Teaching by example key to helping those with learning disabilities
by Alex Bloom - Sept. 10, 2009
The Arizona Republic

The 40 students at Scottsdale's Lexis Preparatory School have a special relationship with Head of School Dana Herzberg.

The students, who have learning disabilities
such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia, have a school leader who has overcome similar learning disabilities to achieve.

"They can't say, 'You don't understand. It's hard.' " Herzberg said. "Well, I do get it."

Herzberg and her staff at Lexis, a private school that opened Aug. 17, help students develop strategies and learning styles to succeed academically. Many of the students at the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school are very intelligent and gifted, with some able to write at collegiate levels, Herzberg said. But they have disabilities that have held them back.

"The thing that I ask of them is to try, try again," Herzberg said. "And even if it's hard, we still have to try. And if we need to do it a different way, we can always do things a different way."

As a child, Herzberg could read anything put in front of her but had trouble comprehending the material. Working with private tutors, she developed strategies to succeed, including recording herself reading textbooks and listening to them.

She developed other strategies throughout her educational career and moved on to Arizona State University to obtain a master's degree in curriculum instruction.

Overcoming her own struggles has strengthened her belief that her students can reach their goals.

"Despite whatever learning disability they have, these children can achieve grand levels of success and we need to push them to achieve whatever level of success they're able to achieve," Herzberg said. "If given the right opportunities, the right resources and tools, they can achieve."

On the first day of school, Herzberg read a poem to the Lexis students that she wrote about her learning troubles. Some Lexis students, who come from as far away as Anthem, Peoria and Ahwatukee, have written her poems about their struggles.

"Dana can look through the eyes of a child and she understands them, and they know that and they respect her for it," said Mary Alpaugh, a developmental writing specialist at Lexis.

Modeled after Florida's Tampa Day School, Lexis takes a different approach to education and instruction. The science program is hands-on and doesn't have a textbook. The school has no shortage of technology. And students can stand up or play with a ball in their hands in the middle of class.

"We don't require our kids to sit like little soldiers in their desks," Herzberg said. "It's recognizing that learning doesn't only happen in a desk."

But classrooms are not chaotic. Teachers still assess their students and have rigorous standards, Herzberg said. The school has a college-preparatory environment, and 90 percent of Lexis students take traditional tests. The school focuses on teaching executive function skills such as planning, organization, and prioritizing.

Alpaugh taught developmental writing for 20 years before leaving the Paradise Valley Unified School District and starting at Lexis this year. Her son struggles with learning disabilities, and sometimes Paradise Valley lacked the resources to provide for her son's treatment plan. Public schools, Alpaugh said, deal with the reality of budget cuts, which hurt special-education programs and their ability to diagnose and treat learning disabilities.

Alpaugh also prefers the individualized attention Lexis can provide to help children develop their learning styles.

"I like the idea that it's a non-traditional teaching model that allows children equal access to the curriculum," Alpaugh said.

And while the education at Lexis is expensive - tuition runs from $17,000 to $20,000 - parents with children needing special attention likely end up spending the money anyway on occupational, speech, and language therapy, Alpaugh said. Lexis offers some of those services.

Scottsdale resident Elizabeth Panzarella suspected from the time he was a toddler that her 8-year-old son R.J. had a learning disability.

"I was kind of told that he was just not that smart," Panzarella said. "When I heard that as a parent, I said, 'No you're wrong, I'm not going to accept this,' and that's when I went and got testing. I knew my child wasn't stupid."

Testing showed R.J. suffers from dyslexia and has trouble expressing himself. Panzarella decided to pull her son from Blessed Pope John XXIII Roman Catholic School after touring Lexis.

"We knew instantly that's where he had to be," Panzarella said.

Panzarella believes her son is getting the attention he needs from teacher Rachel Case, and said she's willing to pay the high cost of tuition.

She also sees Herzberg as an example for her son.

"She's real testimony to how far people can go," Panzarella said.

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