Awards

Rebecca Brock Richardson Award

VBIDA is proud to announce Martie Simmons as the 2010 recipient of the Rebecca Brock Richardson Award.

This award is presented to one who has exhibited a compassion for those with language learning differences and who advocates for their welfare in the family and community.

The recipient must be one who has demonstrated a commitment to educating teachers about dyslexia and training them to incorporate a systematic, structured language approach and multisensory teaching methods.

For 34 years, Martie taught reading, spelling and handwriting to students with dyslexia. For 20 of those years, she was the Coordinator and Trainer of Language Remediation at The New Community School in Richmond.

She is a Fellow of the Orton-Gillingham Academy and a certified instructor of teachers in the Orton-Gillingham approach. Martie is currently an adjunct faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she teaches courses to graduate students on topics such as literacy skills and multisensory structured language approaches to reading, writing and spelling.

Martie has served on the VBIDA board, and as a past officer and board member of the Learning Disabilities Council. She has presented at state, regional and national conferences. VBIDA asked Martie if she would like to share any personal thoughts regarding her commitment to the field of reading disabilities.

She graciously responded with the following: ‘I am a lucky person. I have been in the right place at the right time and surrounded by knowledgeable and compassionate people in the field of dyslexia. My journey in the field started at the University of Richmond in 1974. When I was a graduate student, Alice Ansara and Jean Dickinson instilled in me a curiosity about the structure of our language and how to improve the reading and spelling skills of individuals with dyslexia.

In 1975, I joined the Orton Society, now referred to as the
International Dyslexia Association. Even in the 1970’s, research confirmed the fact that students with dyslexia can be taught to read and spell, and they have many strengths’.

‘My academic training was reinforced when I arrived at The New Community School, an independent college preparatory school for students with specific language learning disabilities. I became part of a team of professionals who believed in the students they taught and were always looking for ways to help each student reach his or her potential. I repeatedly saw students improve their language skills, discover their personal learning style, and gain self-confidence, all of which helped to make college a viable option for them’. ‘My learning experience continues. For the ten last years, I have been teaching as an adjunct faculty member for Virginia Commonwealth University. My students are now special education and general education students from Kindergarten to the Secondary level. Because the principles of multisensory, structured language programs are based on long standing theories of learning, teachers who understand the structure of our English language system with its patterns and predictability can impact the language skills of every student they teach’. ‘As in the 1970’s, there are still students in our classroom who do not learn to read in a traditional manner.

With current research on the reading brain, evidence based reading programs, and the teachers who understand how to teach the structure of our language, there is great hope that today’s students will not struggle or incur the emotional pain of students in previous decades. So you see why I say I am a lucky person. I have been fortunate to witness the field of dyslexia change as more research became available and to see the implementation of research in the classroom, which changes the lives of dyslexic individuals in a positive manner’.

*Rebecca Brock Richardson was trained in the treatment of Dyslexia at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. She was a member of the Orton Society for Dyslexia and authored a book entitled Dilemmas of Dyslexia. During her lifetime, she founded the Charlottesville Center for Dyslexia, which later became The Learning Center, and was a founding member of the Virginia Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. Rebecca passed away at the age of 92 in 2008.    

 Past Recipients