Systematic Phonics Instruction is Essential for Students
Diagnosed with a Learning Disability or Dyslexia

Tightly-structured, multisensory, and comprehensive phonics instruction presented in a mature format appropriate for older students in late elementary, middle and high school, and adults is essential for struggling readers who have been labeled as learning disabled (LD) or dyslexic.

Individuals with a learning disability or dyslexia have difficulty with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and exhibit poor spelling and decoding abilities. Students with skill deficits in decoding, fluency and spelling also usually experience poor comprehension skills, low vocabulary, and a general lack of background knowledge that one normally acquires from reading. Not surprisingly, students who don't read well avoid the activity of reading as much as possible. For students diagnosed as LD (learning disabled) or dyslexic, reading as an activity represents an area of personal failure and shame. (Almost half of all students eligible for special education are classified as being learning disabled in reading.)

Students with LD or Dyslexia Can Learn to Read and Spell with the Proper Instruction!

Students with a learning disability or dyslexia must be taught phonics (the relationship of English letters and sounds) in a systematic, tightly-structured, multisensory and comprehensive manner. Direct and focused instruction in the sound/symbol relationship of English must provide a requisite amount of practice for these students to learn and consolidate the sound/symbol relationship as each new discrete phonic element is introduced.

Phonics is a skill that must be directly taught. Students denied access to the information regarding the relationship of English letters and sounds are not able to acquire this information on their own. If LD/dyslexic students are ever to become independent readers, they must be taught phonics. Our online reading program makes learning phonics possible for LD/dyslexic students of all ages and all grade levels.

Many Students Labeled as Dyslexic or Learning Disabled Do Not Have a Learning Disability!

The truth is many students who fail to receive systematic phonics instruction by the second grade, never receive that foundation; many of these students will fall further and further behind as they proceed through the upper grades in elementary school and then middle and high school. Many teachers assume that by middle school if a student is still is unable to read at grade level, then he must have a learning disability or be dyslexic. These labels of learning disability and dyslexia are often used as catch-all terms to describe what is in fact often not a clinical condition on the part of the student, but instead a methodological failure on the part of the educational establishment to provide an effective and proven reading curriculum for all students in the critical early school years. When a child receives a label of being learning disabled or dyslexic, the onus of responsibility for his reading difficulties then falls not on the school system but instead upon the child himself. Fortunately almost any student at any age is able to become an independent reader with the proper foundation in reading instruction. It is never too late for a student to become a successful reader!

   The We All Can Read program organically integrates the following principles in its curriculum.

These Orton-Gillingham principles of instruction as identified by the International Dyslexia Association define what constitutes an Orton-Gillingham-based curriculum. These instructional principles are widely regarded as the most effective teaching strategies to use with students diagnosed as learning disabled (LD) or dyslexic or with any students for that matter who are struggling readers.

Multisensory: Involves the use of the senses of seeing, hearing, and touch to learn to read.

Alphabetic Phonics: Teaches the direct and consistent relationship between English letters and the sounds they represent.

Synthetic/Analytic: Teaches students to blends sounds together to read words and to segment words into their component sounds to spell them.

Structured: Each lesson introduces one specific new element at a time.

Systematic: The entire system of English phonics is introduced.

Sequential: The order in which the system of English phonics is presented is logical and consistent.

Cumulative: Once a new element is introduced, that element is systematically reviewed throughout the remainder of the program.

Repetitive: Phonics is a skill and as such requires sufficient repetition in any lesson until the student is able to master that specific lesson.

Cognitive: Students are taught that the English language is logical and rests upon a set of consistent rules. Rules are directly taught.

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