About Me

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I provide each of my students with a personalized lesson plan. Setting up an assessment to gather the pieces to the puzzle show me where to begin with each student.  Having the proper tools to make decisions for students is critical and the assessment will provide me with this information. The initial assessment is $150

Using a structured literacy method, I provide an individualized, direct, explicit, systematic, multisensory, diagnostic, and prescriptive teaching approach both in-person and online. Each Lesson follows the Orton-Gillingham approach to structured literacy, where reading and spelling are broken down into smaller skills and built upon over time.

Students are taught through multisensory learning to suit each child’s individual needs. Sessions will be fun, engaging, and just the right amount of challenge. Sessions are $65.00.

Dyslexia is a neurological disorder in a person of average to above average intelligence, which makes it difficult to read, write or spell at a level commensurate with one's ability despite 

• normal vision and hearing 
• adequate socio-cultural opportunity
• conventional instruction 
• absence of emotional problems

Overall they have a difficulty with language.

(Rome & Osman 2004) (Shawitz 2005) 

• Difficulty learning to read, write, spell, arithmetic
• May have difficulty following oral and written instruction
• Difficulty staying on task
• Difficulty following directions
• Difficulty sequencing numbers and letters
• Trouble organizing
• Difficulty retaining information
• May experience higher levels of frustration and anxiety especially while taking exams

Samuel Torrey Orton (1879-1948), a neuropsychiatrist and pathologist, was a pioneer in focusing attention on reading failure and related language processing difficulties. He brought together neuroscientific information and principles of remediation. As early as the 1920s, he had extensively studied children with the kind of language processing difficulties now commonly associated with dyslexia and had formulated a set of teaching principles and practices for such children. such children. 

Anna Gillingham (1878-1963) was a gifted educator and psychologist with a superb mastery of the language. Working with Dr. Orton, she trained teachers and compiled and published instructional materials. Over the last half century the Orton-Gillingham Approach has been the seminal and most influential intervention designed expressly for remediating the language processing problems of children and adults with dyslexia. 

The Orton-Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing, and spelling does not come easily to individuals, such as those with dyslexia.  It is most properly understood and practiced as an approach, not a method, program, or system. In the hands of a well-trained and experienced instructor, it is a powerful tool of exceptional breadth, depth, and flexibility.

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; why a significant number have difficulty in doing so; how having dyslexia makes achieving literacy skills more difficult; and which instructional practices are best suited for teaching such individuals to read and write.

The Approach is so named because of the foundational and seminal contributions of Samuel T. Orton and Anna Gillingham. Samuel Torrey Orton (1879-1948) was a neuropsychiatrist and pathologist. He was a pioneer in focusing attention on reading failure and related language processing difficulties. He brought together neuroscientific information and principles of remediation. As early as 1925 he had identified the syndrome of dyslexia as an educational problem. Anna Gillingham (1878-1963) was a gifted educator and psychologist with a superb mastery of the language. Encouraged by Dr. Orton, she compiled and published instructional materials as early as the 1930s which provided the foundation for student instruction and teacher training in what became known as the Orton-Gillingham Approach.

The Orton-Gillingham Approach is most often associated with a one-on-one teacher-student instructional model. Its use in small group instruction is not uncommon. A successful adaptation of the Approach has demonstrated its value for classroom instruction. Reading, spelling and writing difficulties have been the dominant focus of the Approach although it has been successfully adapted for use with students who exhibit difficulty with mathematics.

The Orton-Gillingham Approach always is focused upon the learning needs of the individual student. Orton-Gillingham (OG) practitioners design lessons and materials to work with students at the level they present by pacing instruction and the introduction of new materials to their individual strengths and weaknesses. Students with dyslexia need to master the same basic knowledge about language and its relationship to our writing system as any who seek to become competent readers and writers. However, because of their dyslexia, they need more help than most people in sorting, recognizing, and organizing the raw materials of language for thinking and use. Language elements that non-dyslexic learners acquire easily must be taught directly and systematically.

https://www.ortonacademy.org/resources/what-is-the-orton-gillingham-approach/

• Symbol to Sound (decoding, letter recognition)
• Blending (reading, blending sounds or syllables)
• Sound to Symbol (encoding, phonemic awareness)
• Spelling (putting symbols together, encoding)