Dyslexia Rescue® Academy Empowering Minds • Unlocking Potential

HELP & INFORMATION

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Please reach us at president@dyslexiarescue.com if you cannot find an answer to your question.

Do children with dyslexia need to go to a special school?

Schools designed specifically for children with dyslexia can be a good fit for some children and families. However, the vast majority of our students have found that our 8-14* month long intensive intervention program has provided the skills needed so that their child can stay in their regular school – when that has been preferable. *Average duration;  each child's needs are unique.

Both Orton-Gillingham and EBLI are approaches to literacy instruction, but they come from different instructional traditions and have very different histories.
Orton-Gillingham is one of the most established approaches to dyslexia intervention in the world. Its foundations date to the pioneering work of neuropsychiatrist Dr. Samuel Orton in the 1920s and his subsequent collaboration with educator and psychologist Anna Gillingham. For nearly a century, the approach has continued to develop through research, clinical practice and generations of highly trained practitioners. It is frequently referred to as a gold standard in dyslexia intervention and has profoundly influenced many of the Structured Literacy programs used today.
Orton-Gillingham is explicit, structured, sequential, cumulative and multisensory. Just as importantly, authentic Orton-Gillingham instruction is diagnostic and prescriptive. A skilled practitioner continually observes the student’s performance and adjusts instruction to the individual learner rather than simply moving every student through the same predetermined sequence.
EBLI (Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction) is a considerably newer approach, developed in the early 2000s. It comes from a different instructional tradition that emphasizes moving from speech to print — beginning with the sounds in spoken words and connecting those sounds to their possible spellings.
The difference in the depth and maturity of the evidence bases is important. Orton-Gillingham grew from work that began nearly 100 years ago and has had generations of development, professional practice and worldwide influence in the field of dyslexia intervention. EBLI has a much shorter history and a substantially smaller body of independent research.
One notable randomized study of EBLI involved 63 teachers in grades 2–5 across seven Michigan charter schools. Teachers were randomly assigned either to receive EBLI training or to continue with business-as-usual reading instruction. Researchers found no statistically significant improvement in reading performance for students in the EBLI classrooms compared with students receiving the schools’ usual instruction. The researchers noted that implementation challenges may have contributed to those results.
At Dyslexia Rescue, we choose Orton-Gillingham-based Structured Literacy because of its extraordinary depth, its nearly century-long history in dyslexia intervention and its ability to be individualized to the learner.
For a child who has already struggled to learn to read, we believe there is tremendous value in choosing an approach with deep roots in dyslexia intervention — and an experienced practitioner who knows how to adapt that approach to the individual child.

All of these approaches are designed to help struggling readers, but they differ in how flexible they are, how they’re taught, and how much training is required to use them well.

Orton-Gillingham is the foundational structured literacy approach. It is highly individualized and can be adapted to a child’s specific reading and spelling needs.

Wilson and Barton are more structured programs built from Orton-Gillingham principles. They follow a more defined sequence, with Barton in particular designed to be very scripted so parents and tutors can follow it step by step.

Lindamood-Bell takes a somewhat different approach, focusing more heavily on underlying reading processes such as sound awareness, symbol imagery, and comprehension.

Dyslexia Rescue draws on the strengths of structured literacy and Orton-Gillingham-based instruction, but goes beyond simply following a scripted program. The teaching is designed to help parents understand why their child is struggling, build the underlying literacy concepts they may have missed, and respond to the child in a more individualized way rather than forcing every learner through the exact same sequence.

The biggest difference is that Dyslexia Rescue is not just about completing lessons — it is about helping a child build a deeper understanding of how language and reading work, while giving parents the tools to support that learning consistently at home.

Yes. In fact, we also specialize in serving children with ADHD. Dyslexia and ADHD often overlap and coexist, along with other challenges, such as dysgraphia, autism and other forms of neurodivergence. While every child is different and no guarantees can ever be made, we have seen our Orton-Gillingham-based Structured Literacy methods consistently change the lives of children with many different types of learning differences. 

While every child's needs are different, we see an average of about 8–14 months of attendance before program graduation.

No. No diagnosis is necessary to take part in the Dyslexia Rescue program. We do our own comprehensive assessment of foundational literacy skills. This gives us the exact information we need. Beyond that, our instruction is diagnostic and prescriptive throughout every moment of every lesson. That means that our Structured Literacy expert with more than 25 years of experience analyzes every response that your child makes and responds based upon that information. Every moment of every lesson is part assessment and part individualized prescriptive instruction. That is why our students make tremendous progress. 
However, there are times when a neuropsychological evaluation and medical diagnosis is helpful or even necessary to have. For example, some schools require a medical diagnosis in order to access an IEP or 504, which can provide certain accommodations such as  extended time on assignments or testing accommodations. Also, it can be helpful to have a medical or neuropsychological diagnosis and IEP or 504 in place early, so that accommodations will follow the student for college/testing situations. In addition, when a child's behaviors are particularly complex or when they extend beyond reading and literacy skills, a neuropsychological evaluation can be helpful. We never discourage medical/neuropsychological evaluation and sometimes even recommend it. Such decisions always belong to the family.

Structure is helpful. Expertise is essential.

According to the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), effective reading intervention is explicit, systematic, cumulative, and diagnostic. It is delivered by someone who can adjust the instruction in real-time based on the child’s responses—not simply follow a script.

According to the IDA, high-quality structured literacy intervention includes:

• Direct, explicit teaching of phonemic awareness, phonics, syllable patterns, morphology, and fluency
• Instruction that is cumulative and carefully sequenced
• Ongoing diagnostic assessment so the teacher knows exactly what the child has and has not mastered
• Immediate, corrective feedback
• Multisensory techniques that support how the brain learns language

A program can supply the sequence. An expert teacher knows when to slow down, when to review, and how to make the language make sense for that specific child.

Program vs. expert intervention

Many families have tried structured programs. These can be a good starting point for some children. When progress stalls, the missing piece is often the expertise to identify the precise reason the child is stuck, adjust the pacing and emphasis in real time, and connect the structure of English to what the child’s brain is actually doing during reading and spelling. This is the difference between following a program and providing true intervention.

What progress actually looks like

Early weeks: more accurate sounding out and fewer wild guesses. After a few months: noticeable drop in frustration and better spelling of simple words. Over 6–12+ months: Increased fluency and the ability to read for meaning without constant struggle. Results vary; consistency and the right method matter more than intensity alone.

Questions worth asking

• Does the instructor hold advanced training in structured literacy / Orton-Gillingham and know how to diagnose and adjust?
• Is instruction driven by the child’s current knowledge or by a fixed program sequence?
• How is progress measured and reported to parents?

These are patterns research and clinical practice often connect with dyslexia rather than a temporary slow start. Not every child will show all of them.

Checklist

☐ Difficulty with rhyming or playing with the sounds in words (e.g., can’t easily tell you a word that rhymes with “cat” or break “map” into its sounds)Trouble learning and remembering letter names or the sounds letters make, even after repeated practice

☐ Family history of reading or spelling difficulties (parent, sibling, or close relative)Reads simple words slowly or inaccurately; often guesses at words instead of sounding them out

☐ Spelling is inconsistent—words that were practiced or spelled correctly one day are wrong the next

☐ High effort, frustration, or avoidance when asked to read or write, despite trying hard

☐ Struggles to read or spell longer or multisyllabic words even after learning shorter ones

☐ Difficulty remembering sight words or quickly naming familiar things (letters, numbers, objects)

If you checked more than three boxes, the pattern is less likely to be “just a slow start” and more consistent with the kinds of difficulties associated with dyslexia. Early, expert structured literacy support can make a significant difference either way—whether the issue is dyslexia or a lag that needs clearer, more systematic teaching.

*This screening instrument does not constitute a medical diagnosis and does not substitute for a neuropsychological examination.

Our curriculum is an Orton-Gillingham-based structured literacy intervention aligned with the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) Knowledge and Practice Standards. It systematically teaches the structure of the English language so students can read, spell, and understand text with greater accuracy and fluency.

Core elements included:
• Phonological and phonemic awareness — hearing, identifying, blending, segmenting, and manipulating the sounds in spoken words
• Sound-symbol association (phonics) — explicit teaching of letter-sound correspondences, digraphs, blends, and spelling patterns
• Syllable instruction — the six major syllable types and syllable division rules for reading and spelling longer words
• Morphology — prefixes, suffixes, roots, and how meaningful word parts combine to form new words
• Orthography and spelling — spelling rules, patterns, and consistent encoding of sounds into written words
• Syntax, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization — sentence structure and the conventions that make writing clear and correct
• Semantics, vocabulary, and comprehension — word meaning, background knowledge, and strategies for understanding connected text
• Fluency and phrasing — accurate, automatic word recognition and the ability to read with natural phrasing that supports comprehension
• Writing process — guided experience building the structure of a paragraph and the structure of an essay, from planning through revision

How instruction is delivered
Instruction is explicit, systematic, cumulative, and diagnostic. New skills build directly on previously mastered skills.
Lessons are adjusted in real time based on the student’s responses, with immediate corrective feedback so errors are addressed before they become habits.

Multisensory methods
Lessons engage multiple pathways into and out of the brain: seeing, hearing, saying, and writing. In addition, we use kinesthetic/aesthetic movement such as bumping a fist into the palm to mark syllables and tapping fingers on the hand or arm to represent individual sounds. These movements create an extra sensory route that can bypass visual or auditory processing difficulties and strengthen the connection between spoken and written language.
The sequence and pacing are guided by what the individual student has and has not yet mastered, rather than by affixed calendar or script. This is the difference between following a program and providing true structured literacy intervention.

Neuroscience-informed and trauma-informed practices
Woven throughout our methods are neuroscience-informed techniques that strengthen executive functioning skills such as attention, working memory, task initiation, and organization. Our approach is also trauma-informed. We address stress-related impairments in executive functioning by teaching self-regulation strategies and using co-regulation techniques that help students feel safe, supported, and ready to learn.

Our full structured literacy program is designed to take students beyond basic reading. It includes the core decoding and encoding skills needed to read and spell accurately, plus grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and guided experience with the writing process—from paragraph structure through the structure of an essay.

Some families ask whether it is possible to complete only the reading portion and stop once their child is reading on grade level. This is considered a partial program. Financial constraints or other practical reasons sometimes make it difficult for a family to continue through the full sequence.

A partial program is not recommended. Reading on grade level is an important milestone, but many students still need systematic support in grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and the writing process in order to apply their skills independently in school and in daily writing. Stopping early can leave gaps that reappear later.

However, a partial program can be arranged on an exception basis when a family has a substantial reason to end early. In those cases, we discuss the remaining skills, the potential trade-offs, and how the student might continue developing those areas after formal instruction ends. The decision is made together so the family understands what is being left unfinished.

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