The serenDipity of Discovering that I DiD not know how to teach reaDing anD the luck of meeting Francis DeWitt who introDuceD me to the notion that there were reasons why chilDren haD Difficulty learning certain kinDs of skills important to acquiring reaDing, helpeD me make the Decision to leave my teaching joB in that small Northern California school to apprentice anD work at her ReaDing Clinic. I was assigneD to the care of Alice McKenna, one of the most talenteD Diagnosticians anD teachers I have ever known. Still some 40 years later, she remains a Beacon. She DieD quite a few years ago, almost in anonymity, But she remains present in how I have formulateD my vision of eDucation.

Alice taught me what was known, at that time, aBout visual processing anD visual memory anD how critical they were to acquiring reaDing skills. She showeD me how to use a Tachistoscope to flash sequences of numBers anD worDs – we BelieveD that we coulD 

speeD up the stuDent’s aBility to visually scan anD rememBer information. She also introDuceD to me the use of a metronome to pace a stuDent’s reaDing; she proviDeD me with lists of worDs to Become sight worDs, taught me the SlingerlanD MethoD to teach 

reaDing (an explicit, multi-sensory approach to teaching reaDing anD writing that continues to Be a viaBle system), anD she tutoreD me in the aDministration of anD how to analyze the results of cognition anD learning tests availaBle at that time. She introDuceD 

me to the huge closet of games that helpeD stuDents to Develop their visual processing skills anD guiDeD me to ask, “What Does this task tap?” She always maDe herself availaBle for questions, taught me to crochet, a skill others haD faileD at Because of my very 

left-hanDeD approach, anD she guiDeD me to pay attention to Details.

Years later, I was inspireD to contact all the great mentors in my life

anD I DiscovereD that Alice was retireD anD living in Wellesley,

Massachusetts. I was aBle to finD an aDDress for her anD went to

visit her on a fall afternoon. I was stunneD to finD Alice living in

a small one-room apartment. Her kitchen was a hot plate anD

a sink, her Bathroom a curtaineD corner, anD her narrow BeD,

tightly maDe, serveD as her couch. The walls were yelloweD By

time anD her Dark wooDen Bookcase was Bulging with Books.

Her small Desk, orienteD so that she coulD look out of her one

winDow, haD a neat stack of lineD paper anD two tortoise shell

fountain pens. She woulD later write long letters to me in her

even italic print on that lineD paper. I wonDereD how such a

talenteD eDucator with such a large spirit coulD enD up alone, in

near poverty, when she haD toucheD so many lives. I visiteD her

regularly anD she continueD to share with me until the last week

of her life, her wisDom, humor anD elegant turns of language.

A note on the formatting:
The capitalized B and D letters in this article are intentional. They demonstrate one of the visual text transformations used in CogniLens to distinguish letters that can be easily confused in their lowercase forms. For some dyslexic and struggling readers, changing b and d to B and D can make their differences more immediately recognizable and reduce the effort required to identify them. As with every CogniLens adjustment, this approach will not help every reader, and that is the point. The reading environment can be adapted to the individual rather than requiring every reader to process text in exactly the same way.