Dyslexic Ocean City student making final push for reading task force

MAYS LANDING - Samantha Ravelli is a seventh-grader at the Ocean City Intermediate School.

Carol Greider just won a Nobel prize in science.

They don't know each other, but they have something in common. Both have dyslexia, a brain disorder that makes it difficult to process words and sounds and learn to read.

In a New York Times interview Tuesday, Greider said how she'd been thinking of how she was put in remedial classes in school and thought she was stupid. She talked about how she learned to compensate by memorizing everything because she couldn't spell.

Samantha was at St. Vincent de Paul School in Mays Landing on Tuesday, helping to promote a bill in the New Jersey Legislature that would create a Reading Disabilities Task Force to make sure all children get programs like those that helped her learn to read.

"We got to a place that could help her," Samantha's mother, Beth said. "We want to have a law that will help other kids."

For three years the Ravellis have worked to raise awareness of the need for specialized programs for children with dyslexia. Samantha has her own Web site and her mother lobbied Legislators. Assemblyman Nelson Albano, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, took an interest in Samantha, and after seeing her progress, sponsored the bill to create the task force.

That bill A880/S2400, was introduced in January 2008. It slowly worked its way through the Assembly Education Committee and won the support of state education associations.

The bill passed the Assembly in February 2009, and was approved by the Senate Education Committee in May.

But it still must be approved by the full Senate to take effect. If it is not approved by the end of the year, a new Legislative session starts and the bill would have to start again from scratch. The Ravellis, and supporters from around the state are now on a mission to get the bill posted for a vote. They are writing letters to Senate President Richard Codey, and lobbying other legislators.

"If others could see what I've seen with Samantha, they'd all vote for it," Albano said.

Four years ago Samantha also wondered if she was stupid. In third grade, she could not read. Her parents had placed her in St. Vincent de Paul after having no success in public school, but she still struggled.

When the Ravellis discovered the Wilson reading program was offered in Ocean City schools they moved there in 2006. Samantha's reading improved dramatically.

Samantha's older sister, Roseann, supported her sister's efforts, attending hearings in Trenton with her family.

Reading can still be a challenge, and Samantha still gets tutored every day. But she's reading on grade level, studies sign language, and volunteers in the school's PB&J Club that makes sandwiches for the soup kitchen in Atlantic City.

Confident, but still a bit shy in front of a crowd, she likes to read a poem about not giving up called "If You Think You Can, You Can." The poem is printed in garbled type to show how words and letters can look to someone with dyslexia, and Samantha has given it out to legislators reviewing the bill. She read it again Tuesday.

Beth Ravelli was thrilled to discover that St. Vincent DePaul School now offers the Wilson Fundations program in grades K-3, the same program used in Ocean City. Based on the Orton-Gillingham method, it targets dyslexia through a special approach that combines phonics with hands-on finger movements that help stimulate the brain to connect sounds and letters.

School Principal Linda Pirolli said they had been looking for something that would help Samantha when she was at the school and had been frustrated that they could not help her more.

Second-grade teacher Esther Mancinelli said they learned about the program through Samantha and are amazed at how it has helped children there.

"It really helps identify children who are having problems so we can do the remediation," she said.

Ravelli said she is glad their campaign has helped raise awareness, but if the bill does not pass, she doesn't know if she's willing to have her family spend another two years fighting for it again. They will visit the specialized Cambridge School in Pennington on Friday to see their program and help generate support for the bill.

"It's been a lot of work, and a lot of time for all of us" she said. "But we need this task force."

E-mail Diane D'Amico:

Damico@pressofac.com">DDamico@pressofac.com

Visit Samantha Ravelli's Web site at:

www.sammiesmission.com