Choosing the Right Dyslexia Intervention (Part 3): The job of letters in sounds-first vs. letters first approach
Dyslexia Help for Kids: Reading, Spelling & Handwriting — Boost Your Child's Skills & Confidence with Days with DyslexiaShow Notes
Part three of a series on choosing effective dyslexia interventions compares “letters first” (print-to-speech, often Orton-Gillingham) and “sounds first” (speech-to-print/linguistic phonetics) approaches, focusing on the job of letters. The speaker argues against meaning-first methods (whole language/balanced literacy) and explains that letters-first teaching treats letters as the units that make sounds and often requires memorization of many spelling rules, which creates confusion due to man...
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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 ...
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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...