Since 2004
Defying Dyslexia One Decade At A Time
Our History
Since opening in 2004, we’ve been passionately changing children’s lives, helping them learn and grow, despite the obstacles in their way. Originally founded by Valley of Syracuse and Valley of Utica AASR, these organizations created a support system for all children to learn in their community and continue to be avid sponsors nearly 20 years later.
Welcome to the Children’s Dyslexia Center of Central New York, a free service for children with dyslexia, serving Syracuse, Utica, Rome, and all of Central New York.
What Drives Us
Our Mission
To provide the highest quality multi-sensory reading and written language tutorial services for children with dyslexia through a network of nationally recognized center of excellence, to offer training and certification in the Orton-Gillingham method for tutor/scholars, to continue to support clinical research programs that focus on dyslexia.
The Orton-Gillingham Method
Our Approach
At the Children’s Dyslexia Center, we use the Orton-Gillingham method to help your child learn strategies to enable them to read better. These strategies use direct auditory, visual, and kinesthetic processes that are easily learned and can help your child.
The Orton-Gillingham Approach is most often associated with a one-on-one teacher-student instructional model and is always focused upon the learning needs of the individual student.
Our Successes
Joseph’s Story
My name is Joseph Mittiga, I am 8 years old and I attended The Children’s Dyslexia Center for two years.  I would like to share my story with you.
Before I went to the Center reading was a chore because I didn’t know many words and that made me feel anxious to read. My writing was unusual in many ways; such as my words were floating above the line, sometimes backwards, and sometime my letters were upside down and others backwards. I hardly knew my sounds. When I compared myself to my sister and brother I felt like I was the one behind in learning to read.
I learned many things during my time at the Center. Some of these things are known as my tools that I keep in my toolbox. This is not a literal tool box, but the tools I learned to use and carry with me everywhere.
I learned how to finger spell, which I still use today when I want to spell words that I don’t know. This is when I use my fingers to tell my brain what sounds I need to use to spell the word correctly. Highlighting words that I didn’t know helped me to pay attention to them, to read them correctly.
Tracing, is when my finger tells my brain what is really on the page. I put my finger on the desk and trace the word I see. Doing this makes my brain pay attention to each letter sound and then I am able to pull the entire word together.
Another thing I learned, was when I read and don’t understand the sentence, I reread until I understand what was going on in the book. These are all the tools I keep in my toolbox.
I felt like The Children’s Dyslexia Center helped me in the greatest ways, because now I’m reading chapter books. When I go to the library, I just pick books off the shelf and start reading them. This makes me feel like I’m not behind anymore and when I want to read on my own, I do. At night, I read with a book light in my bed.
Thank you for the gift of reading.
Team
Our Staff
Marianne Jones
Director
Lesley Powers
Our Tutors
Sharon W.
Jackie B.
Shannon N.
Keila F.
Brittany M.
Shelly Z.
Eileen B.
Elizabeth Z.
Jessica K.
Marianne J.
Board of Governors
Children’s Dyslexia Center CNY
Stephen C. Park, Chairman
Craig Cobb, Co-Chairman
Wayne L. Allen, Treasurer
Gary Hartman, Secretary
Louis D. Denato, Sr, Assistant Treasurer
Leon A. Bulriss, Asst. Secretary
Tony Bartolotti
William Brunet, Sr.
Robert W. Crump
Carl Fahrenkrug
Laura Garramone
Ruth Howe
Karen Marshall-King
Sylvia Moravia
G. Michael Morris, Deputy – State of New York
Frederick D. Greene, Emeritus
James D. Swan, Emeritus
Rodney St. Clair, Emeritus
Linda L. Martin, Emeritus Director
Children’s Dyslexia Center of Central New York
For the safety of our staff and students in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, all persons entering the center must wear a mask upon entry and adhere to social distancing guidelines.