Melissa Slominski
Licensed Davis® Dyslexia Correction Facilitator

After graduating with her Bachelor of Arts degree in literature, history, and education, Melissa discovered that the classroom was not the best fit for her personal strengths. She worked with various institutions of higher learning, did occasional private tutoring, and worked in a law office, her educational field left behind. When Melissa and her husband Terry had their first (and only) child, she stayed home to be a full-time mom. She, of course, anticipated returning to a career position when their son, Johnandrew, entered school.

Johnandrew was a very bright, talented boy who very definitely "thought outside the box" and school turned out not to be a good fit for him, either. So the family embarked on homeschooling. This took a good deal of planning and preparation on Melissa's part, as none of the "bottled" curricula seemed entirely appropriate for Johnandrew's interests and learning style. Melissa is happy to report that her now-23 year old son is in his second year of his doctoral program, with his bachelors and two masters' degrees already under his belt.

Melissa decided that a return to education was what was most meaningful to her. The excitement of the one-on-one work she found with homeschooling led her to investigate many different systems for tutoring, getting specialized training in several of them. As she worked with private students, however, she felt there was more that she needed to know. There were too many bright individuals with wonderful imaginations who just were not responding well to the programs she knew. Albert Einstein's quote, "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination," kept her searching for more answers.

Finding The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis changed everything. She knew she had finally found a way to address the many issues she had seen in her students. She recognized that it wasn't just the reading, but also writing, spelling, sometimes physical coordination, and even organization skills that students frequently needed to master. She went through the extensive facilitator training, becoming licensed as a Davis® Program Facilitator in June of 2006.

Melissa finds it to be an exciting privilege to facilitate these intelligent, imaginative people as they regain their wonder and joy in learning. As one bright youngster put it, "Now I can be in control of my thoughts rather than my thoughts being in control of me."