Skip to content

Reach a Reader: Adults need not fear learning to read

Janet Thompson credits the love and care she received from her parents for giving her the life she embraces today with great gusto.
81499tribuneDSC_1115pallearner
Partner Assisted Learning co-ordinator Janette Moller helps Janet Thompson develop her computer skills so that she can use the programs for computer games and lessons which are helping her advance her reading skills.

Janet Thompson credits the love and care she received from her parents for giving her the life she embraces today with great gusto, despite challenging disabilities.

Janet was born with cerebral-palsy and a variety of physical challenges.

“The doctor told my parents to take me home and love me a lot because he didn’t know how long I would live,” Janet says.

They took her home, loved her a lot. And in their tender care Janet not only lived but thrived.

At birth her hands were clenched into tiny fists, which she says her father would gently massage open each day and have her work with until she could use them.

She was also born with crossed eyes. To correct that problem doctors took a muscle from her thigh to straighten her eyes and give her clear vision.

She hears just fine, her mind is sharp, and she has learned to walk well with the support of a wheeled walker.

But there were some things surgery and therapy didn’t fix while she was growing up.

She can talk, but has difficulty making herself understood.

“My dad would say that if I didn’t have a speech problem I would run B.C.,” Janet says patting her heart to indicate the love she feels for her late parents who were always encouraging and supportive.

When she reached school age Janet was sent to live at the former Woodlands School in Vancouver for children with developmental disabilities. She came home on weekends, but given the work needed to overcome all of her disabilities, Janet didn’t learn to read past a Grade 1 level.

It was while living at Woodlands that Janet met her husband, Robert, who has the reading disability dyslexia.

They will have been married 40 years this October. For most of that time they have lived with family in Vancouver.

Three years ago, at the suggestion of a cousin who lives here, the couple moved to Williams Lake.

They both receive a disability pension and are enjoying their new life in Williams Lake where they have their own apartment and enjoy the support and activities available to them close to home in a smaller city.

They volunteer at the Salvation Army and work with the Association for Community Living’s program shredding old papers for local businesses.

They also enjoy bowling nights, playing bingo at the Senior’s Activity Centre and Performances in the Park in the summer.

Janet also participates in the Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy’s Partner Assisted Learning Program.

Working with her volunteer tutor, Rick Burnette, and program operations manager Janette Moller, Janet is thrilled to have seen her reading level advance from a Grade 1 to almost a Grade 3 level in the past two years.

Her tutor is also helping her to practice enunciating her words more clearly. “I want to learn to say all of the letters in the alphabet clearly,” Janet says.

“I really love the one-to-one tutoring. I have a book on health that I want to read and I want to learn other things.”

As part of the PAL program Moller is also helping Janet to develop her computer skills which includes playing online reading games and card games which help to develop her reading and math skills.

Moller says Janet is an enthusiastic learner and has a great sense of humour.

“She reminds us every year when it is time to reassess her reading level,” Moller says.

Robert and Janet are also thankful for the help they receive from their tutors in writing letters to their friends and families.

“We had our first snow fall and it is beautiful,” Robert writes in his Christmas letter created with help from his Community Living worker.

“We are hoping to get a lot more for Christmas. I have been keeping busy with learning to read, computer skills, exercise class and exploring the community with my one-on-one worker.”

The Partner Assisted Learning program provides tutors who will help adults free of charge to learn to read, develop financial skills and learn to use a computer.

For more information contact the Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy program at 250-392-7833 or partnerassistedlearning@gmail.com. Moller, the Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy operations manager, PAL co-ordinator and aboriginal outreach worker, can also be reached at janette@caribooliteracy.com.