Trident Academy can help children reach their full potential

Trident’s educational program one of only 18 nationwide to offer Orton-Gillingham instructional method that works with each student’s specific needs

Children who struggle with learning disabilities like dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia need an educational program designed for them. They learn differently; they must be taught differently.

Cognitively capable children with language-based learning differences can prosper through individualized, multi-sensory, and research-based teaching methods that prepare them academically and socially to transition and thrive in a conventional learning environment.

Mount Pleasant-based Trident Academy is one of only 18 programs nationwide accredited in the proven Orton-Gillingham instructional method, a structured, diagnostic and prescriptive approach to identifying and working with each student’s individual needs. Students are taught traditional subjects via the incorporation of assistive technology and using various multi-sensory techniques, and experiences outside of the classroom. 

In traditional educational settings, children with language-based learning differences are sometimes labeled lazy or unintelligent. But individuals with these traits can accomplish great things when instructional methods are designed around reaching their full potential. Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Pablo Picasso and Steven Spielberg all had dyslexia. 

The Orton-Gillingham approach is derived from a scientific understanding of typical brain development and the differing neurology of children with dyslexia. It employs empirically proven practices, validated over 80 years of instruction, to overcome those learning barriers.

Without special instruction, adults with learning differences often fail to prosper. Individuals with dyslexia failed by traditional school instruction disproportionally drop out of school and experience alcoholism, drug addiction, incarceration and suicide.

At Trident Academy, the results have been just the opposite over its five decades in business. Students double their vocabulary, reading comprehension and math skills, on average. 

No wonder families have moved to Charleston specifically so that their children can attend Trident Academy, the only certified Orton-Gillingham program in the Charleston region. Roughly one child in 10 can benefit from this approach to instruction.

Trident Academy offers students many opportunities for tactile learning, including a recently added maker space. Students can learn woodworking, sewing and other modalities in this area to spark their fertile imaginations and build their creative-thinking strengths. 

Middle school students working in the maker space invented prototypes of products they presented to a Shark Tank-type panel at the end of the semester.

A new hydroponic garden for middle and high school students provides a multi-sensory science curriculum. Elementary school students have grown vegetables and herbs in simpler raised garden beds for years.

If your child struggles to learn, they might benefit from Trident Academy’s individualized, multi-sensory, research-based approach to instruction. Thousands of Lowcountry children have over nearly 50 years.