The Reading Clinic has announced the retirement of founder and President Elizabeth Kitson after more than 30 years of helping people with learning disabilities.

Mrs. Kitson will remain a trustee of the organisation she founded in 1968 and operated out of her home for 23 years until a specially designed facility was built in 1991.

The Reading Clinic estimates that since its founding "hundreds and perhaps thousands'' of people have been assessed and tutored.

Mrs. Kitson trained parents of children she had tested for dyslexia and other learning disabilities in the successful Orton-Gillingham approach.

Parents often taught children that were not theirs and word of the Clinic's success soon spread.

The Clinic now has four part-time staff and more than 30 tutors.

Nineteen people are currently being trained as tutors by Gillian Ramsdale, the Tutor Supervisor, who is a fellow of the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practioners and Educators.

Director Dr. Janet Kemp, school psychologist, conducts an annual reassessment of the Clinic's clients.

In the last ten years Mrs. Kitson has overseen an expansion of its capabilities, with the hiring of Dr. Rosemary Bowler, an education/management consultant to begin a strategic planning process.

At a recent annual general meeting, Ann Dunstan was elected to succeed Mrs.

Kitson and Bruce Wilkie was elected as First Vice President/Treasurer.

Other appointments at the Reading Clinic are: Scott Kitson, Second Vice-President; Victor Garcia, Secretary; and Gwen Fahy, Kay Steele, and David Lines as members of the Board.

A spokesperson for the Clinic said of Mrs. Kitson: "She has left a great legacy to Bermuda. She remains a Trustee of the organisation that will always be guided by the example she set.

"The Reading Clinic remains dedicated to finding ways to help individuals reach their potential to responding to individual and community needs and to maintaining the highest quality service possible.

"Mrs. Kitson founded the Reading Clinic in 1968 for the purpose of testing and teaching individuals who experienced difficulty with reading, writing, and spelling.

"Since then hundreds, if not thousands of individuals have passed through the doors of the Clinic and have been helped to reach their potential.''