Identification of Students with Characteristics of Dyslexia in School Based Settings Timothy N. Odegard, Ph.D., CALP

Timothy Odegard is a Professor of Psychology and holds the Katherine Davis Murfree Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies at MTSU. He received a B.A. degree from Hendrix College and a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas. During his postdoctoral fellowship, he completed a two year dyslexia specialist training program at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, Texas, becoming a Certified Academic Language Practitioner (CALP) and a licensed Dyslexia Teacher in Texas. He has taught undergraduate courses in Psychology at the University of Texas, Arlington and the University of Arkansas and graduate courses at the University of Texas, Arlington, serving on advisory committees and mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students. He has mentored McNair scholars, LSAMP scholars, and supervised numerous undergraduate honors theses. Many of the undergraduate students he mentored received local, regional and national honors for their achievements. He has also held faculty appointments with the University of Texas, Dallas and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He joined the MTSU faculty in 2015 after serving as Director of Research and Evaluation for Wilson Language Training Corporation for three years.

Dr. Odegard is a Developmental Cognitive Psychologist whose research focuses on memory and language, incorporating experimental methods and neuroimaging to understand the development of these aspects of human cognition. His research in the area of reading strives to identify factors that predict the response of individuals with dyslexia and related specific reading disabilities to intensive interventions and leverage this information to improve intervention efforts to meet the needs of these individuals. He has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense for his research. Notably, he received the Roland H. Waters Teaching Award from the University of Arkansas, Research Excellence Award from the University of Texas, Arlington, and the Innovator Award from the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council. Dr. Odegard regularly publishes peer reviewed research articles, most recently in Developmental Neuropsychology, and Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.

Dr. Odegard serves on state and national committees and boards in the area of dyslexia and specific reading disability. He is a member of the Academic Language Therapist Association, International Dyslexia Association, and a fellow of the Psychonomics Society. He regularly speaks on topics related to dyslexia and specific reading disability for local, state and national groups.

Dyslexia laws have been enacted in over 30 states, but have these laws resulted in improved identification of individuals with dyslexia? This presentation attempts to answer this question using data from the 50 states and rates of identifying students with dyslexia in Arkansas and Texas. During the second half of the presentation, practices for identifying students with characteristics of dyslexia will be addressed. Attendees will be provided with various tools developed by the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia to aid in the identification of students who present with characteristics of dyslexia. These tools will be modeled using case studies of students in public school settings.

ALTA offers its members 2.5 hours for this video.