7,200+ Confident Readers and Spellers
Grades K-8
Best Dyslexia Reading Program
A Parent’s Guide to Dyslexia
Table of Contents
Scholar Within’s Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET has been featured on
Dyslexia impacts 1 in every 5 people.
30+ years of documented, scientific evidence and research show that dyslexia affects 1 in every 5 people. This is 20% of the population. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability as well as the most common of all neurocognitive disorders.
What is Dyslexia? Dyslexia Definition
Dyslexia is a difficulty with the written language.
“Dys” means difficulty. “Lexia” means words.
Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with word recognition, reading comprehension skills, spelling and decoding abilities, and writing skills.
Many people think that dyslexia is a problem with letter reversals. Confusing b’s and d’s as well as confusing p’s and q’s. However, not all people with dyslexia have letter reversals.
👉 Learn about the 6 types of dyslexia.
Scholar Within’s Homeschool Dyslexia Reading Curriculum
What parents are saying
“The program helped my son with dyslexia a lot for ready fluency. Nothing else had helped.”
– Emmanuelle R.
“My son was diagnosed as dyslexic at the end of 3rd grade… This program is amazing, I cannot recommend it enough!”
– Wendy R.
“Great program, even for an older struggling reader with auditory processing disorder and possible dyslexia.”
– Dr. Kimberly C.
Everything you need to teach reading and spelling to dyslexic kids at home
Step-by-step, online and offline lessons
Carefully selected online reading curriculum
Tap-to-read, online read-aloud technology
Take notes offline with graphic organizers
Offline reading fluency training
Spelling and phonics video lessons and tests
Learn to spell with spelling patterns
Offline puzzles and worksheets
Vocabulary and word-attack card games
Offline planning and time-management
activities
Executive function and mind-body activities
Print at home or get materials shipped to you
Scholar Within’s
Homeschool Dyslexia Reading Program
Online and Offline Self-paced Curriculum
How It Works
Program Overview
Scholar Within’s reading and spelling program takes 45-60 minutes a day and is a mix of 4-6 different activities each day.
Top Program Activities
- Reading Fluency Training:
Improve Reading Speed and Accuracy - Spelling and Phonics Video Lessons:
Learn to Spell with Patterns - Read with Tap-to-Read:
Read with Audio-enabled Reading Passages - Take Notes with Graphic Organizers:
Improve Comprehension and Just Fill in the Blank
1. Train Your Eyes with Reading Fluency Training
How many words can you read in 1 minute?
These simple but effective drills train your eyes to see the differences between letters in words faster.
It’s like going to the gym for your eyes to train them to read faster.
These drills work on strengthening your eye muscles.
How does it work?
You do a practice read and a timed read each day.
The entire activity just takes 5 minutes.
Each day, students compete against the last time they did the drill.
Kids love seeing their progress.
“I repeated the same reading drill on week one and week nine and my 7 year old improved by 24 words per minute and my 11 year old improved by 16 words per minute.”
– Justine F.
These drills focus improve phonics, decoding skills, and fluency (speed and accuracy).
This fluency activity especially helpful for students with visual dyslexia.
- Speeds up visual processing (the automatic retrieval system – Rapid Automatic Naming: RAN)
- Speeds up visual and verbal working memory and processing speed
- Improves reading accuracy
- Improves reading speed
- Improves visual processing skills including visual tracking, visual memory, visual discrimination, visual closure, and visual integration skills
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2. Become an Expert at Spelling with Spelling & Phonics Video Lessons
Our video lessons provide systematic instruction by teaching phonemic awareness, spelling patterns, and decoding skills.
“This is the best spelling program I have used in many years of homeschooling.”
– Emily R.
- Reinforcing phonics skills of the sound symbol association
- Phonological component: phonograms, vowel sounds, vowel combinations
- Blends, compound words, consonant combinations (digraphs), and suffixes
- Auditory processing skills including auditory memory, auditory discrimination, auditory closure, and auditory-visual integration
- Overall listening skills improve
- Teaches the structure of the English language (8 spelling patterns)
- Improves language comprehension
- Builds vocabulary
- Spoken words make the reading passages come alive
- Provides modeling of fluent reading
- Provides a model of great reading intonation, pronunciation, cadence, and prosody
3. Read with Tap-to-Read
With Tap-to-Read, you can tap on a word to hear it aloud or press play to listen and follow along.
- Addresses root cause of dyslexia and learning difficulties through multisensory lessons
- Reading passages come alive by having text-to-speech where students can listen to a passage while reading along
- They can also tap on a word to hear the proper pronunciation
- Listening skills improve
- Improves comprehension
- Builds vocabulary
- Builds language skills
- Spoken words make the reading passages come alive
- Provides modeling of fluent reading
- Provides a model of great reading intonation, pronunciation, cadence, and prosody
4. Improve Comprehension and Learn Note-Taking Skills
Teaching methods include comprehension strategies such as
- Note-taking
- Finding the main idea
- Finding supporting details
- Summarizing
- 5-W Notes (who, what, where, when, how, and why)
- Biography notes
- Visualization
- Vocabulary building
“Getting my daughter to write notes was where I was concerned, but she loved it and strived each week to work on her handwriting as well.”
– Amy C.
Reading and Spelling Curriculum Compared
 | Online Reading Curriculums | Offline Reading Curriculums | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dyslexia specific curriculum |  | Some | Some |
| Online and offline activities | | Some |  |
| Science-based curriculum | | Some | Some |
| Phonics | | Some | Some |
| Reading comprehension | | Some | Some |
| 5 Minute reading fluency training | | | |
| Tap to Read: read-aloud technology | | | |
| Learn to spell with spelling patterns | | | |
| Executive function and planning skills | | | |
| Designed by board-certified educational therapist and reading specialist | | | |
| Orton-Gillingham Based | | Some | Some |
What grade level is your child?
Select a grade level to learn more about each individualized program:
7,200+ Confident Readers and Spellers
Grades K-8 Dyslexia Reading Program
Scholar Within’s online and offline curriculum makes teaching reading and spelling easy with self-paced, step-by-step lessons.
Dyslexia Assessment Test
Do You Suspect Dyslexia?
The following questions will help you understand and see common characteristics of dyslexia.
This is meant to be used as a guideline.
If your child has more than 6 warning signs, you may want to get a formal assessment from your school or learning specialist.
Does your child…
- Have trouble following instructions?
- Has trouble understanding directions?
- Have trouble remembering sight words, facts, how to spell words, or learning new skills?
- Take too long to do their assigned work? Spends hours doing schoolwork or homework, usually not finishing the assignments in the allotted time?
- Know they have an assignment, but can’t remember what it is?
Does your child…
- Have difficulty reading single words?
- Take a long time to read…are they a slow reader?
- Have difficulty sounding out new words?
- Skip, mispronounce, or repeat words when reading aloud?
- Take a lot of effort when reading aloud?
- Avoid reading aloud?
- Have poor spelling?
- Reverse letters and or words?
- Have poor reading comprehension?
- Often skip or ignore reading small “function” words – that, is, an, for, the?
- Have trouble finding specific words or items on a page?
- Have trouble matching items from one list of words to another list of words (or pictures that represent those words) easily?
- Have trouble learning the alphabet, numbers, days of the week, colors, and shapes?
- Lose their place when following along to another person reading aloud?
Does your child, or did your child…
- Learn to speak later than most children?
- Have pronunciation problems?
- Have slow vocabulary growth?
- Have difficulty rhyming words?
- Have trouble learning numbers, the alphabet and their sounds, days of the week, colors, and shapes?
- Seem extremely restless and easily distracted?
- Have difficulty following directions or routines?
- Have trouble interacting with peers?
- Have trouble learning to run, jump, or skip?
- Have trouble learning to button?
- Have difficulty using scissors (holding them and cutting)?
Does your child, or did your child…
- Have trouble learning to ride a bicycle?
- Have trouble learning to run, jump, or skip?
- Have difficulty using scissors (holding them and cutting)?
- Have difficulty learning the connection between letters and sounds?
- Make reading and spelling errors, including letter reversals?
- Transpose number sequences and confuse arithmetic signs (+, – , x , ÷ , =)?
- Have a hard time remembering facts or learning new skills?
- Have trouble learning to button?
- Have difficulty using scissors (holding them and cutting)?
- Have an unstable pencil grip?
- Have trouble learning the concept of time?
- Have poor coordination?
- Have trouble following directions?
- Take a very long time to complete assignments?
- Have trouble remembering where they left something?
- Have a disorganized desk or room?
- Have poor alignment of numerals on a math paper?
- Have inadequate spacing of letters and words in writing?
- Have difficulty aligning numbers in columns?
- Have difficulty with problem-solving and reasoning?
- Have difficulty in understanding measurements, maps, and graphs?
Does your child, or did your child…
- Reverse letter sequences (left/felt)?
- Have trouble learning prefixes, suffixes, and root words?
- Avoid reading aloud?
- Avoid writing assignments?
- Have trouble with word problems?
- Have difficulty with handwriting?
- Have difficulty aligning numbers in columns?
- Have poor recall of facts?
- Take too long to complete assignments?
- Read the assignment but can’t remember what he/she has read?
- Have difficulty making friends?
- Have trouble remembering where he/she left something?
- Have a disorganized desk or room?
- Have poor alignment of numerals on a math paper?
- Have inadequate spacing of letters and words in writing?
- Have difficulty with problem-solving and reasoning?
- Have difficulty in understanding measurements, maps, and graphs?
Does your child, or did your child…
- Continue to spell many words incorrectly?
- Avoid reading and writing tasks?
- Have trouble summarizing?
- Have trouble with open-ended questions?
- Have difficulty with problem-solving and reasoning?
- Have weak memory skills?
- Work slowly?
- Pay either too little attention to details, or focus on them too much?
- Misread information?
- Have trouble remembering where he/she left something?
- Have poor alignment of numerals on a math paper?
- Have inadequate spacing of letters and words in writing?
- Have difficulty in understanding measurements, maps, and graphs?
After the Assessment
Most teachers will see one or more of these warning signs at one time or another in a student’s behavior. This is normal. A good rule of thumb would be if you have checked off one or two of these, I wouldn’t be too concerned.
If you have checked off three or more from either of the first two groups or a total of three from the age groupings and if these struggles occur over a long period of time, you may want to consider the possibility that your student has dyslexia or a learning difficulty.
6 Types of Dyslexia
There are 6 types of dyslexia that affect people in slightly different ways. It is helpful to understand the differences so that you may adjust and customize a learning plan accordingly for your student.
Phonological Dyslexia
This is when a person has difficulties matching sounds to symbols.
Decoding (sounding out) words is difficult. This gets into the processing area of auditory-visual integration.
This is what most people think of when someone mentions dyslexia.
Symptoms may include:
- Difficulty learning sounds made by letters/letter combinations
- Difficulty sounding out unfamiliar words
- Difficulty spelling
- Spelling the same word in different ways on the same page
- Slow reading
- Avoiding reading activities
- Difficulty recognizing familiar words in new contexts
Rapid Naming Dyslexia
This is the ability to rapidly name colors, numbers, letters, shapes, and words when presented with them.
They may know them, but it takes some time to retrieve the correct word. This type deals with processing speed and the automatic retrieval system.
Symptoms may include:
- Difficulty retrieving words
- Frequently substituting words or leaving words out altogether
- Slow to respond orally
- Slower to complete reading or writing assignments
- Making up nonsense words in place of real words
- Using gestures in place of words
Surface Dyslexia
Surface dyslexia is when a person can sound out new words but has difficulty recognizing familiar words by sight quickly.
In other words, they have trouble reading words that are ‘sight’ words or words that don’t sound like they are spelled.
Symptoms may include:
- Difficulty with whole-word recognition
- Slow to read
- Avoidance of reading activities
- Difficulty with spelling
- Difficulty reading words that don’t sound the way they’re spelled
- Difficulty reading new words by sight
- Difficulty with identifying letters that look the same but are orientated differently such as b and d and p and q.
- Mispronounce irregular words like have, yacht, island, psalm, chaos, and friend
- Confuse words with the same pronunciation but different spellings (homonyms): blew/blue, by/buy/bye, ate/eight, and right/write/rite
Visual Dyslexia
Visual dyslexia is when a person struggles to remember what they saw on a page.
The brain doesn’t get the complete picture of what the eyes see.
Learning how to spell or form letters can also be difficult because those tasks require the brain to remember the correct letter sequence or shape.
This really gets into both visual memory and overall visual processing problems.
Symptoms may include:
- Text appearing blurred or going in and out of focus
- Difficulty tracking across lines of text
- Difficulty keeping your place in text
- Text appearing double or alternating between single and double
- Headaches and/or eyestrain associated with reading
- Difficulty with spelling
- Difficulty remembering what you read
Double Deficit Dyslexia
Double deficit dyslexia is when a person struggles with two aspects of reading.
Most of the time this is a combination of both phonological and rapid naming dyslexia.
In other words, your naming speed is slow and your ability to identify sounds and sound out words is difficult.
Symptoms may include:
- Poor naming speed rate when asked to recall words
- Weak phonological awareness
- Difficulty learning sounds made by letters/letter combinations
- Difficulty sounding out unfamiliar words
- Text appearing blurred or going in and out of focus
- Difficulty tracking across lines of text
- Difficulty spelling
- Slow reading
- Avoiding reading activities
Deep Dyslexia (Acquired Dyslexia)
Deep dyslexia or acquired dyslexia results from some trauma to the brain’s left hemisphere.
This can be from a sports injury, accident, or even a stroke.
This typically affects a person’s ability to sound out nonsense words as well as substituting one word for a related word e.g.: pony for horse, feline for cat, road for avenue.
What is the Root Cause of Dyslexia Symptoms?
Why is it easy for some kids to learn to read and hard for others?
When a student has trouble with a number of dyslexia symptoms for a long period of time, it is often because of one or multiple problems in visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic processing.
There are 27 areas of visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic processing that affect learning.
Learn about all 27 areas of processing here.
Having difficulty in any one area is enough to cause a student to struggle. Having difficulty in more than one area will create a greater challenge for the student. These difficulties have nothing to do with intelligence.
Students can be very smart and still have difficulty with learning.
The good news is that you can improve auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic processing difficulties. These are learned skills.
Learn more about the visual and auditory processing systems:
How to Teach Reading to Students with Dyslexia
Dyslexic students CAN succeed with reading!
When teaching struggling readers or students with dyslexia, we need to look at what the science and research tell us.
How do dyslexic readers learn to read more efficiently?
Students with dyslexia need to be taught with the following methods:
- Multisensory: Uses all of the senses (auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic)
- Sequential: Proceeds step-by-step in a logical sequence
- Incremental: Each lesson builds upon prior learning
- Cumulative: Constantly and consistently reviews previously taught concepts
- Individualized: Meets each student’s individual needs
- Phonogram-Based: Words are based on combining letters and letter combinations known as phonograms (the sound-symbol relationship, also known as the Alphabetic Principle)
- Explicit: Stated clearly and in a detailed manner
The above principles are the foundation of the Orton-Gillingham methodology. This method was first taught by Samuel Orton and then later with Anna Gillingham to help struggling readers and spellers.
Research has also shown that reading instruction must specifically include:
When you teach reading with all the above components in this way, yes, even dyslexic students can succeed at reading.
The above principles are the foundation of our reading and spelling programs at Scholar Within.
At Scholar Within, we recognize that understanding dyslexia can be difficult as there are 6 different types of dyslexia.
But when you address the underlying root cause of why a student is struggling, has dyslexia, or has a learning difficulty, students are able to learn at their own pace.
The Science of How We Learn: The 27 Areas of Processing
We all learn information through the vision system, the auditory system, and the tactile-kinesthetic system, or in other words, hearing, seeing, and doing.
Kids who have trouble learning to read often have several areas of either visual, auditory, or tactile-kinesthetic processing that aren’t working as well as they could be.
This gets into a bit of what we call diagnostic teaching.
We look at what is interfering with the learning process. We want to include all of these areas in our methods of teaching reading.
There are nine areas of visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic processing that affect learning for a total of 27 areas of processing.
When you teach reading with activities that incorporate all 27 areas of processing, dyslexic students are able to thrive.
Having difficulty in any one area is enough to cause a student to struggle. Having difficulty in more than one area will create a greater challenge for the student.
These difficulties have nothing to do with intelligence. Students can be very bright and still have difficulty with learning.
The good news is that much can be done about these difficulties.
These are learned skills and they can improve.
These specific methods work for students of all ages, whether you have identified learning disabilities, suspected or identified dyslexia, CAPD, or even visual processing problems.
When teaching reading, it’s important for your child to have a positive association with reading.
Oftentimes kids that are extremely frustrated with reading are reading books or passages that are too far above their reading level.
At night, you should have your child read a book aloud for fun that might be 1-2 levels below their current reading level. This reinforces a positive association with reading.
Then, with school work, they should be reading passages and books that are at their level that may introduce new words.
In Scholar Within’s reading program, our reading passages are supercharged with Tap-to-Read technology so that students can simply tap on a word to hear the proper pronunciation aloud. We always encourage a student to try to sound out a word on their own first, but then they can tap on it to hear it or if they get stuck. This feature helps frustration levels tremendously. After reading a passage, they can also press play to listen to a passage aloud and follow along.
At Scholar Within, we believe that dyslexia is not a limitation, but an opportunity for growth and achievement. With the right support and resources, individuals with dyslexia can become successful readers.
When teaching dyslexic kids to read, it is critically important to teach in the methods described above.
At Scholar Within, we’ve put together a step-by-step program that makes it easy for you to help your dyslexic students become strong and confident readers.
Effective Reading Instruction
Scholar Within’s specialized methods of reading and spelling instruction improve the areas of processing which makes learning to read easier.
Scholar Within’s online reading programs are different in that we go to the root cause of learning problems that many struggling readers have.
We do this with different step-by-step activities including:
- Reading fluency training (fluency practice)
- Reading passages with tap-to-read technology
- Note-taking with graphic organizers
- Phonics and phonemic awareness lessons
- Brain-body activities
- Executive function activities
- And more!
What grade level is your child?
Select a grade level to learn more about each individualized program:
Reviews from Parents
Designed by Learning Expert Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET
Bonnie Terry is a board-certified educational therapist with over 35 years of experience. She has helped thousands of students across the globe improve their reading skills whether they are gifted or are having difficulties.
Bonnie Terry has been featured on…
FAQs
Physical Products
30-Day Money-back Guarantee
We offer this program because we love seeing parents and their kids succeed. It is an extraordinary experience to watch parents empower their kids, and we are 100% committed to your success. For your part, the success of the program relies on your commitment to completing the weekly activities as outlined.
We are so confident that our Reading Program and Spelling Program will be a life-changing experience for you that we offer a no-risk 30-day guarantee on our printed material kits.
If you are unsatisfied with the print materials and program within the first 30 days, just ship us back the printed material, and we’ll refund your purchase excluding actual shipping cost and return shipping. Materials must be unused and in a resaleable condition. The material must be postmarked within 30 days of receiving the material.
Bonus free physical products must be returned in their original, unused, new, and resalable condition. If the bonus free item is not returned, you will be charged for the full cost of the bonus free item.
If you think you might return or cancel the program, print out the material at home before using any of the physical material.
Online Programs
14-Day Money-back Guarantee
We offer this program because we love seeing parents and their kids succeed. It is an extraordinary experience to watch parents empower their kids, and we are 100% committed to your success. For your part, the success of the program relies on your commitment to completing the weekly activities as outlined.
We are so confident that our Reading Program and Spelling Program will be a life-changing experience for you that we offer a no-risk 14-day guarantee. If after completing the program’s first week’s activities within the first 14 days from the initial sign-up, simply let us know, and we will refund your purchase. If you purchased print materials with the online program, actual shipping costs will be excluded from your online program refund.
Bonus free physical products must be returned in their original, unused, new, and resalable condition. If the bonus free item is not returned, you will be charged for the full cost of the bonus free item.
If you think you might return or cancel the program, print out the material at home before using any of the physical material.
7-Day Free Trial
We offer a 7-day free trial only on the Monthly Reading & Spelling Program Membership.
This gives you a chance to try the program without having to pay. If you cancel within the first 7-days, you will not be charged. If you are considering the yearly option, this is a great way to try the program first before deciding to upgrade.
All other membership options require an upfront payment. For these other membership options, we offer a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Our 14-day money-back guarantee starts when you sign up for the program.
If you signed up for the 7-day free trial and you are still within the 7 days, you can cancel the program on your own. Log in to your account, click Go to Program, go to My Account > Settings > Membership, and you can cancel your account from here. If you cancel within the first 7-days, you will not be charged.
After sign up, you will be asked what grade your child is currently and whether they are above grade level, at grade level, or below grade level by 1-3 years in their reading skills.
Give your best estimate. If the material you choose is too easy or too hard, contact us and we’ll adjust your account.
Additionally, you can choose a couple of sample reading passages at the grade level you think your child is capable of reading proficiently.
Have them read aloud to you. Make a note of any repetitions, substitutions, omissions, or mispronunciations they make. Then ask them at least five comprehension questions.
Instructional level is reading without mistakes with a 93% accuracy and a minimum of 75% comprehension.
The program materials and teaching videos are delivered and accessed online. Each day you will print out a few pages of handouts to use with your kids. Most of the lessons and activities are done offline at a table or outside.
There are a lot of fun activities and games. With grades K-3, most of the activities are done with the parent and child together. For grades 4 and above, there are a couple of activities done with the parent and child together, and the rest the child can do independently.
The short answer is yes!
Each day there are a few handouts to print out and instructional videos to watch. Each day’s actual activities should only take 45-60 minutes of actual work.
The first week takes a little bit of time and prep to get up to speed, but by the second week, the activities become second nature.
We often suggest breaking up some of the activities to different parts of the day.
- Print out the handouts
- Watch the short videos either by yourself or with your kids to know what to do (about 5 minutes)
- Do the fluency training with your kids (5 minutes)
- Activities for comprehension, phonics, brain-body, and executive function rotate throughout the week (20 – 40 minutes)
Executive function is your ability to plan and organize. It’s also your ability to strategize and pay attention to and remember details. Executive function also involves flexible thinking. When we read, we also use our executive function skills.
There is a direct correlation between executive function and reading skills. Your ability to comprehend depends on your ability to retrieving word meaning and integrate that with prior knowledge. That specific skill involves executive function. When executive function skills improve, overall reading and learning skills improve.
Research on teaching reading and spelling dates back to the early 1930s, first with Samuel Orton and then later with Anna Gillingham. They developed a teaching approach, the Orton-Gillingham method (OG), to help struggling readers and spellers. Their teaching methods include what is currently considered best practices: sequential, phonics-based systems that teach the basics of word formation before whole meanings.
Learning through all three senses (auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic) is essential. This multisensory approach has been proven effective for students of all abilities, including those with dyslexia and other learning challenges.
The Scholar Within Reading Program incorporates these OG principles and strategies along with the latest research on learning.
Orton-Gillingham Instructional Components for Optimal Learning:
- Multisensory: Uses all of the senses (auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic)
- Sequential: Proceeds step-by-step in a logical sequence
- Incremental: Each lesson builds upon prior learning
- Cumulative: Constantly and consistently reviews previously taught concepts
- Individualized: Meets each student’s individual needs
- Phonogram-Based: Words are based on combining letters and letter combinations known as phonograms (the sound-symbol relationship, also known as the Alphabetic Principle)
- Explicit: Stated clearly and in a detailed manner
Reading Fluency is the ability to retrieve words automatically and easily, almost without thought. When you read nearly effortlessly and accurately, you are able to hold pieces of information (text) in your mind which improves your overall comprehension.
Dr. Sally Shaywitz, the author of Overcoming Dyslexia, states, “Fluency Training is one of the most important things a parent can do to help their child improve their reading skills.” Improving your reading fluency is one of the easiest things you can do to improve your reading skills.
Our summer reading program includes short reading fluency activities that you will do each day. This activity only takes 5-minutes and your kids will see and chart their progress each day. These specific activities work on eye-tracking skills, visual processing, and rapid automatized naming. In other words, these activities help your kids learn to read faster. You can download the first fluency activity here for free.
Reading comprehension is your ability to understand and use what you have read, listened to, or watched.
In our summer reading program, your child will use our custom-designed graphic organizers to organize information of what they have read into a graphical display. This is a critical component in improving reading comprehension. These organizers make note-taking easy.
Additionally, story structure, summarizing, question answering, and question generation are all critical pieces of comprehension. We also include these components of comprehension in our summer reading program.
No. We currently do not have live classes.
We have designed this program to be step-by-step with bite-sized activities. You won’t have to worry about missing a Zoom class, being late, or your kids being still in their pajamas. You can do the activities in the program on your schedule and make up missed days at your convenience.
We have video spelling instruction that your kids will follow along with their corresponding worksheets. If you want feedback on your child’s work, send us a picture of it via email.
The program was designed by learning expert Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET. The curriculum in the program was designed over the course of Bonnie Terry’s 35+ years of teaching from hands-on in her former private learning center and now, in an at-home and online environment. Bonnie has worked with kids of all abilities, whether they are struggling, have learning challenges like dyslexia, auditory processing disorder (APD), and ADD/ADHD, or are just looking to advance faster.
The National Reading Panel has made it clear that the best approach to reading instruction is one that incorporates:
- Explicit instruction in phonemic awareness
- Systematic phonics instruction
- Methods to improve fluency
- Vocabulary instruction
- Ways to enhance comprehension
Scholar Within’s summer reading program includes these components through short step-by-step multisensory activities. The program is Orton-Gillingham based and is the perfect way for your kids to not only keep their skills up over summer but to get ahead, make learning easier, and spend less time on homework come the fall.
This program has been designed by learning disabilities expert and board-certified educational therapist Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET.
Bonnie originally designed this curriculum in her private learning center in the 1990s where she saw kids with dyslexia, ADHD, auditory processing disorder, kids on the autism spectrum, and numerous other learning challenges.
She learned first hand what worked and what didn’t.
Bonnie was only able to see kids twice a week for an hour each time and had to figure out a way to make progress in reading and spelling in that short amount of time.
She discovered specific multisensory activities worked.
She discovered that she could teach spelling through spelling patterns while teaching individual sound components of letters.
She discovered that you could train your eye muscles for reading just like you can train your body for sports.
She discovered that to successfully teach reading, you must teach all 5 principles of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary).
She discovered that teaching through hands on games is not only fun but strengthens kids skills and associations with learning.
She discovered teaching by the Science of Reading before it was known as the Science of Reading.
Parents and teachers kept asking what it was that she was doing in her learning center because of the transformative results the kids saw in such little time.
She realized that she needed to make this curriculum available to all students.
When you teach in these ways, all kids can successfully read and spell, not matter whether they have learning challenges or not.
Since her private learning center, Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET has teamed up with her son, Nick Terry, who is a design and technology expert to create Scholar Within.
This way, they’ve been able to bring Bonnie Terry’s original curriculum into a step-by-step format that all families can do at home with their kids and teachers can do with their students.
7,200+ Confident Readers and Spellers
Grades K-8 Dyslexia Reading Program
Scholar Within’s online and offline curriculum makes teaching reading and spelling easy with self-paced, step-by-step lessons.
