Meet Cathy Cook
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Dyslexia has always been a part of my life; but I didn't always know it. As a young child I loved reading, it came easily to me but I could have cared less about spelling or punctuation (neither made much sense). Math became more and more confusing the older I got; I figured, on the days facts like 8+5 and 7+5 were taught, I must have been sick! As a youngster I was also painfully shy, that wasn't fun. But as I worked on a master's degree in special education, that's when I began to realize that I learned differently. As I studied, reading lines and paragraphs over and over and over, I began to see that I really didn't understand what I'd just read. I started to feel stupid.
Cathy Cook
As I raised my four children I saw firsthand their differences in learning styles, looking again and again for ways to help them learn to read. Eventually I became a special educator, licensed by the state of Missouri. As a teacher what did I find? Like my own children each of my students had talents along with their difficulties. Some had deficits in reading, others problems with writing, and still some struggled with reading, writing and math. Others struggled to correctly articulate and almost every one suffered with low self-esteem. Yet, what I really noticed was the tremendous talent and potential co-existing with a dyslexic learning style. One day, as I received the results of intelligence testing for a few of my severely learning impaired students, that's the day I knew I had to make a change in the way I was teaching. I knew there had to be a better way for all my students to learn.
Cathy Cook
Sitting in my classroom late that night I read the IQ results; the scores placed several students in the superior intelligence range. Above average results for children who could barely read. Wow! How could it be that gifted children couldn't read in the way you would expect? Despite interventions, strategies, and all those accommodations from what I thought were the best learning approaches, students were still struggling academically.
Cathy Cook
My thought, if I can't teach someone intelligent how to read, the problem is mine. I had to find a better way to teach. That's when I looked up from my paperwork and saw it, the book: The Gift of Dyslexia by Ron Davis. It was right there on my shelf, my husband had bought it for me earlier. Now I didn't just want to read that book, I needed to truly understand it because the children deserved the very best.
As I began my study with Davis Dyslexia I found the results were phenomenal! Once oriented and "on point" students became empowered!
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Many years ago I went to college to study horticulture-applied science. I've loved trees and plants ever since I can remember but going to college to study them was something I did because that's what I thought you were supposed to do. I didn't know I was dyslexic then, I just knew learning in a hands-on-way made the most sense for me. Now, I'm privileged to provide our revolutionary method of correcting learning difficulties to those deserving of only the very best!
Cathy Cook
Cathy Cook is licensed and certified by the Davis Dyslexia Association International and licensed by the State of Missouri. She is president of OnPoint Learning Center, LLC.
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OnPoint Learning Center
3610 Buttonwood Dr. Suite 200
Columbia, MO 65201
(cell) 573-819-6010
(office) 573-886-8917