Reading, writing and arithmetic

CHRISTINE Phillips says she has the know-how to make a real difference in a child’s education.

A qualified teacher with over 30 years’ experience, Ms Phillips, owner of the Ballarat branch of Aldon Tutoring Centre since 2012, tutors over a hundred kids per year in literacy and maths.

Ms Phillips said as a teacher she noticed kids, struggling with basic learning, literacy and numeracy skills, would still go up to the next year without improvement.

“I thought that’s not good enough, so I did my own research as to why children don’t learn at school and what can be done to help them,” Ms Phillips said.

She specialises in literacy intervention for children and adults as well as helping those with Irlen Syndrome, a visual processing disorder.

Ms Phillips, a member of the Australasian Association of Irlen Consultants, is able to detect Irlen Syndrome and provide specialised tutoring for individuals who have underdeveloped reading and spelling skills because of the condition.

She has found that around 45 per cent of the people who come to her tutoring business have learning difficulties.

“I’ve found a large majority of these children or adults are suffering from Irlen Syndrome,” Ms Phillips said.

Parents contact Ms Phillips when they have been told their child doesn’t know their sounds and are struggling with learning to read.

A symptom of Irlen Syndrome is being unable to see letters clearly.

This means a child can not put sounds to the letter images.

Ms Phillips said Irlen Syndrome is a perceptual processing disorder, not an optical problem.

It is a problem with the brain’s ability to process visual information and it tends to run in families.

“People who suffer from this dysfunction are often bothered by bright light,” she said.

“It can be experienced sitting under fluorescent lights, bright lights, sunlight and sometimes lights at night frequently resulting in headaches, mood changes, restlessness or have difficulty staying focused.”

After diagnosis by Ms Phillips the child wears coloured Irlen lenses as glasses, enabling them to see the letters without distortion.

They then start to put the sounds to the letters and construct words from the sounds.

In other words, they learn how to read.

“I get a great deal of satisfaction seeing the improvement with these children, the boost in their self-confidence and their learning ability is heartwarming,” Ms Phillips said.