Regina Staffa, B.B.A, LDT, CALT
Regina Staffa, B.B.A, LDT, CALT is the mother of three children with dyslexia and a Licensed Dyslexia Therapist through the Texas Department of Health and Human Services. She received her Certified Academic Language therapist training from the Scottish Rite Dyslexia Center of Austin in 2009 after completing over 800 hours of direct, systematic, explicit instruction to students identified with dyslexia or reading disorders as a volunteer in the public school system, employee in the public school system and in private practice.
Regina is the owner and founder of Academic Therapy Center LLC providing academic therapy to student pre-k – adult. She is a member of the Academic Language Therapy Association (ALTA) and the International Dyslexia Association (IDA). She served as board member and executive board member of the local Austin IDA branch from 2007 – 2013 helping promote dyslexia awareness through community outreach and co-coordinated the branch conferences in 2013.
She founded and co-founded several reading and support programs at Mills Elementary in Austin Independent School District : Roaring Readers, providing early reading intervention for struggling K-2, Parents of Different Learners, providing support for parents and facility working with students who learn differently, and Summer Reading Rocks, helping raise funds and coordinate programs at the Mills Elementary library during the summer.
She served on the Committee of the Special Education Advisory Council for Austin Independent School District 2008-2013 and remains an active advocate for children with special needs.
Regina has won numerous professional and community awards working with children with learning challenges. She was the recipient of Austin Branch of IDA Scholarship 2007 and 2008, winner of the Aylett Royal Cox scholarship from ALTA 2008, voted finalist for Tutor of the Year in Austin Independent School District 2007 and Finalist for Volunteer of the Year Austin Independent School District 2008.
She has been a speaker at the Texas Education Agency 2009 Dyslexia conference and a presenter at the International Dyslexia Association annual convention in 2010 sharing how parents can initiate and provide early reading support to their child’s school.
Her training includes the Take Flight: Comprehensive Dyslexia Intervention Program, Rite Flight: A Fluency and Comprehension Program for Effective Reading Instruction and Pre-Flight: A Introduction for Young Students to Take Flight: A Comprehensive Intervention for Students with Dyslexia. Each program emphasizes phonemic awareness and comprehension and was developed by the staff of the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning Disorders at the Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (TSRHC) in Dallas, Texas. Additionally, she has received training in Language Foundations by Reading Roadway, Wilson: Just Words, Developing Meta Cognition Skills by the Neuhaus Institute through the Rawson-Saunders school of Dyslexia in Austin, Texas. Regina has received training in the Karnik Dysgrapha Program, Handwriting Without Tears, and TAKS for Writing Success by Neuhaus Education Center in Houston. These programs are used as part of her interventions with children diagnosed with dysgraphia or difficulty with written expression including multi-sensory typing and study skills. She uses systematic, direct, explicit and multi-sensory instruction in all of her therapy sessions based on the Orton-Gillingham instructional methodology which supports children with dyslexia, reading disorders, dysgraphia and attention deficit disorder.
Ms. Staffa received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas in 1988. Her prior work experience included ten years in the newspaper industry in various management positions including Senior Manager of Circulation Sales and Marketing at the Houston Chronicle, Houston, Texas 1988-1998.