Choosing the Right Dyslexia Intervention, Part 5: How sight words are taught
Dyslexia Help for Kids: Reading, Spelling & Handwriting — Boost Your Child's Skills & Confidence with Days with DyslexiaShow Notes
In part five of a series on choosing dyslexia interventions, Michelle reviews differences between meaning-first (to avoid), letters-first programs (e.g., Orton-Gillingham, Barton, Wilson), and sounds-first instruction, then focuses on teaching high-frequency/sight words. Letters-first approaches often have students memorize “red” or irregular word letter strings by repeating letter names, while sounds-first instruction maps sounds to letters and incorporates sounds, letters, and meaning...
More from Dyslexia Help for Kids: Reading, Spelling & Handwriting — Boost Your Child's Skills & Confidence with Days with Dyslexia
From Letter Awareness to Literacy Success: A Brain-Based, Language-Driven Handwriting Framework This Days with Dyslexia podcast episode explains how to teach handwriting through a language-based framework that integrates executive function to support reading and spelling development. It describes common handwriting struggles (illegible writing, slow and effortful neat writing, difficulty forming letters during spelling, heavy pressure and erasing) and argues that handwriting by hand recruits ...
On the Days with Dyslexia podcast, Michelle interviews special education advocate Sue Lux, a former special ed teacher with over 20 years of experience, two master’s degrees (learning disabilities and administration/supervision with school law), and founder of a Vienna learning center and Assets Special Education, where she supports families nationwide with IEPs and 504 plans. Sue explains that many disputes stem from inadequate data and lack of specialized instruction required by IDEA,...
Dyslexia Advocacy for Parents, Part 1: Gathering Data and Documenting Concerns The episode launches a new advocacy-focused mini series focused what parents can do when schools say a child’s reading and spelling are “fine" even when a parent knows it's not. Michelle explains why the process is frustrating, how parents can move it forward without waiting on the school, and why school staff may share incomplete or distorted policy information. This episode emphasizes gathering data: findin...
In part four of a series on choosing effective dyslexia interventions, Michelle reviews three approaches (meaning-first/whole literacy, which they advise avoiding, and two structured literacy approaches: letters-first/Orton-Gillingham “print to speech” and sounds-first “speech to print”). She emphasizes that doing a single sound-awareness lesson before moving to letters is not the same as a true sounds-first approach, which should integrate sounds throughout instruction and quickly conn...