away?

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

No, dyslexia, like I said, it's neurobiological, so it can't be cured. It never goes away. You don't outgrow dyslexia with early intervention the right type of early intervention. We can really help reading skills develop. But it doesn't go away. It's the way that their brain works.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

This is kind of a side question, but what are some things that, when you speak about early intervention, what are some other things that dyslexia can be confused with in a classroom setting? When you're talking about kindergartners, preschoolers, first graders, what can it be confused with?

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

So a lot of times we see teachers thinking that a student might just have ADHD where they may not be focused during reading instruction, where they're not able to answer or recall any questions, like about a story that's been read aloud.

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

We see a lot of times students with dyslexia struggle with handwriting. We also see that students with ADHD also struggle with handwriting if they're not focused. Sometimes teachers will say, oh, they're just bored and they're a behavior issue, when really they're just really working on trying to process all that's happening, because dyslexia also affects not just reading words off a paper but processing language in itself, and so if the teacher is giving a lot of instruction verbally like they may just get lost, and so a lot of times we see teachers think it's just ADHD or they might need a little more time in kindergarten or they didn't have enough exposure, like Sarah said earlier, to books as a child, when really we see there really is an underlying issue, so kind of going back to those potholes and traffic jams and car accidents over on the side of the road for someone that has dyslexia, what are some of those red flags that a teacher or a mom or a dad or a caregiver might see in a child who possibly could have dyslexia?

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

You know, people with dyslexia also struggle with sequencing things yeah, the concept of time is really hard for them to process. Everything is like the same for them, yeah.

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

And going back to like the language processing, like following multi-step directions, is still so difficult for him, like my son's able to read now and he can read to learn, but he still has dyslexia, so he still has word retrieval issues. So we'll be driving in the car and he'll be like, oh mom, that thing, you know, that round thing that you put your hands on and it steers us and he's trying to think of like the word steering wheel, but like word retrieval issues, things like that, processing a lot of directions, understanding when there's a lot of verbal instruction or anything like that.

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

He has a hard time understanding all that. And I think to some other red flags. We often see students with dyslexia. They'll understand a concept one day and then the next day it'll be totally fresh again. And so teachers that can recognize that. You know, I've had a few teachers go. Well, they just knew that sight word last week. Why don't they know it now? Those are just some things to keep an eye out for, because it's how their brain's processing it. And the beautiful thing about what we do here at The Ridge is we're trying to retrain their brain to keep that information. And so when we do it the right way, the way their brain is processing information, it they do store it. And so you know, looking at how just the classroom instruction happens, if they're not picking up on something over and over and over again, that's a big red flag for a teacher.

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

We always say like they need like that slow and steady drip. So a dyslexic brain is kind of like a river rock. So if you just pour water on it, like a pitcher of water on it, like they're going to, it's going to get wet and they're going to get a little bit of the concepts, like if you think of the picture as the instruction, but it's nothing's going to really stick. They've got to have that rock beat in the river where the instruction is running over it smoothly and consistently over time to really smooth out those edges, for them to really grasp those concepts.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

That makes sense for sure, and you know I had a child with dyslexia, and going back as a mom to someone with some of those developmental markers, and he is my third of four children and he's a twin, and I remember being so frustrated at why is time like the sequencing, why does he not understand today, tomorrow, yesterday, and why is he having such a hard time picking up these words and becoming frustrated. And so I just want to offer grace to the parent who is in that with a young child, you know who's four, five, six and you're like well, why can't they figure out tomorrow when all their peers are figuring out tomorrow? Just to offer yourself grace and that that there could be something going on and that every child is different. And if you're on the other side of it, like I am, you know getting the support for the dyslexia, go back and offer your former self grace, for you don't know what you don't know. Al right. So with that, what are some myths and misconceptions about individuals who do have dyslexia?

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

I would say by far the most common misconception about dyslexia is that they see and write letters and words backwards. You know, I've also heard people say that the words sometimes might dance around on the page and that would be more of like a visual processing issue. That has absolutely nothing to do with dyslexia. But if you think about like the visual input of objects in our world, like a chair, we can recognize an object regardless of its orientation. So I can tell that that's a chair if it's facing left or right, I can tell that it's a chair if it's upside down.

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

But with reading and writing we have this man-made construct of letters and symbols where orientation does in fact matter now. So young learners have to unlearn this thing. It's called mirror invariance, where a, b and a, d are not mirrored images of the same object. So now, when you see a line and then a circle that represents the, and when you see a circle and then a circle that represents the, when you see a circle and then a line that represents, and so it's really common for students to have reversals up until around the end of second grade. It has has nothing to do with dyslexia. I think that one of the most detrimental misunderstandings about dyslexia is that people with dyslexia lack intelligence and able to be able to learn to read. You know, dyslexia is not linked to intelligence at all. As a matter of fact, one of the characteristics of dyslexia is that it's an unexpected challenge with learning how to read in relation to their other cognitive abilities. So dyslexia is not a thinking issue and it has nothing to do with intelligence.

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

Like when we actually have a child with dyslexia, we see how incredibly intelligent they are. Their IQs are like out of this world, and so that really is something that you just have to keep pressing on and educating people in, because that is a big myth that we see and that we hear about like, oh well, I just don't know if they can do it. Well, they can. We just have to teach their brain how to, and you know they say, 35% of entrepreneurs actually identify as being dyslexic.

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

You know, people like Steve Jobs, Charles Schwab, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Steven Spielberg is dyslexic, Walt Disney is dyslexic, Tim Tebow, you know, the list goes on and on.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

You absolutely can be successful as an adult and have dyslexia. So what makes individuals with dyslexia special?

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

Individuals with dyslexia have really strong problem solving skills. They are big picture thinkers. They are really good at like visualizing ideas. They usually have great verbal skills and enhanced pattern recognition. I've also heard it said to like when you meet a dyslexic person, you've met a dyslexic person. You know they're also unique and individual, but those do tend to be like general strengths that they have.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

I've noticed a certain work ethic too, with my son especially has a certain tenacity and work ethic. That's really cool to see. Al right, so are there proven methods of teaching to help students with dyslexia to crack the code of reading?

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

Yeah, so we use the Orton-Gillingham approach, which we affectionately refer to as OG. It's been around for a hundred years. It's been researched and proven. OG is highly individualized, so we tailor our teaching to our students' needs and their interests. It's also very direct and explicit, so we don't ever ask our students to do anything that we have not explicitly taught them, which also makes it emotionally sound. So we're always setting the stage for success. We want our students to experience like a spiral of successes, so that we're building their confidence. You know, 86% of the English language follows a rule or a generalization, and so if we can, through a multi-sensory approach, teach those rules and generalizations to our students, then we're giving them the tools that they need to be proficient readers All right.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

So how does Ben Lippen specifically support students with dyslexia using the OG program?

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

So we have our program, The Ridge, which we've been talking a lot about this morning, and what The Ridge really is all about is that we offer OG sessions for students with dyslexia. So the parents have the opportunity to choose, along with a discussion with the school. You know what their sessions and how many sessions they'll get a week, and so currently right now Ben Lippen is serving students twice a week for an hour long sessions, which are great, and what's even better is that next year we're able to add more, because we've seen that some of our students need more than just the two hours a week, and so we're able to offer now five days a week for students, which will just be life-changing for some of these students especially. The earlier we get them so the earlier we can get them and start intervening, greater success they're going to have. And we also still have the option for two days a week, and it's really just a nice way to come alongside our students here at Ben Lippen, come alongside our teachers at Ben Lippen and just work on supporting the student as a whole.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

So, yes, they have dyslexia, but they're still a part of Ben Lippen School and so their reading instruction happens with us Some of their reading instruction happens with us. Unless they're in the five days, you know, they're in the classroom for the rest of the day, which is really neat because we're able to really celebrate their uniqueness and how the Lord has made them and we're able to come alongside them to allow them to feel successful. And so we just we love what we get to do, we love that we get to partner with families and teachers and our administrators here at Ben Lippen, and it's just been such a program that's been covered in prayer for so long and it's so nice to see it come through fruition in this phase one that we're in moving into phase one and a half, so it's just really exciting to be a part of this.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

So why did Ben Lippen decide to embrace dyslexia?

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

So we have had a lot of families here at Ben Lippen School that have had, you know, students that don't have dyslexia and then students that do, and we've noticed that we weren't able to really fully support the child that had dyslexia, and so so often we saw parents having to separate their families and send their child to a school really just for dyslexia, and it just caused so much heartache.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

It caused heartache on the parents, it caused heartache on the child, it caused heartache on the school, and so we just began praying like how can we serve them?

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

Because the awesome thing about Ben Lippen is that even with dyslexia, we still get to pour into The Kingdom curriculum, which is our end goal, is that the children learn about the Lord every single day, and so when they're able to stay in this environment and receive Bible instruction, have access to chapel, just be in a community of believers, really was so impactful, and so we just felt like the Lord is really calling us to be able to step in the gap for these families and pursue this.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

And so it's been something that's been prayed for long before I even arrived at Ben Lippen, and it's just been really neat to see the blessing that it's been to families and how we've been able to serve them and serve their students well, keeping them in an environment that is so nurturing, focused on Christ, and celebrating that, yes, they may have dyslexia, but guess what? That's how the Lord made you, and he made you fearfully wonderful, and so it's just been neat to see that unfold. I think it's been really awesome for families that haven't had to separate and just stay part of the Falcon family.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

Yes, it's been a huge answer prayer for my family, with my son who's a twin, and not having to separate him from his twin is tremendous for us Alr ight, so for both of you, why did y'all decide to specialize in working with children with dyslexia?

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

Well, my son was diagnosed five years ago, and so when we received his diagnosis, I immediately felt two things. One was a huge sense of relief, because now I knew that there was a roadmap and there was hope, but the other was a really strong sense of shame, because here I was a career educator and I knew there was a roadmap, but I couldn't access that roadmap. So they don't teach this in college and I couldn't help my son. And so this is just a testament of how good God is is unknown to me.

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

Ben Lippen was already in the process of starting up this program and, you know, once I heard about it, I applied for and got the job, and now I was provided this invaluable training. I always say like I really do feel like I just won the lottery and I just thank the Lord that I've been able to receive this training has given me an insight into my child's brain so that I can understand him, which you know leads to having compassion for him and patience with him. And so I just really do think the Lord that he's led me down this path and that you know the gift that he's given me through this knowledge that he's allowed me to acquire, and my prayer is that I would be able to honor the Lord with this knowledge that he's given me and being able to help other children and serve his children.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

And for me, I just have always had a passion for students with learning differences.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

When I was in first grade I knew that I was going to be a teacher for students who struggled and I would go home and tell my mom all the time, based on a child that was in my class, I said I always wanted to be his teacher.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

I would come and get him and pull him out and I always wanted to be his teacher that would come and get him and pull him out.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

And so here we are, all those years later in those shoes, and so I just have loved my 14 plus years of working with students with neurodiversities and just how awesome they are and once you really get to see them and work with them, they really are just so encouraging and it's just been such a blessing.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

So my path has been not just solely for students with dyslexia but now to echo, like what Ms Smithson said, like it really is just such a blessing that Ben Lippen's offered the opportunity for us to be trained in this approach and just how to love these special students, because I've been able to walk parents through hey, there might be something happening and going on to now we have this diagnosis and to walk them from step A all the way to step Z and offer them support and offer them a program that can allow their child to be successful has just been something so neat that stirs my heart on every day, which has been so great.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

So I'm so grateful for Ben Lippen. I'm so grateful for Ms Misson and the team that we've had. We've been able to do this together, which has been really fun, and to see it through her eyes too, as a parent. So not only is she an educator, but she's a parent, and so she speaks a lot of truth and has a lot of insight for us on the other side of the table as we rally together and partner with these families. Thank you for that.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

Since Ben Lippen is a community of diverse learners, how can other students and parents of students who do not have dyslexia better understand and support dyslexic learners?

Mrs. Sara Smithson:

I think you know, just knowing what dyslexia is and what it's not, you know just it's a hard and frustrating road for the child and for the parents. So, just having compassion, you know, I think we can all empathize because we all fall short in one way or another. Right, so we can connect through our weakness and we can understand you know weakness and we can understand experienced failure.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

And so just through that I think we can empathize with them and I think, too, also like echoing that understanding that we all have strengths and weaknesses and allowing the children to see that.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

So there's oftentimes that we go pick our students up for The Ridge and other students are like I want to go, I want to go, and so they do think it's awesome.

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

You know, it's not something that's looked down upon when we have to go pull students, which I think is really great that the Ben Lippen community has really rallied and taken under this program and these students, and they celebrate them for who they are and they celebrate them for what they can do. And so even other families that don't have students in The Ridge they are telling people about The Ridge, which is just amazing to see that, even when it doesn't impact you, they care so deeply about the school. And so, because they care about the school, they care about the programs at the school, and so they teach their children to do the same. And it goes back to that verse in Psalm 139, that we are created in God's image and we're fearfully, wonderfully made. And he knew who would have dyslexia and who wouldn't have dyslexia, and he put people together to celebrate that, and so I just try to keep that at the forefront of everybody's mind and their hearts, because we've seen it really play out, which has been really neat to see.

Mrs. Erin Kay:

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, to kind of close this up, just be in prayer for The Ridge, absolutely, and you know to kind of close this up, just be in prayer for The Ridge. Mr ss Helsley and Mrs. Smithson, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Mrs. Sarah Beth Helsley:

They can look on the website for our emails. We also both have extensions listed. So if you shoot us an email or you put in on the website you have questions about The Ridge, they shoot those over to us and then we get in contact with y'all. So we hope to get to talk.

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