Dr. Dunson
Walter E. Dunson, Ph.D., B.C.A.S.E., is the executive director/founder of Cardinal Reading Strategies. He has nearly thirty years of experience working with students internationally in the areas of language-based learning and language acquisition. Dr. Dunson is recognized for his knowledge of literacy, learning differences, dyslexia, and English phonology/morphology. He is an author, a lecturer, a senior literacy consultant and trainer, and a special education advocate who is board-certified by The American Academy of Special Education Professionals (AASEP) and The National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET). He is trained in advocacy in all thirteen disability classifications under IDEIA. AASEP/NASET members adhere to a strict code of ethics and fulfill continuing education requirements in special education, including evidence-based reading research. Dr. Dunson serves on the NASET/AASEP Advisory Council for Board Certifications and Professional Development. Further, he serves on the editorial board of two peer review journals: the Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals (JAASEP) and Special Education Research, Policy & Practice (SERPP).
A former language training instructor at the Kildonan School in Amenia, NY and the Briarwood School in Houston, TX, Dr. Dunson was mentored through a 2760-hour practicum in the Orton-Gillingham Approach by a founding member of the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators (AOGPE). In order to provide diagnostic-prescriptive remediation, he has received additional training in:
Lindamood-Bell’s Phoneme Sequencing Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech
Visualizing and Verbalizing Program of Concept Imagery for Comprehension and Thinking
Seeing Stars Program of Symbol Imagery for Sight Words, Reading, Phonemic Awareness, and Spelling
Dr. Jane Fell Greene’s Language! Program, a curriculum for at-risk and ESL students in grades K-12 and includes components for writing, spelling, reading, grammar, and vocabulary
In keeping with the findings of the National Reading Panel, Dr. Dunson also incorporates:
Great Leaps for Reading, a program that has been recognized for years as a researched and evidence-based fluency program that enables students to make significant strides in their reading.
Six Way Paragraphs, a three-level series that teaches the basic skills necessary for reading factual material through the use of the following six types of questions: subject matter, main idea, supporting details, conclusions, clarifying devices, and vocabulary in context.
Sounds and Letters, a manual of cumulative units of phonemic awareness drills intended for use by teachers or speech-language pathologists to build efficiency in the five activities of phonemic awareness (replication, blending, segmenting, substitution, and rhyming).