Game Changers

Hoover-based nonprofit finds prescription to help kids struggling with learning disorders

Brooks Bedsole was diagnosed with dyslexia about four years ago when he was in the third grade.

His parents, Russell and Dena Bedsole, spent thousands of dollars on multiple intervention programs to help him overcome his struggles with reading, but none seemed to offer much help — until now.

In February, the Bedsoles pulled Brooks, now in the seventh grade, temporarily out of Evangel Classical Christian School in Alabaster and put him in a new clinical program in Hoover’s Riverchase community for four months of intensive treatment.

After just four weeks, the results were amazing, Dena Bedsole said. Brooks went from reading on a second-grade level to a fifth-grade level and has shown great improvement in his spirit, she said. “This is so far the only thing that has worked.”

The program in which Brooks enrolled is one offered by The Morris Center at Alabama Game Changers, located in the River Place building in the Riverchase Office Park.

Alabama Game Changers is a nonprofit started in 2014 by pediatric nurse Karen Belcher and pediatrician Dr. Stephanie Denton with the aim of promoting literacy, preventing academic failure and eliminating social and emotional challenges for students with learning difficulties such as dyslexia (which causes problems with reading), dyscalculia (which causes problems with math) and dysgraphia (which causes problems with writing).

EARLY YEARS

The duo started the nonprofit in the basement of Green Valley Baptist Church and later moved into a 600- to 800-square-foot space at Fresh Air Farm in Bluff Park.

The primary things they did were help get struggling children diagnosed to figure out exactly what their problems were and get them on a path to find treatment.

But last year, Alabama Game Changers partnered with a neuropsychologist from Florida to create a new clinic that offers proven treatment for dyslexia and other learning disorders.

Several years ago, Belcher and Denton ran across Dr. Tim Conway, a Florida-based physician who specializes in pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders, neurorehabilitation and neuroimagery.

Conway, who owns a clinic called The Morris Center, has had remarkable results treating people for dyslexia. His treatment program, on average, has helped children improve their reading skills by one to two grade levels for every four weeks they spend at his clinics in Ocala, Florida, and Trinidad and Tobago, he said.

Belcher and Denton were impressed that Conway has scientific research to back up his treatment program. As an associate professor at the University of Florida, Conway did three randomized controlled trials that each took five years to complete to verify the results of his program.

Belcher and Denton both have a child with dyslexia and decided to try Conway’s treatment program with their own children.

Denton’s son was struggling with dyslexia in the 10th grade, reading below the 10th percentile for his age group. She put her son in Conway’s online treatment program and took him to the Ocala clinic for a week or two of intensive treatment, and he came back reading on a college level, Belcher said. Denton’s son also was able to graduate out of his individualized education plan, something that only 5% of special education students are able to do, Belcher said.

Belcher put her daughter in the online program, which involved one hour per day each day before school, and her daughter jumped three grade levels in reading in five to six months, she said.

BRINGING HELP TO ALABAMA

She and Denton decided they needed to bring Conway’s program to Alabama. Denton got a grant and arranged a pilot project at Restoration Academy in Fairfield, and in August of last year, Alabama Game Changers entered a partnership with Conway at a new 16,000-square-foot clinic in Riverchase. The clinic began treating students in October.

Alabama Game Changers owns the nonprofit clinic and uses Conway’s treatment methodology. He actually comes to Hoover two weeks each month to help train the staff and meet with parents and the Alabama Game Changers board of directors.

Conway’s other two clinics are for-profit ventures, but Alabama Game Changers is nonprofit.

He said he decided to work with the Game Changers group because of the medical expertise that Belcher and Denton bring to the table and the strong support for nonprofits in the Birmingham area. Alabama Game Changers is different from his other clinics because it combines a medical clinic with the learning disability treatment program.

The Hoover clinic has two pediatricians, Denton and Dr. Dianne Matheson, whose work there focuses on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the emotional aspects of learning disabilities, Belcher said.

Alabama Game Changers also has six occupational therapists, a speech and language pathologist, a recreational therapist, three academic teachers, three office support staff and about 24 tutors and trainers providing one-on-one help for kids.

TREATMENT OPTIONS

Most of the children are enrolled in an intensive four-month program in which children break away from their regular school and come to The Morris Center at Alabama Game Changers every day for extensive treatment from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The idea is to help students break through the barriers keeping them from achieving their maximum potential and give them the tools to move forward with their reading fluency and academic progress back in their regular school, Belcher said.

The Morris Center at Alabama Game Changers also offers after-school tutoring and an online program as other options for students who can’t come for the four-month intensive program.

Since October, the clinic has had about 20 students involved in the intensive program, another 10 or so getting help online and 30-40 others taking advantage of diagnostic services offered at the clinic, Belcher said.

Since its inception in 2014, Alabama Game Changers has helped 400 to 500 children, but the new partnership with The Morris Center truly is a “game changer” because it brings a whole new prescription to the table that is proven to work incredibly, Belcher said.

“It’s just amazing to see it on paper,” she said.

She believes in it so much that she gave up her 32-year career at Children’s Hospital to work full time at Alabama Game Changers.

Some of the children coming for help are from out of state. In the first class of about 10 children, there were two from Arkansas, one from Florida and one from Colorado. The second group included two from Washington, and others are planning to come from Washington, D.C., and even London, if they can get their travel visa approved, Belcher said.

But the primary goal was to bring Conway’s treatment program here for Alabama children, Belcher said.

UNDERSTANDING THE ISSUE

Many teachers don’t understand the intricacies of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, Belcher said.

Some think the students either aren’t smart or just aren’t trying hard enough, but the reality is that some students are very intelligent but have medical issues in their brain that make it very difficult for them to reach their full potential, Conway said.

The brain is like a car engine, and it needs to be firing on all cylinders, and there are ways to help it do that, he said.

Conway and Alabama Game Changers are working with several faith-based groups to expand dyslexia treatment in this area. A partnership has been established with the Lovelady Center (which helps women transition out of prison), and plans are in the works with Restoration Academy, Cornerstone Schools of Alabama and Heritage Christian Academy, Belcher said.

She would love to start helping adults at Alabama Game Changers at night and eventually get The Morris Center’s treatment program in Alabama prisons because so many prisoners are illiterate, she said.

“We have a lot of really, really big dreams,” Belcher said.

For now, the focus is getting help for more children. Conway and Alabama Game Changers are working to educate pediatricians and educators about the proven benefits of his treatment program.

Some schools have been slow to recognize dyslexia as a learning disability and are unsure of The Morris Center’s methods, but it’s mostly because they don’t understand it, Belcher said.

“Our goal is not to compete with the schools. We’re not their adversary,” she said. “We want to come alongside them and show how their students could benefit from this program and help these kids — catch them early and close their gaps early so that they don’t have to go through years of struggling.”

Bedsole said schools need to open up to new methods proven to be successful. The program has transformed her son in a very short timeframe, she said.

Before, he was functioning at about 20% of his IQ, and “it was a struggle for him to even walk into a classroom,” she said.

He no longer begs to not have to go to school, she said.

“There’s a really intellectual child here who has a gap in reading,” Bedsole said. “Now, he will be able to function at his best potential.”

Belcher said many students who struggle with dyslexia and similar disabilities have a sense of failure, and their parents often feel helpless to assist them, but it’s important to know that treatment is available. “There is hope. There is help.”

To learn more about Alabama Game Changers and The Morris Center, go to alabamagamechangers.org.