Sandra Bermudez adopted her daughter when Lucy was three months old. Lucy was perfect in every way; she hit all her milestones on time and brought nothing but joy to her parents.
But when Lucy started kindergarten there were soon signs that she would struggle academically, said Bermudez. Lucy had trouble learning the alphabet. Her parents tried to help her themselves with extra lessons, they hired private tutors, but nothing seemed to work.
“It actually got so bad that at some point we were told ‘It’s okay, ma’am, not everyone has to be smart,’” said Bermudez. Educators began to blame Lucy’s parents for her issues and accused them of not working with Lucy at home. They even enrolled their daughter in private schools but Lucy continued to struggle.
Lucy was eventually diagnosed with severe dyslexia. After researching, Bermudez discovered that dyslexia is pretty common; it affects 20 percent of the population and represents 80 to 90 percent of all those with learning disabilities, according to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.
At the time the resources for those with dyslexia were limited, said Bermudez, and very expensive, leading her to start her own nonprofit focusing on teaching young students with dyslexia and neurodivergent students to read and write using a system called the science of reading.
The science of reading combines decades of research by Dr. Samuel Orton, a research neurologist, and Anna Gillingham, who was an educator and psychologist in the 1930s.
The Orton-Gillingham method, or the science of reading, includes decoding letters, all of their sounds and the visual elements of the letter. The curriculum the non-profit uses is sensory-based.
After Lucy’s parents got her access to the correct resources, she not only got on grade level but she’s excelled. Now, she’s a strong reader and a rising 11th-grade honor roll student here in South Florida.
“What I was going to do was start a nonprofit to offer the same quality services my daughter received, but for free or heavily subsidized,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense that you would have to have infinite resources for your child to learn how to read.”
The Lucy Project began offering its services for free to struggling students at six area public schools. The project is able to fund its discounted and free services through fundraisers, donations and grants filled out by the team and Bermudez.
The Lucy Project provides free professional development to public school teachers as well as one-on-one tutoring. For those who can afford tutoring, the non-profit offers literacy assessments and reading remediation services, but financial assistance is provided to those who need it.
‘It was working very early’The Lucy Project partnered with Norwood Elementary in Miami Gardens to kick off its new project the Literacy Hub last year, focused on helping kindergartners.
Teachers attended a nine-week training to learn how to teach and implement the curriculum. Training sessions were provided by the nonprofit. Bermudez described the training as “a fine tooth comb” on unpacking the science of reading.
The teacher introduces a letter to the class and then breaks students into three groups to explore the letter using sensory learning. One group would focus on the visuals of a letter, the other on the sounds and the last would explore writing. There was an adult in each group, two of which were tutors from The Lucy Project.
The teachers realized the importance of having extra professionals in the classroom, especially when working in small groups.
“I realized it was working very early because we didn’t have much wasted time,” said Shannette Phillips, a kindergarten teacher at Norwood. “With the other people in the group, it just eliminates all that downtime where nothing is getting done. So they actually learn a lot.”
The kindergarten classes showed improvement in reading early on. Phillips said students performed well on both the second and third assessments of the year. At the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year 52 percent of kindergartners read at or above grade level. At the end of the year with The Lucy Project, 91 percent of kindergartners read at or above grade level.
“It helps to have those additional people in there,” said kindergarten teacher Vital Herne. “You’re talking about kindergarten kids who are very young and need constant redirection and needs constant supervision.”
To donate to The Lucy Project: https://www.lucyproject.org/donate
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