Sally Childs

When one daughter began to stutter, Childs contacted Anna Gillingham, one of her teachers from the Ethical Culture School. After Gillingham observed both of the Childs children, she diagnosed them with a specific language disability. Childs became interested in this learning disorder and, under the supervision of Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman, she began conducting her own research on dyslexia.

When one of her mentors, Dr. Samuel T. Orton, died in 1948, Childs and some of her colleagues began The Orton Society, to further the research, education, and treatment of dyslexia. Childs was voted in as the vice-president in 1959, and she held that title until 1965. She opened the Dallas branch of The Orton Society, and co-founded the New York branch. While she was vice-president, Childs established the Anna Gillingham Fund, a fund to acknowledge Anna Gillingham's contributions to education and to help fund teacher training of dyslexic students. Sally was also the recipient of the 1973 Samuel T. Orton Award, for her “outstanding work in the field of specific language disabilities”.

When Ms. Gillingham died, Mrs. Childs took over the supervision of her training programs, and later developed further training programs herself. She also published several books, including Sound Phonics¹, Sound Spelling², The Childs Spelling Rules³, Magic Squares⁴, and The Childs Phonics Proficiency Scales⁵. The Sally B. Childs Fund formed in her name in 1987, which established help to fund teachers that could not afford the training for teaching dyslexic students.

• Dallas Morning News. 4 January 1988.
• Sally B. Childs, Sound Phonics (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Educators Publishing Service, 1962).
• Ralph Childs and Sally B. Childs, Sound Spelling (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Educators Publishing Service, 1971).
• Sally B. Childs, The Childs Spelling Rules (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Educators Publishing Service, 1965).
• Sally B. Childs, Magic Squares (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Educators Publishing Service, 1965).
• Sally B. Childs, The Childs Phonics Proficiency Scales (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Educators Publishing Service, 1969).

• International Dyslexia Association