Beth Slingerland was an

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

who developed a classroom adaptation of the

Orton-Gillingham The Orton-Gillingham approach is a multisensory phonics technique for remedial reading instruction developed in the early 20th century. It is practiced as a direct, explicit, cognitive, cumulative, and multi-sensory approach. While it is most comm ...

system for teaching

dyslexic Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writ ...

children.

Life

Slingerland was born in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city in and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay A ...

in 1900. She studied education at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

, and has a degree from

Seattle Pacific University Seattle Pacific University (SPU) is a private Christian university in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 in conjunction with the Oregon and Washington Conference of the Free Methodist Church as the Seattle Seminary. It ...

Career

While the director of the lower school at the

Punahou School Punahou School (known as Oahu College until 1934) is a private, co-educational, college preparatory school in Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 3,700 students attend the school from kindergarten through 12th grade. The school was established by P ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

from 1938-1945. she became interested in the issue of reading challenges faced by some students. While in Hawaii, she worked with Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman on a multisensory method to help dyslexics learn to read. In the late 1940s she became the coordinator of a language disability program in the

Renton, Washington Renton is a city in King County, Washington, United States, and an inner-ring suburb of Seattle. Situated southeast of downtown Seattle, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington, at the mouth of the Cedar River. As of the 202 ...

school district where she worked until 1965. In 1977, she founded the Slingerland Institute in

Bellevue, Washington Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside (King County, Washington), Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the f ...

. Slingerland's classroom adaptation of the Orton-Gillingham system is called the Slingerland Screening for Identifying Children with Specific Language Disability, or the 'Slingerland Method' for short. The test screens to identify language disabilities and is divided into eight subtests. Slingerhand's work in the field of dyslexia included advocating for increased funding to support training and teaching the methods needed for dyslexic children.

Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, Beth was a witness to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Her Husband, John Slingerland, was a civilian employee on the naval base. She witnessed these attacks from her home in the hills above the harbor, and described the scene she saw in a detailed letter to her mother and father. Throughout the letter, she describes with time stamps: the sounds of guns, smoke rolling over the hills, and her worries for her husband. In the letter, she states, “ I have to do something because I can see the smoke pouring up into the air from Pearl Harbor and the sound of the guns and the bombs bursting in the water right before us keeps me in such a nervous state that I must do something. John is at Pearl Harbor.” She also describes partially what her husband witnessed.

Death and legacy

The Institute trains 600 teachers in the US and Canada and recently opened a training program in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. She died in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

in March 1989 at 89 years old.

Awards and honors

In 1972 the Orton Society, now known as the

International Dyslexia Association The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is a non-profit education and advocacy organization devoted to issues surrounding dyslexia. Its headquarters are located in Pikesville, Maryland, United States. The International Dyslexia Association ...

honored Slingerland with their highest honor, the Samuel Torrey Orton Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slingerland, Beth 1989 deaths 20th-century American educators 1900 births Seattle Pacific University alumni Reading skill advocates Dyslexia researchers