Dyslexia Screening provided at PDS does not guarantee services at your local public school.  

If you are receiving a reading intervention at school, you should never add a second one. It's too confusing.

It may be in your best interest to hire an advocate to encourage your school to evaluate your child.  

An Advocate works for you because they are hired by you, they know your rights, and are passionate about your children.

Go to  http://boundlessexpectations.org/

If your school refuses to evaluate your child or provide services, PDS can help.

Most public schools in the southern Maryland area use the Wilson Reading System as their Orton-Gillingham Intervention.  This is a very good program provided it is administered according to Wilson Language.  Other Wilson products are not necessarily interventions for those with dyslexia.  If you are offered Wilson Reading, remember to ask how many students are being tutored at a time, how long the sessions last, how many times per week, how quiet is the environment and what happens in the summer!!

Why is this important?  

O-G programs are to be intense programs to explicitly teach each child the logic of reading and spelling.  Having too many kids at one time, for a too short amount of time, does not provide the level of intensity intended  to reprogram the brain to read.  Rarely are public schools able to tutor one-to-one.

Plus, the group can only progress as fast as the most severely affected child, because skills are taught to mastery. No one wants any child left behind, that is why children must be carefully placed in groups based on severity and not necessarily age, each given hours of direct, intense teaching throughout the school year, with only short breaks.  

Lastly, Summer vacation is needed, but  ten weeks is too long to go without any intervention for our kids.