One size does not fit all.

Not in literacy. Not for your child. And certainly not in their intervention.

Establishing Reading Roots is named for what instruction is meant to build. Structured literacy, taught explicitly, systematically, and cumulatively, gives students deep and lasting roots in how written English works, from phonological awareness and decoding through morphology.

Every student's journey begins with establishing a current baseline, integrating any prior data a family or school shares along with point-in-time assessments. This baseline incorporates standardized, normed measures of reading, spelling, and oral reading fluency, an in-depth examination of phonological skills, and a comparison of listening and reading comprehension that shows what a student understands when the decoding demand is removed. Those results determine where instruction begins, identify the skills that are not yet secure, and set a sequence that builds cumulatively rather than one that opens the door for new gaps to form.

I am certified and trained through the Fairleigh Dickinson University Orton-Gillingham Dyslexia Specialist Training Course, accredited by the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC), and I hold the Wilson Dyslexia Practitioner credential through Wilson Language Training. Both approaches are systematic and cumulative, with a defined scope and sequence. What I individualize is placement, pacing, and how much practice a student requires, and I check that each pattern is secure before moving on rather than assuming it.

Morphology carries substantial weight in my work. Affixes, bases, and roots give older students a way into multisyllabic academic vocabulary that phonics alone does not, and I develop materials for each student to match where they are in the sequence.

Writing is taught alongside reading, at the sentence level first. Students learn explicit frameworks for constructing a response so that a writing task becomes a procedure they can follow rather than a blank page.

Each lesson is planned from the data collected in the one before it. When a pattern is not yet secure, we stay with it and increase practice. When it is secure, we move to the next element. Progress is tracked within each session and through formal progress checks and family meetings on a set schedule, so we can confirm the intervention is moving your child forward in the targeted skills and adjust instruction where needed. I become your partner in this journey, and the best way to support you and your child is through ongoing conversations and frequent feedback.

All weekly sessions are one to one, taught by the same practitioner every time. Supplemental comprehension book clubs and phonological awareness game groups are also available and run on a set schedule. The number and length of sessions is set by what a student needs, not by a fixed package. I build in short home practice through games as well as quick phonological awareness and fluency drills so that gains hold between sessions without taking over a child's afternoons. Scheduling is arranged with the family, and with the school when sessions occur during the day, to minimize time away from classroom instruction.