What is Take Flight?
Take Flight: A Comprehensive Intervention for Students with Dyslexia is a curriculum written by the staff of the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning Disorders at Scottish Rite for Children. Take Flight builds on the success of the three previous dyslexia intervention programs developed by institution: Alphabetic Phonics, the Dyslexia Training Program and TSRH Literacy Program. 

The curriculum was designed for use by dyslexia therapists with children 7 years and older who have developmental dyslexia. The purpose was to enable students with dyslexia to achieve and maintain better word recognition, reading fluency, reading comprehension and aid in the transition from a therapy setting to ‘real world’ learning.

How is Take Flight Implemented?
Take Flight is designed for small group instruction (two to six students) for a minimum of 45 minutes per day, five days each week. Alternatively, the lessons can be taught for 60 minutes each day for four days a week. Take Flight includes 132 new learning days and 98 application days for a total of 230 days of direct instruction.

What is included in the Take Flight Program for Students?
Take Flight contains the five components of effective reading instruction supported by the National Reading Panel research meta-analysis and mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act:  Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency and Reading Comprehension. With Take Flight, students will learn all 44 sounds of the English language, 96 letter – sound correspondence rules and 87 affixes. The student will also learn spelling rules for base words and derivatives. Practice opportunities are also provided that are designed to improve oral reading fluency. Finally, Take Flight introduces comprehension and vocabulary building strategies for both narrative and expository text in the context of oral reading exercises to prepare students for successful, independent reading.

Key research findings on Take Flight include:

• Students who complete Take Flight instruction show significant growth in all areas of reading skill.
• Follow-up research with children who completed treatment indicates that students maintain the benefits of instruction on word reading skills and continue to improve in reading comprehension.
• Take Flight is effective when used in schools by therapists with advanced training in remediation of students with dyslexia.
• Students with the lowest reading skills acquire the strongest gains from Take Flight instruction.

Recently, Scottish Rite for Children hosted a Take Flight Leadership Summit. There were 56 Take Flight instructors of therapists in attendance representing 24 training courses in eight states. Because of these courses, Take Flight is now used by dyslexia therapists in 29 states and three countries. Our team is now reaching over 12,000 new students with dyslexia each year.

Scottish Rite for Children also offers two supplemental programs:

• Rite Flight: A Classroom Reading Rate Program was designed for use by classroom teachers, reading specialists and special education teachers with first through eighth grade students to help students increase their reading rate and fluency. It can be used as supplemental or intervention instruction for individuals, small groups or the whole classroom.
• Rite Flight: A Classroom Comprehension Program may be integrated into a core reading program as a supplement to more completely address reading comprehension. It is designed for use by classroom teachers, reading specialists or special education teachers with first through eighth grade students as a tool for intensified comprehension intervention for struggling readers.  

Learn more about the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning Disorders.