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Reading Therapy helps individuals who have difficulty acquiring the language skills necessary to read, write, and spell.

Services, administered by a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT), aim to improve letter identification, sound blending, reading fluency, comprehension, writing, and more! The Reading Clinic at LLA Therapy embraces the science of reading, and strives to stay current with recommendations regarding the acquisition of the English language system to best serve our patients.

To learn more about Reading Therapy, and to see if it is right for your family, please see below:

Therapists and young children working together around a table in a classroom decorated with paper pumpkins

Additional Reading Therapy Information

Information on the types of reading difficulty we treat (Dyslexia, Hyperlexia, Mixed, Compensator)

  • Dyslexia:
    • Difficulty in developing word-level reading skills despite having adequate instructional opportunities.
    • Has adequate language comprehension.
  • Hyperlexia:
    • Difficulties with general language comprehension.
    • Adequate word-level reading skills.
    • Far less common deficit.
    • There is no evidence to suggest that any specific form of reading instruction is the source of hyperlexia.
  • Mixed:
    • Difficulties with both word-level reading and language comprehension.
    • Usually these students have speech or language impairment and or intellectual disabilities.
  • Compensator:
    • Usually have strong language skills, reading comprehension is below their language skills, but still within the average range.
    • Word reading-skills are below their comprehension skills, but still in the average range.
    • Because their overall reading skills are in the average range they are often missed when diagnosing students.
    • These students, teachers, and parents, might characterize their reading as effortful.

Based on Gough and colleagues simple view of reading:
Gough, P.B., & Tunmer, W. E. (1986) Decoding, reading and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 6-10.
Kilpatrick, D.A. (2015) Assessing, Preventing, & Overcoming Reading Difficulties. Wiley: Hoboken, NJ.

I have an existing evaluation: If you have an existing educational psychological evaluation, an IEP with data and goals that support reading difficulty, or a current evaluation team report from your school district, chances are we can begin a therapy plan for your child by building upon the recommendations and goals already created. Parents who wish to enroll their child into the Reading Clinic’s therapy program with an existing evaluation will need to share their child’s reports with our staff and review your concerns. Two sixty minute sessions will be scheduled to evaluate your child’s current reading skills using curriculum and norm referenced measures to establish programing options and baseline performance.

I do not have an existing evaluation: If you do not have an existing evaluation, contact our reading staff and discuss your concerns. If it is agreed upon that moving forward with reading therapy is warranted, two sixty minute sessions will be scheduled with your child to evaluate your child’s current reading skills. Curriculum based and norm referenced measures will be utilized to establish programing options and baseline performance.

For information on appointments, insurance, office policies, and more, visit the Patient Information section of our website.

Evaluation & Therapy Process

The Evaluation Process:

To establish your child’s current reading skills and baseline performance, the following components may be utilized:

  • Parent Interview (30 minutes, usually a phone conference)
  • Letter Identification
  • Phonological Awareness
  • Rapid Naming
  • Word Recognition
  • Oral passage reading
  • Print/cursive skills
  • Spelling

Reading science indicates that difficulties are most successfully remediated early in the primary grades. Our literacy evaluation process can help identify problems before they become apparent in elementary school. It is designed to identify students with the potential for experiencing reading difficulties. It is not designed to specifically determine if your student has a reading disability or dyslexia.

At the completion of all evaluations, results will be carefully analyzed, a report will be written, and the results will be shared with parents. We are able to determine if characteristics of dyslexia are present if your child’s reading strengths and weaknesses are consistent with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s (NICHD) definition of dyslexia.

We are not able to formally diagnose a presence of dyslexia.

Therapy Approaches:

The Reading Clinic Staff is able to provide reading therapy sessions using scientifically based researched programs. Therapies will be based upon your child’s evaluation.

It is important to understand that this clinic does not exclusively endorse or subscribe to a specific Scientifically Based Reading Researched approach. Rather, this clinic can utilize several programs to match a child’s unique learning profile including:

  • Lindamood-Bell LiPS
  • Lindamood-Bell Seeing Stars
  • Lindamood Visualizing and Verbalizing
  • Multisensory Teaching Approach (MTA)
  • Neuhaus Reading Readiness
  • Neuhaus Basic Language Skills
  • Institute Of Multisensory Education -Orton Gillingham
  • Handwriting Without Tears

Session Frequency and Length:

Session frequency and length will be mutually determined between you and the Certified Academic Language Therapist following your evaluation and/or consult based on:

  • The child’s severity level
  • The child’s age of critical instruction
  • Family availability
  • Affordability

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