Ellamarie loved school and embraced learning new concepts from a young age. However, her enthusiasm waned when she began to struggle in the public school system due to her dyslexia diagnosis. Her struggles altered her positive perception of school, but that all changed when she enrolled at Swift School for second grade. Swift’s supportive environment played a crucial role in reigniting her passion for learning, providing her with the tools and confidence to overcome her challenges.

“It became apparent when I started struggling because I no longer had the same aptitude or want to learn,” she stated. “I strongly believe that my parents realizing my struggles and their determination to get me the right education saved me from going down a path where I would not have been able to achieve what I have thus far.”

During her two years at Swift, Ellamarie benefited from small class sizes and the expertise of teachers trained in the Orton-Gillingham Approach. The approach is known for being sequential, direct, diagnostic, and prescriptive, and it offers a structured and systematic method of instruction that remains flexible to meet individual needs.

In OG classes, students begin by reading and writing sounds in isolation. Then sounds are blended into one syllable and multisyllabic words. Students learn the elements of language - consonants, vowels, digraphs, blends, and diphthongs - in an orderly, sequential fashion. Students then proceed to advanced structural elements such as syllable types, roots, and affixes.

The approach provides guiding principles for instruction and emphasizes multisensory techniques that involve auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic pathways. By using the different pathways, Ellamarie was able to engage in multisensory learning which resulted in success. 

“I don’t remember an exact time or moment when I felt improvement, but looking back, I know how beneficial the Orton-Gillingham Approach was,” Ellamarie noted. “I was incredibly lucky to receive an education using Orton-Gillingham from Swift as early as I did.”

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Ellamarie’s family saw the benefits of the approach as well. Today, her mother Barbara is a middle school teacher, educating Swift’s current population using the Orton-Gillingham Approach that played a pivotal role in Ellamarie’s academic journey.

Ellamarie is currently a junior at a local public high school, and literary comprehension has become her passion. She was a finalist in the Governor's Honors Program for Communication Arts and Literature, and she hopes to continue to improve her writing while part of GHP. In addition to GHP, she is heavily involved with the debate program at her school and has participated in Lincoln-Douglas Style debate tournaments at Harvard and other institutions. Despite the academic rigor of junior year, she is eagerly anticipating her AP Language class and other classes.

Ellamarie knows she has made incredible progress and can achieve whatever she sets her mind to. She gave kudos to Swift for playing an important role in her journey, saying, “Swift giving me the proper education based on my own disabilities gave me the groundwork to help myself become a student who could survive in a public education setting.”

She concluded with an encouraging message for Swift School’s future, current, and former students. While dyslexia and related language-based learning differences will never fully disappear, it’s all about the improvements.

“At any point, you can look back and see just how far you have come,” Ellamarie noted. “Our struggles won’t just ever go away, but we can and have certainly taken great strides to work around, with, or through them.”

Ellamarie’s inspiring journey is a testament to the transformative power of the Swift Effect®. If your child has a language-learning difference, ADHD, or an executive functioning diagnosis, let Swift School provide successful remediation. Contact us today at (678) 205-4988 or email admissionassociate@theswiftschool.org