Reading Specialist | Science of Reading, Structured Literacy & Creator

Marcia D.

ADHD

My private practice's highly interactive, phonics, and brain-based learning-to-read system is a new, bold, and fresh alternative to the approaches of the past forty-plus years. While they remain integral to special education intervention programs and outside support resources, those efforts often involve laborious, mundane, isolated practices, the overuse of technical terminology, and the reliance on sand trays. These techniques, while well-intentioned, usually fail to produce independent learners and thinkers. I am a retired special education teacher (K–12) and refer to ADHD students who are inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive (or both) as neurodivergent. They thrive when learning to read using my highly innovative system. My system adheres to Structured Literacy's systematic, sequential, explicit, cumulative instruction framework. Beyond that, it offers what no other approach does for neurodivergent students. It is a meaningful, tightly woven, unified, cohesive, fully integrated, and interconnected system, consistent throughout. It gives neurodivergent students the empowerment and confidence they need to think, respond, and take ownership of their learning to participate meaningfully in their classroom learning experiences. My system is designed to lessen neurodivergent students' working memory load and increase their processing speeds through supremely simplified practices that don't require additional processing but instead offer visually driven instruction to improve memory and repetition. When students can't read a word, they know immediately how to read it correctly, using my new revolutionary approach to decoding. This focus on reducing cognitive load and increasing processing speeds gives parents and all parties involved a sense of relief, knowing that the system fully supports neurodivergent students and can help them succeed. Lessons are 100% personalized through strategic and meticulous instructional planning, making students feel more involved, connected, and fully engaged in their learning. My

Dyslexia

As a retired special education teacher, I have seen many children, especially those with dyslexia, struggle to learn to read. Troubled by the lack of effective solutions and with 40% of third graders reading below grade level, I studied approaches extensively, drawing on my school and private practice experiences and reviewing published methodologies. ​My experiences reflect a nationwide problem: reading instruction is often fragmented, disconnected, and inconsistent. Most existing methods depend heavily on memorizing patterns and rules to apply and decode unfamiliar words. However, these practices do not foster the reading fluency necessary for strong comprehension. ​ When students with dyslexia are required to manipulate information mentally, their frontal lobes' working memory, organization, sequencing, and rapid automatic processing become overtaxed. Additionally, many current practices focus excessively on sensory activities, often wasting instructional time and contributing to growing concerns about widespread dislike of reading and children's insecurities. In response, I developed Read to Thrive's fully customized Learning to Read System. I designed my approach to rewire the neurodivergent dyslexic brain and enable confident, fluent reading. Through intentional, meticulous planning and supremely simplified, acutely personalized instruction, my System fosters new neural pathways by leveraging neuroplasticity and prioritizing sequential processing. ​Lessons are clear, consistent, and integrated. They are delivered with the greatest efficiency and in an engaging way to guide every child toward reading success. Each element connects to the broader System, fostering mastery and confidence to apply learning in new situations. From arrival to the final activity, every step empowers learners and leads to meaningful progress in just 6 to 10 weeks.​ ​Call today; don't wait. The opportunity for a thriving future for your child is just around the corner!

Elementary (K-6th)

Please delve into my approved subjects in phonics to grasp the urgency of the situation: a staggering 40% of students nationwide cannot read. I'll delve into another reason for this alarming issue in this space. Traditionally, students learned to read in kindergarten or first grade. That's no longer the case. Technology has rapidly evolved, creating a domino effect of issues impacting every aspect of life. Minds are constantly triggered and juggled, bombarded with connected and disconnected messaging, making focusing and processing nearly impossible. The Science of Reading's Structure Literacy mandate is clear and indisputable: reading instruction should be explicit, systematic, sequential, cumulative, and diagnostic. Past and current special education phonics programs adhere to this structural mandate, yet they continue to fail severely. Their inner workings are not interconnected, leading to a reduction of meaningless activities - technical jargon, vowel patterns, syllabication rules, and the excessive use of sand trays. These methods are understimulating and overwhelming and hinder students' ability to learn. The brain can concentrate on moving forward when it is free of clutter. It's time for a change. Recognizing that traditional approaches to reading instruction often mirror the confusion and chaos of today's culture, I have developed a new, bold, and fresh revolutionary approach, a 100% personalized learning-to-read system. This system is a welcome change from the norm. It is built on meaningful, comprehensive, and friendly student-centered concepts, making learning to read more efficient and enjoyable. With my system, all students, regardless of their learning needs, can build their skills meaningfully and efficiently, leading to natural applications in the classroom and beyond.

Homeschool

Parent involvement is not just a component, but the cornerstone of my system's success. It is a new, bold, and fresh revolutionary approach for learning to read, and your role in reinforcing your child's learning is invaluable. After a thorough initial informal reading assessment of your child's strengths and weaknesses, I will determine and share with you if my learning-to-read system is suitable. If you choose to hire me, I will present an overview presentation of my system, ensuring you feel confident and informed about your crucial role in your child's learning journey.  Following the initial presentation, parents are empowered with three flexible options for support. Whether it's a 60-minute consultation phone call, my attendance to support the planning and teaching, or my delivery of the lessons with parent reinforcement, you can choose what suits you best. Parents have reported appreciating my system's comprehensive flexibility and adaptability. They can teach it to their other children, which can be applied to all subjects and ages. For instance, the same reading strategies can be used for math or science content, and the system can be adjusted to cater to the needs of both younger and older children in a group setting. This adaptability ensures that the system is effective for all students, regardless of their learning needs or age.

Phonics

As a retired special education teacher (K–12) and a learning-to-read practitioner, I am deeply alarmed by the current literacy crisis in our schools. The absence of phonics instruction for 4 decades, except in special education programming, has led to a staggering 40% of students failing in their reading nationwide. These alarming statistics have fueled my passion to reopen my private practice and advocate for radical changes in Early Literacy. Both in the past and currently, special education programs and outside support services teach phonics explicitly and cumulatively, using systematic and sequential instruction. Now defined as "Structured Literacy, "an umbrella term for evidence-based, explicit, and systematic approaches to literacy instruction grounded in the Science of Reading. It has been my experience that students have either loved or hated those programs defined under the umbrella of "Structured Literacy;" there was no in between. For those who succeeded, the increase was typically mediocre. Lessons are mundane, isolated, repetitive exercises focusing on technical aspects of decoding, such as terminology, vowel patterns, and syllabication rules. They also spend excessive time on multisensory activities. Because they lack comprehensive formative instruction, lessons fail to simulate classroom learning and real-life experiences. Many students switched to me when looking for an alternative learning-to-read approach. They encountered a common-sense, child-friendly, revamped learning-to-read instructional system that was bold, new, fresh, revolutionary, supremely simplified, no-nonsense, practical, and efficiently delivered. Students' reading experiences radically changed, shaping them into independent and productive readers. The impact on these students was profound, instilling hope and optimism while demonstrating the potential benefits of this new system. This success story is just the beginning. With your and my support in a team effort, the 6–10 weeks of time investment will bring an exciting t

Reading

Teaching children to read has been the focus of my professional life since 1989, and I have helped students of all ability levels—from those needing enrichment to those experiencing significant reading challenges—become confident, capable readers. My instruction is grounded in the Science of Reading and Structured Literacy, using explicit, systematic, cumulative, and diagnostic teaching to strengthen the foundational skills essential for successful reading while addressing each student's unique learning needs. Through responsive, individualized instruction and strong partnerships with families, I help students build lasting accuracy, fluency, confidence, and independence that support success in school and beyond.

Special Needs

It's a matter of concern how Dyslexia is often defined as a learning disability. Dyslexic individuals, a significant 20% of the world's population, are not disabled; instead, they are neurodivergent, with a neurological wiring that's different from the majority—80% of the neurotypical population. Neurodivergent students, when provided with a learning environment that respects their unique neurological wiring in language processing, have the potential to excel as their neurotypical counterparts. This 'right approach' is a stark contrast that explains why traditional classroom or specialized reading and writing approaches of the past and currently practiced have consistently failed to meet the needs of neurodivergent learners and thinkers. It's a critical situation that underscores the urgent need to advocate for new, fresh, bold alternative approaches. I do not view Dyslexia as a disability. I embrace and advocate for students to work in an effective system that increases their classroom involvement practically and efficiently. Dyslexic students respond well to my 100% personalized learning-to-read system because of its supremely simplified, no-nonsense, common-sense, practical approach. They connect to its visual and creative appeal. It shines with meaningful, interconnected instruction that offers valuable understanding to seemingly senseless phonics! My learning-to-read system attracts "big picture" thinkers looking for meaningful connections in their learning. Dyslexic students use these features to their advantage while they compensate for their typical dyslexic challenges related to language processing, memory, and sequential tasks. Such approaches are designed and necessary to enable neurodivergent learners and thinkers to adapt to their classrooms and life experiences as quickly and efficiently as possible and to excel at what they typically do best: making connections, thinking intuitively and innovatively, sharing their strengths, and using their abilities.