The Dyslexia Rescue® Method: A Three-Part Approach

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The Dyslexia Rescue® (DR) Method is a three-part approach that integrates Structured Literacy instruction, executive functioning training, and trauma-informed practices.

Leading with one of the most powerful approaches to reading intervention—Orton-Gillingham-based Structured Literacy, aligned with the Science of Reading—we identify the root of a student’s reading difficulties and systematically resolve areas of confusion. With training in Orton-Gillingham and Reading Recovery, a master’s degree in education, elementary education certification, and a presidential appointment under George W. Bush as a federal-level school reformer specializing in literacy, Diana Finch, M.Ed., M.Div., brings extensive expertise to every Structured Literacy lesson.

At the word level, instruction includes phonemic awareness, sound-symbol relationships, vowel patterns, syllabication, affixes, and Greek and Latin roots. These foundational skills are systematically integrated into connected-text reading, fluency, phrasing, comprehension, grammar, and writing.

Instruction is multisensory, explicit, direct, structured, systematic, sequential, and informed by neuroscience. The Dyslexia Rescue® Method draws upon decades of evidence-based literacy research, including the landmark findings of the National Reading Panel and the substantial body of reading research that has followed.

With executive functioning skills development, trauma-informed practices and consistent emotional co-regulation, improvements are very often evident. 

We have seen that each person is with a core of peace and focus, a still point. But, life  can disrupt that in many ways. Through consistent, compassionate, expert behavioral intervention and co-regulation throughout each structured literacy lesson, we build the child's awareness and skill in self-regulation, inhibitory control, goal-directed persistence, attention control, following multi-step instructions, planning and organization, working memory and cognitive flexibility, helping to restore students to their still point.

Having a Bachelor of Psychology degree and a Master of Ministerial Science degree with a trauma recovery emphasis, Diana Finch, M.Ed., M.Div., weaves emotional recovery support throughout her structured literacy lessons. 

The cognitive dissonance of confusion is at the root of the emotional trauma response that often accompanies reading struggles. When core reading confusions resolve, pent-up emotions often release and restoration begins. Then, as we begin building knowledge and reading skills, confidence begins to return and a sense of wholeness is gradually restored.

Through authentic, compassionate support, relationship and mentoring  we hold the space for the child to heal on all levels: mental, emotional, social, familial and spiritual. As the cognitive and emotional dissonance of reading failure eases and fades, relationships come into balance, self-concept is improved and courage is  restored... flow is restored. That connection to their core becomes seated again, joy and flow return and the future looks brighter.

Through cognitive reframing, the student can learn to shift limiting beliefs or negative self-talk into healthier perspectives, integrating past experiences and processing suppressed emotions. Our whole-person approach integrates mind, emotion, environment and present moment awareness into each interaction, supporting each individual's innate drive toward wholeness. Mindfulness, centered breath and metacognition are offered in support of emotional regulation throughout the program. While holding safe space for the session, we rewrite the story of failure into one of wholeness and success through active listening and compassion, offering and cultivating insights into past experiences and new meanings.