Deborah Zimmerman: NILD's Educational Therapy® Author
She attended Eastern Baptist seminary and then returned to New York to pursue a teaching career, earning her BS in Education. Classroom teaching was frustrating for Deborah, however she felt drawn to those students who struggled to learn. Still searching for answers, she enrolled in a Master’s program for special education, and attempted to convince her professors that stimulation, not easier materials would be a more appropriate approach to teach students with learning challenges. Her professors did not agree.
Deborah continued to teach and study, earning a Reading Specialist’s degree. Her search for effective methodologies led her to Anna Gillingham, Dr. June Orton and later Dr. Archie Silver, Dr. Rosa Hagin and Dr. David Wechsler. At Bellevue Medical Center in New York City she participated in research studies, conversations, investigations and assessments these renowned researchers were conducting and began to develop her own program of educational therapy based upon their ideas and expertise.
In the years that followed, Deborah took some of the ideas that she had observed at Bellevue Medical Center and infused her own special touch of genius derived from endless journeys in clinical and educational settings over a period of twenty years. She continued to research the best materials and methods that were available, discarding some and keeping others until she had formed the model we use today in NILD Educational Therapy®. Deborah took the methods she had learned and applied her conviction that stimulation redirects and develops cognitive competency. She was convinced that the hard work of both the educational therapist and the student would produce lasting results. The right tools were important.