Scottish Rite for Children and The University of Texas at Dallas Collaborate to 
Improve Education for Children with Dyslexia

Scottish Rite for Children and The University of Texas at Dallas Collaborate to 
Improve Education for Children with Dyslexia

by | Jun 7, 2022 | Dyslexia & Learning Disorders, Press Coverage

The Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning Disorders at Scottish Rite for Children and The Center for Simulation and Synthetic Humans at The University of Texas at Dallas have joined forces on an innovative project to break down educational barriers. Dyslexia affects 20% of the population and represents 80 – 90% of all those with learning disabilities. It is the most common reading difference.
 
Since 1968, Scottish Rite has been a pioneer and international leader in the evaluation and treatment of dyslexia. Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder that is neurological in origin, affecting a child’s ability to decode words (break them down into sounds) and then sound out new words. Additional problems can include reading comprehension, reduced reading experience and impeded growth of vocabulary and background knowledge. 
 
Innovators at Scottish Rite approached Marjorie Zielke, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Simulation and Synthetic Humans UTD to develop a program that would make dyslexia intervention possible for more children. Using motion capture recording technology, Zielke’s team of researchers, artists and developers worked with Karen J. Avrit, M.Ed., LDT, CALT-QI, Director of Dyslexia Education at the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia & Learning Disorders to create Ms. Hallie, a virtual human. By recording Avrit’s precise facial movements, dictation and vocal tones, her expert teaching methods have been captured and preserved, allowing her expertise to be shared in classrooms across the country. Alongside a certified teacher, Ms. Hallie will help instruct students while using the dyslexia intervention curriculum created by Scottish Rite, Bridges: A Dyslexia Intervention Connecting Avatar, Teacher and Student. Avrit has more than 30 years of dyslexia education experience and serves as the lead author of both the Take Flight and Bridges curriculum.
 
Scottish Rite’s expertise in dyslexia education and therapist training, combined with UT Dallas’s futuristic synthetic human and simulation technology, allows Bridges to knock down barriers. Districts and schools who do not have access to specialized education or enough certified dyslexia therapists can now provide more services to those in need. Together, Avrit, Zielke and their teams are excited about the possibilities. “Bridges was the carefully considered response to the discrepancy between the number of students who need services and the number of trained therapists available to provide services,” Avrit states. “It was designed to maintain high-quality and effective research-backed dyslexia instruction.”
 
While there is no replacement for a fully trained dyslexia therapist, “this program integrates the human expert (teacher), alongside the virtual human (Ms. Hallie), ensuring that the child receives the education they deserve,” Zielke said. “This important triad is built into the name, and this technology is successful due to all three components working together.”

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

Empowering Women To Become Engineers and Surgeons

Empowering Women To Become Engineers and Surgeons

by | May 20, 2022 | Research & Innovation

Article previously published in Rite Up, 2022 – Issue 1.

Sounds of whirring drills, buzzing bone saws and clattering trays of suture and casting materials filled the room at Scottish Rite for Children Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center in Frisco during the recent Perry Outreach Program (POP) course. The daylong course, created by The Perry Initiative, features mentorship as well as hands-on workshops and training designed to introduce young women to aspects of orthopedic surgery and engineering careers, two fields in which women are drastically underrepresented.
 
Jasmine, former Scottish Rite for Children patient, experienced a light-bulb moment during her POP participation, leading her to study bioinformatics, statistics and biomedical sciences in college. Now a junior at Texas A&M University, Jasmine came back to this year’s POP to help others feel what she felt.
 
“The empowerment I found through the program encouraged me to continue pursuing my interest in orthopedics rather than being deterred by the underrepresentation of females in the field,” she says. Her POP mentors, Scottish Rite medical director of clinical safety and pediatric orthopedic surgeon Amy L. McIntosh, M.D., along with Kirsten Tulchin-Francis, Ph.D., former division director of Movement Science, led the event in Frisco as local hosts providing guidance and education for 30 young women.
 
“There are very few women in engineering and orthopedic surgery, so it is essential that young women like these bring their creativity and diversity of thought to these fields,” Tulchin-Francis says. Participants performed mock orthopedic surgeries and conducted biomechanical engineering experiments, while also hearing from prominent women engineers and surgeons in the field.
 
This course featured suture training on bananas, sawing and drilling synthetic bones and repairing them with plates, screws and surgical devices, and how-tos about applying a cast.
 
“If I feel intimidated being one of the few females in the field, I remember the joy and empowerment I felt holding that drill,” Jasmine says. “I remind myself daily of the lessons I learned from my mentors to not be afraid to be bold.”
 
McIntosh encouraged all the young women in attendance. “Be great!” she says. “When you’re the only woman in a room full of men, you shouldn’t try to hide. Instead, use the situation as an opportunity to shine. Be memorable for your hard work, dedication, determination and poise. Speak up with intelligence and confidence.”
 
“One of my greatest takeaways from the program is to not be afraid to take up the space and make your presence known,” Jasmine says. “You are as deserving to learn as anyone else in the room.” Jasmine was accepted into the Joint Admissions Medical Program (JAMP) in 2021, where she received early provisional acceptance to 11 medical schools in Texas and plans to take the MCAT in April 2022.

Treating Perthes Disease

Treating Perthes Disease

by | May 18, 2022 | Hip Disorders

Perthes disease, also known as Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, is a childhood disorder of the hip. The disease affects the ball portion of the hip joint, known as the femoral head. Perthes is uncommon — approximately five to 10 children per 100,000 will be diagnosed each year — and it more commonly affects boys — 1 in 760 boys. Here are some interesting facts about this pediatric hip condition.

What Happens to the Hips in Perthes Disease
In a normal hip joint, the round femoral head of your femur fits perfectly into the round socket of the pelvis. Perthes disease interrupts the blood flow to the femoral head, causing all or part of it to die due to the lack of blood. The bone death is medically referred to as osteonecrosis.

Once the bone dies, the femoral head is more prone to breakage and heals poorly in older children. As a result, the pressure and weight on the bone from normal rigorous activities can cause the round portion to become flat over few months to a year after the diagnosis. For one to two years after bone death occurs, new bone gradually begins to fill in the areas where the body has removed the dead bone.

The Cause of Perthes Is Still Unknown
While we know what happens to the hip to alter the round shape of the femoral head, we still don’t know what causes the precipitating interruption of blood flow. We also know that Perthes is not heritable, since less than five percent of the patients have a family history of the disease. However, some other heritable hip conditions or blood disorder can mimic Perthes, such as inherited bone dysplasia like multiple epiphyseal dysplasia and sickle cell disease. History of taking corticosteroid for treatment of asthma, inflammatory conditions or cancer can also produce bone necrosis that mimics Perthes.

Diagnosing Perthes Disease
Because so many other diseases can mimic the symptoms of Perthes, it is known as a disease of exclusion. Doctors will rule out other conditions by taking a careful medical history and performing a physical exam. The physician will typically ask about the following diseases to rule them out:

  • Family history of hip disorders or early joint replacement
  • Steroid use, such as for asthma
  • Prior hip surgeries
  • History of sickle cell disease
  • History of hip infection
  • History of endocrine or clotting disorders

To confirm a potential Perthes diagnosis, doctors will perform X-rays of the hips. If an X-ray is taken too soon after symptoms have begun, it may appear normal. In that case, physicians can order a very sensitive diagnostic test called perfusion MRI if they still suspect Perthes.

Treatments and Complications
The body will naturally remove and replace the dead bone of the femoral head with new bone, so, to some extent, Perthes is self-healing. However, the healing process may be slow and even after healing has taken place, the femoral head may not return to its original round shape. When that fails to happen, patients may experience long-term complications, such as pain, stiffness and arthritis later in life.

Until the healing phase is complete, nonsurgical treatments might include crutches, wheelchairs, casting and/or bracing, and reduced physical activity. Surgical treatments might include pelvic or femoral osteotomy a process that re-orient the pelvis or femur. In older children, another treatment option is to make bone channels to speed up healing and to inject bone marrow stem cells.

While Perthes is in some ways self-healing, femoral heads sometimes don’t heal properly but there are other treatment options are available. With the interventions we have today and new treatment knowledge about the condition, those with Perthes can usually return to daily activities and sports activities without problems.

Learn more about the various hip conditions our experts treat.

Get to Know our Staff: Vivek Kalia, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., Radiology

Get to Know our Staff: Vivek Kalia, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., Radiology

by | May 17, 2022 | Spotlight

What is your job title/your role at Scottish Rite for Children?  
I am the Medical Director of Radiology and a Staff Radiologist.

What do you do on a daily basis or what sort of duties do you have at work? (You can also include a brief description of your department)
I provide imaging services to our pediatric orthopedic patient population. I also image patients from other services, such as rheumatology and neurology. My team provides imaging services, such as X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound and fluoroscopy. As a staff radiologist, I interpret the imaging exams that our technologists perform. As the Medical Director of Radiology, I am responsible for overseeing the operations of the department and ensuring we are providing timely and high-quality, evidence-based care.

What was your first job? What path did you take to get here or what led you to Scottish Rite? How long have you worked here?
My first job was as a part-time cancer researcher in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham during college. It was great to get some experience under my belt. Through my medical training years, I have meandered around the country. I did 4 years of college in Birmingham, AL, 5 years of medical school and public health school in Baltimore, MD, 4 years at a diagnostic radiology residency in Burlington, VT, and one year at a musculoskeletal radiology fellowship in New York, NY. Then, I took my first faculty position as an MSK radiologist at the University of Michigan in 2017. I came to Scottish Rite just about 2.5 months ago, with an initial start date of Jan 31, 2022.

What do you enjoy most about Scottish Rite?
The culture and the people! Even when I interviewed for the position of Medical Director, I knew that what would make me sign on the dotted line was the daily interactions I would have with colleagues (and now friends) here. I love the patients as well, of course.

Tell us something about your job that others might not already know.
I prepare way more than some may realize for all of the meetings I’m a part of now. And, I do my absolute best to follow-up with each person I’ve made a commitment to.

Aside from necessities, what one thing could you not go a day without?
Kissing my 3-year-old daughter and my wife goodbye in the morning when I leave for work.

What is something that always makes you smile?
My daughter, without fail.

What’s one fun fact about yourself?
Believe it or not, I once (i.e. in high school) was a break-dancer. I even did a few shows in my high school.

How do you identify within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community?
I was born in India but moved to the US when I was just 3 years old and have lived here ever since. I practice Hinduism as my religion. My wife was born and brought up in India until the age of 23. We both have strong cultural influences from India and try to keep our heritage and culture at the forefront of our minds, particularly as we raise our young daughter.

What brings you joy about your heritage and culture?
The focus on familial ties is a big thing for me. I love how everything in our culture is centered around the family, and there is immense respect put on parents and grandparents. In my culture, it is routine and even normal for parents to live with their children once they reach a certain age and are no longer able to care for themselves (rather than go to an assisted living facility or nursing home.) I love my parents so much and would gladly welcome them into my home.

Favorite travel destination?
Hawaii for sure because of its unmatched beauty.

Favorite meal or special recipe?
I love Thai food!

Exercises for Hip Pain

Exercises for Hip Pain

by | May 11, 2022 | Hip Disorders

Hip pain can be caused by a variety of underlying factors. Weak hip muscles can cause poor body mechanics when walking or performing other activities, which can eventually lead to pain. Muscles that are too tight may also cause pain and/or popping sounds in the hip during movement. Stretching and exercises can help improve the strength and flexibility of the hip muscles, decreasing pain and improving overall hip health.
 
Working with your child on proper stretching and exercises can help prevent hip pain. We recommend the following exercises and stretches to strengthen hip muscles:

Quadruple Fire Hydrant

  • Get down on all fours.
  • Keeping your knee bent, lift your hip out to the side.

Single-Leg Bridge

  • Lie on your back with knees bent.
  • Lift your hips off of the ground and then lift and straighten one leg.
  • Lower leg and repeat on the other side.

      Side-Lying Hip Abduction

      • Lie on your side with the bottom leg straight or bent.
      • Tighten the muscles on the top of your leg, in the front part of your thigh.
      • Lift the top leg while keeping the muscle tight and your knee straight.

          Half-Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch

          • Kneel on one leg.
          • Slowly push your pelvis down while slightly arching the back until a stretch is felt on the front of your hip.

                      Supine Hamstring Stretch

                      • Lie on your back with one leg on the ground and one leg extended straight.
                      • Hook a strap on the extended leg to reach a maximum stretch.
                      • Straighten the extended knee further by tightening your front thigh muscles (quadriceps.)
                      • Slowly press the other leg down as close to the floor as possible.

                          Standing ITB Stretch

                          • Stand with one leg crossed behind the other leg.
                          • Bending at the waist, reach toward your back foot.

                              While daily exercises and stretches may prevent or alleviate hip pain, in some cases physical therapy might be needed. At Scottish Rite for Children, our Physical Therapy experts can work with your child to create a custom home-exercise program to address their specific needs. The home exercise program can be adjusted based on your child’s pain, progress and goals.

                              Learn more about our Physical Therapy services.