Dyslexia therapist Mary Wines received a scholarship from the Educators Publishing Service to attend the International Dyslexia Association conference in New Orleans, Nov. 8.
“It is a nice accolade, to be recognized for all the time I put into the state boards and the five courses here at MSU,” Wines said. “Someone submitted the information about me to be considered for this award and here we are.”
The Robert G. and Eleanor T. Hall Memorial Fund Scholarship, which is not monetary but more of an accolade, is granted by the Educators Publishing Service and will cover the cost of Wines’ IDA membership, travel and hotel expenses for the trip.
“We hear about brain-based research from people from all over the world,” Wines said. “I attend different committees where we plan for the upcoming legislative issues that come up specifically in Texas.”
For the past five years, Wines developed five dyslexia courses and helped to train teachers to become certified academic language therapists.
Wines earned her master’s degree in special education from MSU in 2006 and her CALT and qualified instructor licenses from Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas. Wines said she became interested in this field because dyslexia has a tie to her family.
“My son, who is now 31, wasn’t diagnosed until junior high,” Wines said. “He is why I got into this. It’s my passion. And when you’re passionate about something, you put a lot of time and energy into it, and sometimes you have a good result like this award. But the real reward is that more kids with dyslexia will receive the explicit, direct, sequential and multisensory instruction needed for them to learn to read.”
Wines serves on the Senate Bill 866 State Technology Committee in the dyslexia field, which was charged with developing a plan for configuring a way to incorporate technology into the classroom to help students with dyslexia.
“It’s important to know that having dyslexia doesn’t have anything to do with intellect,” Wines said. “You can be highly intelligent and have dyslexia.”
