If your child or your students are struggling to read, maybe you have tried everything and nothing seems to stick. Please hear this first: you are not alone, and you are not failing. Reading challenges, including dyslexia, are common and solvable with the right approach. We can lead with courage and compassion, and we can insist on methods that work.
The strongest evidence points to Structured Literacy. Teach the building blocks of reading explicitly, in a clear sequence, with lots of guided practice. That means phonemic awareness, phonics, syllable types, morphology like prefixes and suffixes and roots, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies, all taught directly and cumulatively.
(International Dyslexia Association overview: https://dyslexiaida.org/what-is-structured-literacy/)
For classroom and small-group instruction, the What Works Clearinghouse recommends explicit teaching of foundational skills in K to 3, practice with decodable text, regular feedback during oral reading, and direct instruction in language and vocabulary. For grades 4 to 9, continue explicit word study including morphology, purposeful fluency practice, and strategy instruction for comprehension on grade-level texts.
Courage moment: It is okay to ask, “Can you show me the scope and sequence and how you will track progress?” Advocacy is love in action.
Look for recognized certifications with supervised practice, not just “OG-based” (Orton-Gillingham). Ask for proof of coursework and certifications.
What to ask any provider: What certification do you hold? What does a typical lesson include? How often will you monitor progress and share data? Ask to see sample progress graphs and a written plan.
Interventions work best when they are small group or one to one, frequent, and long enough to matter, then adjusted based on data.
Compassion with boundaries: Families and teachers deserve clarity. Ask the school to show the intervention schedule, the group size, and the progress graph. If something is not moving, we change the plan, not the child’s potential.
Strong systems screen all students in K to 2 for risk in phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge, decoding and word reading, and fluency. Many teams include Rapid Automatized Naming as part of a fuller look at reading risk.
For states and districts building policies, look for up-to-date state guidance and approved screeners as an example of how to organize the work.
Alongside instruction, students with dyslexia often need accommodations that give access while we strengthen skills. Examples include extended time, text-to-speech, audiobooks for content areas, reduced copying, and options to show knowledge without heavy decoding. Accommodations change how a student accesses learning, not what the student is expected to learn.
If you are a parent, exhale. You do not have to fix everything today. Pick one step. Schedule a meeting, ask about Structured Literacy, or interview a certified tutor. Your advocacy is brave, and it matters.
If you are an educator, you are allowed to learn out loud. It is strength, not weakness, to say, “Let us adopt a clearer scope and sequence, decodable text, and weekly progress checks,” and then do it together. You are also allowed to ask for training. That is professional courage.
I am dyslexic. I earned multiple degrees, including a doctorate. I’ve held multiple leadership roles, write blogs, and now books. None of that happened in spite of dyslexia. It happened because patient teachers, explicit instruction, and steady practice helped me learn how my brain learns. If your child is struggling, please hold onto this truth. Struggle is not a verdict. It is a beginning. With the right teaching and the right supports, readers grow. Your child can thrive in school and in life. You are not alone, and you do not have to do this by yourself. We will take the next right step together.