About

Interventions for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia

When a child is struggling with reading and writing, it can impact all areas of life, even beyond school. Early intervention is the key. With proper learning strategies and skilled instruction, all children can succeed. The sooner a child can get the appropriate treatment, the faster progress can be made to develop the reading and writing skills needed to keep pace in school.

Interventions are provided by a highly trained therapist who is both a Licensed Dyslexia Practitioner and a Licensed Occupational Therapist. This professional combination creates a unique skill set for remediating dysgraphia and dyslexia.

Cypress Dyslexia Services uses a Structured Literacy Program that follows the Science of Reading. The curriculum is Orton-Gillingham based and designed for teaching students with dyslexia and other specific learning disabilities.

The program is multisensory, systematic, cumulative, intensive, and diagnostic. Each student receives interventions that are specific to his/her needs. This program meets the highest standards of ALTA (Academic Language Therapy Association) and IMSLEC (International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council) certification for Dyslexia Therapy.

Dyslexia interventions are explicitly taught through direct instruction. Sessions are one-on-one and can be done in person or on-line. The Neuhaus Basic Language Skills program is used for dyslexia therapy and is supplemented with special Occupational Therapy interventions to address handwriting skills and academic executive functioning skills.

Dysgraphia interventions focus on handwriting skills, spelling, and the process of written expression. While learning to decode words (reading) can be complicated, the process of writing requires even more executive functioning skills. It can be much more demanding and often takes longer to develop than reading skills.

Reading interventions include systematic, explicit instruction of phonemic awareness, letter recognition, decoding, syllable types, spelling, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and morphology. Understanding text structure, oral language skills, and critical thinking about reading material is also addressed.

Writing interventions include handwriting, spelling, grammar, syntax, visuospatial techniques, and kinesthetic feedback. Composition skills include comprehensive instruction on the development of sentences, paragraph structure, and essay writing skills. Writing development also requires planning, organization of thoughts, initiation of the writing process, and revising and editing. These skills are best learned by ongoing practice and supportive feedback.

These lifelong skills are important, not only for school, but also for work activities.

Most importantly, the therapist is also a parent of a child with dyslexia and dysgraphia and understands the daily struggles that can result due to learning differences.