Nenagh native pens book on dyslexia

Nenagh born speech & language therapist Rita Treacy has just produced a book documenting her groundbreaking work in helping people with dyslexia.

A book of particular benefit to teachers and parents of children with dyslexia, 'Dyslexia Unravelled: An Irish Guide to a Global Problem' offers unique insight on a common condition that Rita herself was diagnosed with as a university student.

Born and bred in Nenagh, Rita is one of five children of Pat (former State Solicitor) and Eileen Treacy. She went to the Convent Primary School in town and from there to Laurel Hill in Limerick for her secondary education.

It wasn't until she began studying speech & language therapy at Trinity College Dublin in the 1980s that Rita was diagnosed with classic dyslexia. But she believes that one of her Nenagh teachers, a Sr Malachy, identified the condition when Rita was in primary school. She recalls being given extra tuition during lunch breaks to help her improve in certain academic areas.

Shortly after graduating from TCD, Rita went to Australia and spent four years working with a speech & language therapy team. There she found both a personal and professional resonance with dyslexia as something that she could work on helping people to cope with.

On returning to Ireland, she spent a short spell doing locum work in Nenagh before moving to Dublin to work in the area of child psychology. Going on to set up her own private practice, she was always taken with how much of the conventional material used to help people with dyslexia, which although relevant, kept missing its intended target.

Seeking to bridge the gap as it were, Rita found herself developing a programme that she named 'WordsWorth Learning' (WWL), a now widely-acclaimed system for helping children and adults overcome dyslexia, as well as reading and spelling disorders.

Originally a paper-based system, Rita subsequently redeveloped WWL as an online programme, one with the potential of enhancing reading and spelling skills for all children, not just those with a specific learning difficulty. She is currently redeveloping the programme again and about to start an EU-funded project in that regard. Appreciative of how tech-savvy and keen young kids are to embrace modern technology, Rita says the new WWL will be even more interactive and focussed on adapted learning.

The story of WWL and the results it has yielded can be pursued through the pages of 'Dyslexia Unravelled'. Rita was asked to write the book by Dr Marie Murray, clinical psychologist, author, broadcaster and editor of the book. With an estimated one third of the school-age population of Ireland (300,000 children) below or well below expectations in reading skills and 100,000 of them classically dyslexic, Rita offers the truly different perspective of a professional speech & language therapist living with dyslexia herself.

In the book, the Nenagh native covers a wide spectrum of issues, including what it's like to be dyslexic, how to identify dyslexia, and how to deal with it. The ten chapters contain a mine of information concluding with direction to the services and supports that are out there.

The book is aimed primarily at parents and also teachers, Rita saying she has huge regard for teachers and the work they do for children with learning difficulties. 'Dyslexia Unravelled' will also be of interest to psychologists, educationalists, speech & language therapists, and anyone else with an interest in understanding the complexities of dyslexia.

Rita hopes that as well as assisting people living with the condition, her book will help dispel the “shame†of dyslexia. She describes the feedback thus far as “terrificâ€, people telling her that they now understand issues that seemed alien to them before.

Based in Dublin, Rita still enjoys getting home to Nenagh as often as she can. Next up on her busy agenda is a project focussing on prisons, where an estimated 70% of inmates are dyslexic. Indeed, there remains a large number of undiagnosed cases of dyslexia in Ireland, and the pioneering work of Rita Treacy of Nenagh will be very much to the fore in this area for years to come.

Published by Orpen Press, 'Dyslexia Unravelled: An Irish Guide to a Global Problem', is out now.