If you’re wondering whether to focus on getting an official diagnosis so your child can qualify for an IEP, or to jump straight into intervention, you’re not alone. It’s a common question. And it’s one that schools, pediatricians, and even some well-meaning advocates can make more confusing than it needs to be.
So let me make it simple: if your child is struggling to read, you need to prioritize intervention—not paperwork.
I know the IEP process can feel urgent. There’s pressure to get it done “so the school can help.” You may have been told that without an official diagnosis, your child won’t get support. And yes, it’s true that an IEP can unlock accommodations and services inside a school building. But here’s the thing: accommodations aren’t the same as instruction. And most public schools, even with the best intentions, are not equipped to provide the kind of intervention that actually helps a dyslexic child learn to read and write.
What helps? Explicit, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, morphology, and syntax. Not guessing at words from pictures. Not “just reading more.” Not waiting and hoping it will click in third grade.
The earlier you start, the better the outcome. That’s not just a hunch—it’s backed by decades of research. Dyslexia isn’t something a kid outgrows, and the longer we wait for a label, the more ground they lose. Every week you spend navigating red tape is a week your child could be building the foundational skills they need to become a reader.
Let’s flip the script. Imagine your child is struggling to walk, and someone says, “Let’s wait six months until we have an official evaluation before we get them physical therapy.” You’d say no. You’d get them the support they need now, while also working on a diagnosis in the background. The same logic applies here.
I’m not saying a diagnosis isn’t valuable. It is. A good neuropsych evaluation can give you insight into your child’s learning profile, help you advocate for school support, and sometimes even qualify you for reimbursement. But it doesn’t teach your child to read. It doesn’t deliver daily practice in decoding and encoding. That’s what intervention does.
So if you’re feeling stuck, here’s your path forward: find a qualified reading interventionist who uses structured literacy or Orton-Gillingham–based methods. Start sessions now. Then, if you want to pursue a diagnosis, go for it—but do it alongside instruction, not instead of it.
Because the truth is, most dyslexic kids don’t get what they need from school alone. The sooner you take action, the more you can change the trajectory. Intervention is what changes lives—not labels.
When I started working with very young readers over twenty years ago, I was taught just to teach the sounds, and that the names would just confuse them. It made some sense: "G" usually says /g/ like "gum," but the first sound is a /j/ like in jam. Sometimes "c" hisses, but it's taught as /k/ like in "cat." And vowels? Don't get me started. So I intentionally focused on sounds with emergent readers to sidestep this confusion. I now think this was a mistake, and here's why:
Kids confuse letter names with letter sounds, and that confusion causes spelling to break down. This potential confusion needs to be addressed head-on, so kids understand from the start that the sounds letters represent are dependent on the letters around them. Or as I like to say, "vowels are shy; they need friends to say their names."
That's cute, and it should work, unless the difference between a letter's "name" and its "short" sound hasn't been clearly established.
Most kids learn the alphabet first. That’s fine. Knowing letter names is helpful and necessary. But spelling and reading don’t run on letter names—they run on sounds. And when a child tries to spell using letter names instead of the sounds they hear, they can’t connect the phonemes to the correct symbols. They end up guessing.
Take vowels. This is where things really fall apart.
Vowels are slippery. They can say their names (like the “a” in make), or they can say their sounds (like the “a” in cat). The problem? We teach the name first, and often don’t clearly teach the sound. So when kids hear “a” in cat, they might reach for “ay” or just default to writing “a” and hoping it’s right—because no one explained that the letters after the vowel change how it’s pronounced.
And that’s not intuitive. It has to be taught.
Kids need to know both. Not just the names. Not just the sounds. They need both. Because English spelling is a code. The other letters in the word—especially the consonants that follow a vowel—help us figure out whether that vowel is saying its name or its sound.
If a child doesn’t understand that distinction, they’re fundamentally confused about how English works. And when you’re confused, you guess. Guessing might get you by for a while, especially if you’re bright and can memorize a lot. But eventually, the guessing runs out. Spelling becomes a mess, reading fluency slows down, and confidence takes a hit.
So what do you do?
When your child is spelling, prompt them to say the sounds in the word, not the letter names. Ask, “What sound do you hear at the beginning?” Not “What letter does it start with?” When they write, have them map the sounds they hear to letters, not the letters they remember from a song.
And keep talking about both:
- “The name of this letter is A.”
- “One of the sounds A makes is /ă/, like in apple.”
- “Another sound is /ā/, like in cake. The E at the end is what tells us that.”
Reading and spelling both get easier when kids understand that letter names and letter sounds are different—and both matter.
That distinction might seem small. But for a struggling reader or speller, it’s the difference between guessing and understanding.
Why Handwriting Practice Builds More Than Just Handwriting: The Neuroscience Behind Dysgraphia Thera
If your child struggles with handwriting, it’s easy to assume it’s a small problem—especially in a world full of keyboards. But for many kids, messy or labored handwriting is a symptom of something deeper: weak connections between the brain, the hand, and the eyes.
The good news? These connections can be strengthened. And when they are, children don’t just write better—they read better, focus better, and move through the world with more coordination and confidence.
The Brain-Hand Loop
Writing by hand is one of the most neurologically complex tasks we do. It requires fine motor control, visual tracking, language access, spatial awareness, and working memory—all firing at once. If even one part of that loop is underdeveloped, handwriting suffers.
But here’s where it gets exciting: when children work on handwriting in a structured, multisensory way, they’re actually building the entire brain-hand system.
Research in neuroplasticity shows that repeated, focused movement—especially when it engages more than one sense—creates new, lasting neural pathways. That means handwriting therapy isn’t just about neat letters. It’s cognitive training.
Fine Motor Coordination Builds More Than Letters
Strong fine motor skills don’t just support writing—they impact everything from tying shoes and using utensils to playing an instrument or excelling at video games. That’s because the same brain areas that control handwriting also support complex hand-eye coordination and motor planning.
So yes—helping your child improve their handwriting may one day help them write a term paper. But it could just as easily help them program a robot, perform surgery, or repair an engine. You’re not just building handwriting. You’re building capability.
Why This Matters to Me
This is personal. I was always a strong reader, but my handwriting was a problem—and not just cosmetically. I remember being handed a giant piece of chalk in a classroom once, as if that single session would “fix” the issue. That was the extent of my intervention. Today, my handwriting is still difficult to read and physically uncomfortable to produce. I’d love to be able to write in a planner or keep a journal without my hand cramping or feeling embarrassed by the result. But I never got that foundational training.
So when I had my daughter, I chose handwriting as one of the battles worth fighting. It took effort—from me and from her teachers—but we did it. I knew from both experience and neuroscience that handwriting wasn’t just about looks. It’s about function, cognition, and confidence.
Now, as a dyslexia and dysgraphia specialist, I bring that same understanding to my students. I want them to know that beautiful handwriting is actually a by-product of something deeper: a well-coordinated partnership between the brain, the hand, and the eyes.
And that’s something worth building.
Why Structured Literacy is the Key to Reading Success for All Students
For decades, many schools have relied on typical literacy practices that emphasize whole-word memorization, predictable texts, and a less structured approach to phonics instruction. However, research consistently shows that Structured Literacy—a method that explicitly teaches the structure of language—is far more effective for all emergent readers, especially those who struggle with reading, including dyslexic students. Here’s why Structured Literacy provides a stronger foundation for reading success.
1. Phonemic Awareness and Phonics are Explicitly Taught
Typical literacy instruction often leans on larger-unit approaches like “word families” rather than focusing on phoneme-grapheme relationships. Structured Literacy, on the other hand, ensures that students learn how letters and sounds correspond through direct instruction. Phonemic awareness skills, such as phoneme blending and segmentation, are explicitly taught, giving students the tools to decode unfamiliar words rather than relying on memorization.
2. Decoding and Spelling Instruction are Coordinated
In Structured Literacy, decoding and spelling are systematically linked. Beginners work on similar word patterns, such as consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, in both reading and spelling. This coordination strengthens word recognition and spelling ability simultaneously. Typical literacy practices, however, often focus on memorizing whole words, which can leave students without strategies for tackling new words.
3. Instruction is Systematic and Teacher-Led
Structured Literacy prioritizes explicit, teacher-led, systematic instruction. Students are guided step by step, ensuring they build foundational reading skills in a logical progression. In contrast, typical literacy instruction often lacks this structure, sometimes assuming that students will naturally “pick up” reading skills through exposure rather than direct teaching.
4. Decodable Texts vs. Predictable Texts
A hallmark of Structured Literacy is the use of decodable texts—books designed to align with the phonics skills students are learning. This allows emergent readers to practice decoding words instead of guessing. Typical literacy practices often use leveled or predictable texts, which contain many words that struggling readers cannot decode, leading to reliance on pictures, guessing, or rote memorization instead of true reading skills.
5. Effective Teacher Feedback
In Structured Literacy, teachers provide immediate feedback that reinforces decoding strategies and attention to print. This helps students develop strong word recognition skills. In contrast, in typical literacy settings, feedback may be limited and may even encourage students to guess at words based on context rather than using phonics skills to decode them.
Why This Matters for Struggling and Dyslexic Readers
Dyslexic students and struggling readers need explicit, systematic, and multisensory instruction to succeed. Structured Literacy provides this by breaking reading into its component skills and teaching them in a logical order. Research supports Structured Literacy as the most effective approach for dyslexic learners, but it is also beneficial for all students, ensuring that no child is left behind in developing strong reading skills.
If we want to equip all students with the ability to read and spell confidently, we must move away from guesswork and memorization and toward the structured, evidence-based practices that work. Structured Literacy isn’t just for struggling readers—it’s the best way to teach reading to every student.
