Local Press

 

Getting the Word
By Peter Strescino

April 28, 2000


Dale Miller was a broken man at 26.

He read at the level of a 10-year-old; his successes with the written word were as rare as roses growing on an iceberg.


" I was broken," he said Wednesday. "I had been broken for so long, I could not be helped."

Then his sister, Minnequa Elementary School teacher Vonda Lane, found out about the Lindamood-Bell reading method. She spoke with author John Corcoran, who wrote "The Teacher Who Could Not Read," and he endorsed LmB, the program that is currently in use in seven District 60 schools and in a reading clinic here.

That was in August. Tuesday night at the District 60 school board meeting, Miller told the audience of his newfound reading success, getting a loud ovation when he read the district's mission statement.

In three months at LmB's San Luis Obispo, Calif., headquarters, Miller's reading ability advanced six grade levels.

But the path between his first year at the now-closed Baxter Elementary School and the applause on Tuesday night was a long, arduous trek for the friendly, outgoing Miller and his mother, Norma Urban.

Twenty years ago, it was obvious to Urban that her bright 6-year-old was struggling early in the first grade.

"Before he started school, we read to him and we had no clue that the problems existed until first grade," she said Wednesday. "He started struggling with reading and spelling, and as the year progressed, he fell behind and he could not grasp the work."

Urban asked if her son could be retained, but the teachers felt that he would be better off promoted. In second grade, even though teachers worked extra with him, Miller's problems worsened.

"I knew then there was something wrong, and in the second year he was retained, and I had him tested at the health department," she said.

Miller was diagnosed as suffering from auditory processing problems, an "inability to see what's on paper and get it into your mind," Urban explained.

"I was constantly worrying," said Urban, whose two other children are teachers. "You have to read to function. You need to figure out the words."

She moved Miller to the McClelland School, where he attended through the fifth grade. Although he received a lot of one-on-one attention and attended summer classes, his reading did not improve much.

"I recognized some words, but it would take me an hour to read a page and I would still get just about 30 percent of it," Miller said. "Then came an awful part of my life - middle school."

Despite his reading problems, which created feelings of anxiety and inferiority, Miller and Urban worked three hours each day on his homework just to keep up.

"I couldn't let myself become impatient, because then he'd just become more frustrated," she explained. "We'd remove ourselves to a bedroom to avoid all distractions and work.

"If you don't take care of your kids, no one else will."

The persistent pair worked hard enough that he graduated from Park Hill Christian Academy, where Miller said he received a lot of individual help and really loved the school.

But he still avoided reading, especially in front of anyone. When asked to give an opinion on written information, he would garner what he could, ask for another's viewpoint and then combine what he understood and the other view and formulate his response.

That didn't stop him from attending Pueblo Community College, where it took him four years to earn a two-year degree.

"I loved psychology," Miller said. "They had a computer lab and the computer could read to me, and I didn't even have to ask for help because whatever I needed was done."

That included teachers and students reading to him and getting additional time to complete tests.

"It was such a high when I graduated," he said.

Then it all crashed when he enrolled at the University of Southern Colorado, said Miller, who also has been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, which affects his legs and hands.

At USC, help was harder to find, and even though he used tapes and books were read to him, his fourth-grade reading level made college life impossible.

"I died," Miller sighed, shaking his head. "Try doing a college paper as a fourth-grade reader. Talk about impossible."

"His self-esteem was bad," Urban said, lightly touching her son with her hand. The mom who had been a rock was left in the dark about his USC failure, because Miller could not bring himself to tell her.

"I had succeeded at PCC and I could not tell her that I failed," he said. "I felt hopeless. Very hopeless. I was at the end of my rope and I was broken."

In the meantime, Urban had read about Lindamood-Bell's successes at Bessemer Elementary, but it didn't occur to her that the program that breaks down words into feel and sound at the most basic level would help her son.

But her daughter, who will teach LmB next year at Minnequa, heard Corcoran speak at a District 60 event last August and got a tape and a book from him.

"Vonda was excited because, of course, she had been going through this with us for years," Urban said.

Urban was skeptical, but she finally got him to test with LmB's Jennifer Egan, and Egan told Miller he could be helped.

Was he excited?

"No," he said. "I thought, 'Oh my gosh, here we go again. Pour more salt on my wound.' "

But the family talked Miller into trying it. The only problem was, while there are many places in District 60 for a child to get help with LmB, Miller would have to travel to California to attend the company's clinic.

"It was a large investment," Urban said. "About the same as buying a new car. But when you buy a car, you might get five years out of it. This was an investment for a lifetime."

In January, Urban and Miller drove to Cayucos, Calif., which is near the clinic. She returned, but Miller remained and began three months of six-hours-a-day, five-times-weekly intensive schooling.

"A week after I started, I was at the Hearst Castle (in San Simeon, Calif.), I was looking at some information and I could break down some of the words.

"I said, 'Whoa!’ I could not believe it."

From there, his improvement was rapid, giving Miller tools he said he never knew existed.

For much of his day, Miller worked on decoding words and then the rest on comprehension.

"My confidence soared. I was dealing with 20 years of insecurity about my reading. I'm so fortunate."

He reads at about a 10th-grade level now, and Miller plans on working all summer at improving. Paul Worthington, LmB's director of learning management, promised at the school board meeting that the company would pick up the tab for Miller's continued Lindamood-Bell studies.

"His improvement blew me out of the water," Worthington said.

If Worthington was blown out of the water, what did Urban think after 20 years of work and worry with her son?

"Through everything, Dale has always been a people person, good to others and friendly," she said. "He's an inspiration to me."