The Wisconsin Institute for Learning Disabilities/Dyslexia Inc. (WILDD)

Program Overview

History

WILDD was founded in 2005 by Erv Carpenter and Co-Founder, Kim Campbell-Carpenter, to help adults and children overcome the reading, spelling, and math deficits associated with dyslexia and specific learning disabilities.

After a lifetime of frustrating educational experiences, Erv was diagnosed with dyslexia at age 32 after entering the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh using his veteran's benefits. He was on the verge of losing his Chapter 31 benefits because he was failing at his chosen college curriculum which he needed to support his family – his wife, Kim, and their four children. Luckily, he found himself talking with a VA Counselor who suspected that dyslexia was at the root of Erv's struggles in school and referred him to a campus resource that was able to teach him how to read, write, and spell. Erv graduated with a 3.5 GPA and a BS in Special Education with three certifications.

This experience was the catalyst that defined Erv and Kim's future. Over the next 30 years, Erv and Kim dedicated their lives to teaching Special Education and received K-12 certifications in Learning, Emotional Behavioral Disorders, and Cognitive Disabilities, and worked at multiple Dyslexia Centers. Erv went on to develop the Carpenter Language Achievement and Strategies System™ (CLASS), an academic therapy curriculum, which WILDD uses to achieve remarkable results in reading and spelling remediation for dyslexic learners.

It's because of Erv and Kim's first-hand experience with dyslexia, helping their own children cope with dyslexia, and years of teaching expertise – that they have achieved such great success with their program. Changing lives – one person at a time.

WILDD's Core Strategies
At WILDD, our goal is to help you create your personal forever toolkit, equipping you to succeed, preparing you to compete with your peers in school and in the workforce.

Thanks to advances in technology, WILDD GLOBAL™ is available anywhere, anytime. WILDD GLOBAL™ online is as effective as an in-person site; now both allow learners and teachers to interact face-to-face, in real-time, with simultaneous multi-sensory instruction.

WILDD provides one-on-one learning, customized immediately, so you progress at your own best pace. At WILDD, we keep you at the center of your own development.

Through this program, WILDD provides research-developed and evidence-based academic therapy that builds resiliency and successfully remediates language deficits associated with dyslexia and learning disabilities

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The CLASS™ program (Carpenter Language Achievement and Strategies System™) teaches the brain to work differently. This program re-trains the brain to use other paths to get the job done.

CLASS™ was developed by co-founder and executive director, Ervin Carpenter, himself a dyslexic who went undiagnosed until he was 32. He became a special education teacher—for over 30 years and develop this program out of his own personal and professional experience. It took a non-reader to figure out what non-readers need to learn to read. Erv's passion is to see all kids able to read and succeed, especially those challenged as he is.
Retraining the brain does happen, with consistent and guided attention. Depending on the starting point, results can be seen within a few months, and fuller remediation may come over a one to three-year period.

At WILDD, we know this from experience—we see the results in our students all the time and have seen it throughout our ten years of testing results.

How & Why WILDD Works
"Life-changing!"
WILDD employs highly trained instructors (not tutors), certified to provide WILDD's academic therapy using the Carpenter Language Achievement and Strategies System™ (CLASS™). CLASS™ is a unique form of evidence-based academic therapy that works with the dyslexic learner's brain, providing the tools necessary to create an independent learner. While we employ CLASS™ across the board, we never use exactly the same lessons for any two clients. We develop personally-tailored plans that fit our client's needs and educational goals. Our goal is to develop a forever toolkit learners can draw on for the rest of their lives.

What to Expect
When beginning a program with WILDD, assessment tests are conducted in order to measure multiple aspects of the client's current educational status: learning patterns, reading, spelling, grammar, and math deficits, and overall functioning level. These assessment tests not only act as a benchmark to measure progress and success but also function as road maps to help guide us in building your own personal program.

This process then kicks off the instruction for the client in the necessary academic areas that are determined by the initial assessment. We pride ourselves in our personalized approach and attribute that to our WILDD success with clients.
Method:

WILDD employs CLASS™, an academic therapy model developed by former special education teacher, WILDD co-founder, and dyslexic learner, Ervin Carpenter in the early 1980s. CLASS™ has been consistently updated as scientific studies on the dyslexic brain advance and new scientific information about dyslexia becomes available

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CLASS™ is rooted in the instruction first developed by neuropsychiatrist and pathologist Samuel T. Orton and gifted educator and psychologist Anna Gillingham, based on their pioneering work in the 1920's with individuals who failed to establish appropriate cerebral organization to support the association of visual words with their spoken forms.

CLASS™ is rich in simultaneous multi-sensory technique and phonological awareness. It successfully trains the brain to develop new pathways, resulting in working around language deficits, This method advances beyond traditional Orton-Gillingham instruction to secure academic independence.

CLASS™ instruction begins by focusing on the structure of language and gradually moves toward reading, with each lesson building upon the previous. The method provides immediate feedback and a predictable sequence that integrates reading, writing, penmanship, and spelling as one logical body of knowledge. CLASS™ includes uniquely integrated strategies to repair self-confidence which is often damaged in un-diagnosed dyslexic learners.

Cost Info