Camille is an absolute delight to be around. She is currently in the sixth grade and originally came to the Scottish Rite Language Clinic in Sacramento, California, in September 1999, following six months of private therapy. In third grade, Camille had demonstrated weakness in the areas of auditory memory and processing, reading, spelling, writing mechanics, and phonological awareness. She struggled through school for a year, and, although her teachers were aware of Camille's problems, they were not considered severe enough for the school to provide intervention. Knowing her daughter's frustrations, Camille's mother, Marilyn, spent the next year locating help.

When Camille began therapy at the Sacramento clinic, she was in the fifth grade. Therapy objectives set at that time focused on reading comprehension, strengthening strategies for studying and test taking, increasing knowledge of syllable patterns, and understanding syllabification rules to improve decoding and spelling skills.

Today, Camille is successfully working at the sixth-grade reading level. Her listening skills are at age-appropriate levels, and her reading comprehension skills, though improved, continue to require conscious application of learned strategies. Therapy is now focused on writing skills. Camille works very hard on her school lessons and deserves credit for a job well done, as do her parents for their consistent support and follow-through.

This year things are much better at school, and Camille enjoys her Scottish Rite clinic work because it is fun and makes school easier. She sees the rewards of her efforts and feels she can achieve whatever she wants. Her goal is to become a veterinarian. Camille's parents believe she will embrace learning throughout her life because of the opportunity to participate in therapy at the Scottish Rite Language Clinic.

Reprinted, edited for length, from the Scottish Rite News (April 2002) of Sacramento, California