Looking for one-on-one help for your bright child who struggles with reading?
If you are looking for a tutor for your child who is struggling with reading and spelling, you’ve come to the right place!
Orton-Gillingham Tutoring Can Help Your Child
I am a certified Orton-Gillingham dyslexia practitioner working one-on-one with students to provide customized structured literacy instruction through creative, hands-on, multisensory learning that helps them gain the skills they need to improve their reading and spelling.
Orton-Gillingham is a very specialized kind of tutoring that has been shown to be effective in teaching struggling readers, including those with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
I have been an Orton-Gillingham tutor since 2009 and have worked with a wide range of ages and abilities. Whether you have a second-grader struggling to sound out simple words or a middle-schooler who is struggling to read well enough to keep up with the demands of school, Orton-Gillingham tutoring can help.
Getting help for struggling students can be life changing. When they cannot do what their friends and peers do, they begin to feel like they are not smart. It takes them an enormous amount of time and effort to read and spell, often trying so much harder than everyone else even if it doesn’t look like it when you see how they do. I have experienced time and again what a huge difference this kind of tutoring can make in improving not only students’ reading and spelling skills, but also their self-confidence and self-esteem.
“I’ve benefitted greatly from being here. It’s really helped having a tutor who understands what I’m going through, and is able to work with me in a way that’s different from the help I get at school.“
| who
kids who are struggling with reading and spelling, a diagnosis of dyslexia is not required. I typically work with elementary and middle school students.
| what
one-on-one private Orton-Gillingham tutoring
| when
2 times per week (Mon/Weds or Tue/Thurs)
50 minutes each session
| where
443 N. New Ballas Rd – Suite 222
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
| how
long
This is not a fast fix, expect to attend tutoring 1-2 years
| why
Because it can make an enormous difference in your child’s life!
Working with Students One Step at a Time
Even struggling readers have a starting point of what they DO know. Instead of focusing on what they can’t do, I start with what they are able to do and build from there one step at a time.
New concepts are slowly and explicitly introduced. By gradually adding a carefully chosen order of concepts, while reviewing and practicing what’s been previously taught, students begin to experience success while developing a solid foundation of skills that lead to improved reading, spelling and self-confidence.
Lesson are Personalized
Because each student comes with a different starting point and learns at their own pace and style, I create customized written lesson plans for every student and every session to meet their needs based on their level, progress and abilities.
The amazing thing about Orton-Gillingham is that it is structured in a way that can meet the needs of students no matter where they are at. That means it works just as well for an early elementary student struggling to sound out 3-letter words as it does for a middle or high school student who needs to learn how to tackle more complex and difficult words. This requires really understanding where each student is on their journey, and choosing age and skill appropriate materials and activities to meet those needs.
“I enjoy working with Ms. Wallace. She is good at finding ways to figure out how to help me. If I have trouble doing something one way, she comes up with another way of trying it.“
Lessons are More than Just Phonics
Lessons focus on learning the skills needed to break words apart and put them back together through an in-depth understanding of syllables, their structure and their sounds. While decoding and phonics are important, that is only one small part of what is required to fundamentally improve reading fluency and spelling.
Did you know that syllables come in eight different types? Students learn how to divide words into their syllables and identify those types. They’ll learn the meanings of prefixes and suffixes to help in word recognition, comprehension and spelling. Having a deeper understanding of how our language works helps them make sense of what they are reading and spelling.
Engaged Learning
My lessons actively engage students by incorporating a wide variety of activities and strategies which access multiple pathways in the brain through visual cues, sound, touch and movement. Unlike other tutors who just teach from a commercial preset or scripted curriculum such as Wilson or Barton, my students experience creative, hands-on, truly customized, multisensory lessons drawn from a wide variety of resources, including many that I have developed to meet the needs of my students over my years of teaching. There are no worksheets here!
Lessons are Success Centered
Because students are explicitly taught each concept, and are only asked to work with words containing sounds and concepts they have learned, lessons are designed to foster success.
Students receive continuous, constructive positive feedback and reinforcement throughout the lesson. As they begin to experience success and mastery, their self-confidence and self-esteem begin to grow as well.
Watch their Progress
Have you ever asked your child “what did you work on today” only to get answers like “I don’t know” or “nothing”? That won’t be the case here. I bring the parent in for the last few minutes of every session and have the student tell you exactly what we worked on that day. This not only gives you a better understanding of what’s going on during tutoring, but lets me know that they can explain what they learned. Then they will read a little bit for you so you can witness first-hand their changes over time as their accuracy, phrasing and fluency improve.
“Thank you so much, our family is so grateful for what our son has been able to achieve with your tutoring. You are doing some very cool things with him, and have given him a very special gift! I had his IEP meeting on Friday and his special Ed teacher said that he is now one of the most self-aware readers that she has taught in a very long time. And, he will be put in the regular ELA class next year! Everyone is very hopeful that he will start high school without an IEP which means a regular HS schedule. We are beyond thrilled for him and when his teacher told him that he would be in all regular classes next year, he said that he “has been waiting for this moment for years!”
Ready to see if I can help?
If you are interested in finding out more about whether my tutoring services would be a good fit for your child, please give me a call at 314-359-9127 or send me a message HERE.
ps. If you’d like to have something to print out, you can download a brochure.
“I cannot fathom where Connor would be without working with you these past two years. We are so grateful for what he has been able to accomplish. Thank you for your patience and care!”