Dyslexia Solutions Center offers multi-sensory, evidence-based intervention for dyslexia through our individualized 1:1 tutoring services.
We adhere to the “Structured Literacy” guidelines supported by the International Dyslexia Association and use Orton Gillingham to meet the learning needs of students with dyslexia. We focus on reading, writing and spelling in a comprehensive, integrated approach.
We have successfully helped students close the gap between their current reading/writing/spelling levels and grade level using our Orton Gillingham, when programs used at school have not made a signficiant difference.
We can help your struggling child turn learning frustration, and the anxiety and low self-esteem that can accompany it, into joyful learning!
Orton Gillingham is prescriptive and individualized to meet the specific needs of your child.
“The essential curricular content and instructional practices that characterize the Orton-Gillingham Approach are derived from two sources: first from a body of time-tested knowledge and practice that has been validated over the past 80 years, and second from scientific evidence about how individuals learn to read and write…”
Orton Gillingham tutoring instruction is:
Language-based
Instructional methodologies used adhere to the scientifically-researched, linguistic basis of reading, writing and spelling.
Multisensory
All sensory learning pathways (visual, auditory, and tactile/touch) are utilized in each lesson, which is fundamental to forming new connections in the brain and strengthens the learning process.
Diagnostic and Prescriptive
Lessons are based on continual assessment with each lesson based on the degree of mastery of the former. Each lesson is individualized taking into account each student’s strengths and challenges.
Systematic, Sequential and Cumulative
Material is presented in a specific order, in keeping with the logical order of language, and moves from the simple to the complex building upon mastery of each level in sequence.
Direct and Explicit
Language information, such as phonics, is presented directly and clearly leaving no doubt or requiring the student to guess or use context clues.
Dyslexia Solutions Center tutoring includes the five major components of evidence-based reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel (2001) and the National Early Literacy Panel (2008): phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Phonemic Awareness Instruction
Phonological awareness is the explicit awareness of the sound structure of language at the sound, syllable and word levels and the ability to manipulate this sound structure (isolating sounds, deleting, rhyming, segmenting, and blending). This is at the sound level not the written level, or sound- symbol level, which comes after phonemic mastery. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a given language. Phonemic awareness is the ability to segment words into their component sounds. This is the basis of readingand writing.
Systematic Phonics Instruction
Essential to reading, writing and spelling is mapping phonemic knowledge to written symbols or letters. This is known as phonics or sound-symbol (phoneme-grapheme) association. This is not automatic and must be taught explicitly, systematically and cumulatively. Mastery is two-fold: association of visual to auditory or decoding (reading) and association auditory to visual or encoding (spelling). This involves blending sounds-letters into words and segmenting words into individual sounds. Reading and spelling are taught together in tutoring lessons.
Fluency
Fluency is reading text with sufficient speed and accuracy sufficient to support comprehension. Their are three aspects to reading fluently: accuracy, automaticity, and prosody or reading with expression. The first step in reading fluently is to read accurately, namely to be able to decode words. Systematic phonics is the basis of accuracy. Fluency also involves reading rate, that is reading with automaticity and speed. Reading with accuracy and automaticity frees the mind to be able to focus on meaning. Understanding meaning contributes to being able to read with prosody or proper expression. Tutoring involves several fluency building strategies, including oral guided reading.
Vocabulary
Building vocabulary involves several components, including syllabication and morphology.
A syllable is a unit of oral or written language with one vowel sound. Instruction involves the explicit instruction of the six syllable types. Being able to divide a word into syllables is an important skill for reading and spelling long complex words and improves fluency and accuracy in reading (decoding and comprehension) and spelling.
Morphology is essential to vocabulary instruction. A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a given language and involves the study of base words, roots, prefixes and suffixes. Morphology provides the structure and meaning of these longer words and is an important aspect of building a rich vocabulary in addition to reading and spelling these words.
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is the goal of reading. Reading comprehension involves acccurately identifying words and their meaning which requires a background knowledge of varied and rich vocbulary as well as an understanding of syntax and semantics.
Syntax is what we commonly think of as grammar, or the rules of sentence formation, and is the fundamental structure of language. Semantics determines the sequence and function of words in a sentence. Syntax instruction improves understanding of meaning and increases reading comprehension and written composition skills.
Semantics is the aspect of language concerned with meaning. Language has many nuances and semantics involves building deep understanding of words and their meaning. Semantics is important from very early on and becomes more complex as vocabulary is built and enriched, which is important for both reading comprehension and written composition.
