Learning to read is not a natural process. Just as children are taught to walk, children must be taught to read. While some astute children pick it up quickly, a vast majority of children need explicit, strategic and structured instruction. Unfortunately, the literacy instruction in the American educational system has vacillated too much over the decades. Phonics used to be the primary bedrock of literacy instruction; however, in the 1960s Whole Language was introduced and was very popular through the 70s and 80s with residual effects into the 90s. The Whole Language approach emphasized context and meaning as students were to engage with texts in a holistic way. This approach did not explicitly teach decoding and phonics skills leaving many children at a disadvantage by not having critical skills. Phonics on the other hand is the approach of explicitly teaching phonemic awareness, sound-letter correspondence, decoding by sounding out, and reinforces spelling and writing. The method of instruction matters, and, fortunately, another shift has occurred in the last decade.

The new approach towards reading and literacy acquisition is called Structured Literacy. This method includes instruction in phonology, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. This is often presented through multisensory application. This primary method helps remediate dyslexic students well before they can adequately be identified. Despite the approach, there is a progression of language acquisition. Parents bear witness to this every day as they watch their children grow from infancy to adulthood.

Information is powerful, and this is where literacy evaluations are powerful. Reading and writing is the cornerstone of learning and without a solid foundation, the learning process can be extremely difficult emotionally and intellectually. Whether you homeschool or your children attend traditional schools, knowing year by year where you young children are in the progression of their language acquisition is essential for making sound instructional decisions. It is formative information that can make a significant difference in a child’s next steps - to accelerate learning, to keep pace, or to remediate. You don’t have to search too deep on the internet to discover that literacy rates in the US are a problem. While it is a multifaceted problem, knowing exactly the strengths and deficits student by student is the place to start.

In order to equip parents with critical information about their children’s current literacy ability, I provide thorough Literacy Evaluations. These evaluations take about 2 hours on average and occur over at least two days. Parents will receive a detailed report on their child’s ability and recommendations based on the evaluation. If you are interested in obtaining an evaluation, please fill out the following form, and I will be in contact with you.