Learning to Teach Those with Learning Disabilities

Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Peter Sammartino School of Education offers a variety of options for teachers wishing to study learning disabilities. Foremost is the master of arts degree in learning disabilities, which contains two tracks for certification — as a Teacher of the Handicapped and as a Learning Disabilities Teacher Consultant (LDTC). These 38-credit programs for certified teachers focus on methods of teaching students with learning disabilities in the regular classrooms, self-contained classrooms, resource rooms or in private practice.

Teacher of the Handicapped certification is a general certification to teach those from elementary through high school who have disabilities, with the exception of the visually impaired or deaf or hard of hearing (additional certification required in these areas). LDTC certification requires the completion of a master’s degree plus three years teaching experience in addition to specialized course work. This certification allows one to work as a member of a child-study team — evaluating individuals to determine if they have disabilities; consulting with parents, professionals and agencies; and helping to determine what resources are best for the individual. These certification programs also are offered to licensed, regular classroom teachers independent of the MA program.

“One of the unique features of our programs,” says Teresa Montani, assistant professor of education, “is that we have a more clinical approach to teaching than many other programs throughout the state.” This is accomplished through affiliations with several organizations, including the Institute for Child Development at Hackensack University Medical Center; St. Rose of Lima school in Newark; and the four 32° Masonic Children’s Learning Centers of New Jersey, sponsored by the Scottish Rite Masons, a philanthropic organization that seeks to provide free reading instruction to children with dyslexia (for more information, call 1-888-862-6200).

In addition, FDU houses the Center for Clinical Teaching, to which children are referred by their doctors, teachers and parents for extra help in learning to read. “Even our lecture courses have assignments in which students are required to apply what they are learning to people,” says Mary Farrell, director of the learning disabilities programs.

“What I hear back from our graduates,” Montani adds, “is that few other institutions offer clinical practice in which students teach children in a situation where they are supervised and receive feedback as to whether they are applying strategies appropriately.”

Also offered by Fairleigh Dickinson are various options for training in Orton-Gillingham, a structured, phonic, rule-based multisensory approach to teaching reading, spelling and handwriting. The Dyslexia Specialist Certificate is a 30-credit program tailored for regular or special education teachers who wish to develop expertise in the Orton-Gillingham approach. The Orton-Gillingham Classroom Practitioner Certification is a 12-credit starter certificate (for teaching at or below the fourth-grade level). In addition, the Orton-Gillingham Dyslexia Specialist Training course offers certification as Orton-Gillingham Teacher, Teacher Trainer or Therapist. Several of these certificate programs are accredited by the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council, a national accrediting association.

For more information on these programs call Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Peter Sammartino School of Education, 201-692-2089.

— R.M.

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