While at soccer practice, you hear some moms talking about “remediation” and “breaking the code” for their daughters who are going to a local reading tutor. And, you thought “what does that mean exactly?” It’s just so much to learn about when you realize your child is dyslexic.

I remember trying to learn everything (at once) about dyslexia and how to best help Haddie learn to read. It feels like drinking our of a water hose some days, right?

Breaking the code (you may see “cracking the code” too) means that your child learns to solve the reading puzzle: spoken language and written language. When children are usually in third or fourth grade the emphasis on reading shifts in school from learning to read to reading to learn. The earlier you can remediate your child the better.

Well, let’s talk about remediation. That is an essential step to helping your daughter learn to read. Students start by learning to pull apart words to their smallest sound. For example, cat – breaking apart the c sound, a sound, and t sound to form the sound of the word “cat.”

dyslexia remediation looks like . . .

• Individualized, multisensory instruction (Orton-Gillingham (OG) and Wilson Reading System are recommended most frequently)
• One-to-one instruction or small groups (3 or less)
• Systematic approach to multisensory instruction of phonics and language elements
• Lessons from 45 minutes to an hour in length
• Remediation should take place 5 days a week (but can be done in 3 days for a longer period of time)
• Lessons may include card drills, dictation, and oral reading
• Ongoing monitoring and progress updates
• Routine reading at home – How can you help your child learn to read?

You may want to seek a referral for a tutor as not every teacher (or tutor) has the appropriate credentials to work with dyslexic students. If you can find an OG or Wilson trained tutor in your area, that would be what I would recommend.

Why not just use ask for accommodations at her school?

Great question!  Why spend the money on specialized private schools and expensive OG tutors?

Accommodations are methods that accommodate a particular weakness so that the student can perform at their intellectual ability.  Remediation refers to the remedying of a student’s areas of weakness.  If your child was sick with an ear infection, the quickest way to remedy the ear infection would be with medication.  The multi-sensory tutoring is the medication for students with dyslexia.  If you just give your child cold medicine, you are not treating the actual root cause of the pain (the ear infection, you need an antibiotic).

It may be that your student needs both.  Remediation in the classroom or with private tutors and accommodations in the classroom (like extended time for tests).

P.S. I would love to hear from you.  What questions do you have about remediation? Email me – Nicole