Reading difficulty is not always just one thing. A child who can't sound out words has a different problem than a child who can decode but doesn't remember what they read. A child with weak phonological awareness needs a different intervention than a child with weak orthographic processing. And a child who has both needs a carefully sequenced combination.
Diagnostic Instruction
Every reading student at Pine State Learning begins with a comprehensive learning assessment.
We use nonstandardized assessments that help us gauge phonological awareness, orthographic processing, rapid naming, decoding (real words and nonsense words), sight word recognition, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension.
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The results tell us exactly where in the reading hierarchy your learner's skills are breaking down, and that determines which intervention we use.
Our Interventions
Lindamood-Bell, Seeing Stars
Our primary curriculum for students with double deficit dyslexia, who need to build both phonological and orthographic processing. It uses multi-sensory instruction that builds orthographic processing explicitly, which is the foundation for accurate decoding, spelling, and sight word recognition.
Orton-Gillingham
A structured, systematic approach to teaching the rules of English decoding and encoding. Where Seeing Stars builds the processing that underlies reading, OG teaches the explicit rules and patterns of the language. We use OG for students with pure phonological dyslexia, using it to build phonological awareness morphology, syllable division, and spelling rules, particularly for multisyllabic words.
LIPS (Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program)
Used for students with the most significant phonological awareness deficits. LIPS teaches students to feel the mouth movements associated with each phoneme, giving them a concrete, sensory anchor for sounds that are otherwise abstract. This is typically our starting point for students whose phonological awareness is severely underdeveloped.
What a Typical Learning Plan Looks Like
A reading student's individualized learning plan might include:
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Building grapheme-to-phoneme recognition (knowing the sounds that letters and letter combinations make),
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progressing through single-syllable decoding to multisyllabic word reading.​
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Simultaneously building a bank of sight words for reading and spelling.
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Developing oral reading fluency with leveled text, starting at the student's accurate reading level and building toward grade level.
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Practicing spelling rules and written conventions through dictation and contextual writing.
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And when decoding and fluency are solid, transitioning into comprehension work with Visualizing & Verbalizing.​
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The specifics depend entirely on where your child is starting. Some students begin with letter sounds; others begin with four-syllable words. That is the point of the assessment.
Progress Monitoring
We track progress using instructional data, oral reading fluency probes, sight word inventories. We also use diagnostic reading assessments every 100 hours of instruction or annually (whichever is more frequent).
Every 20 sessions, you receive a detailed parent update showing your child's current levels, what they've mastered, and what their next instructional goals are.
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We use a color-coded system so you can see at a glance where your child stands: previously mastered material, newly mastered skills, current instructional level, and upcoming goals. We then give you a chance to sit down with us, dig in, and ask questions.
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We also offer standardized progress monitoring in decoding, word recognition, and oral reading fluency using the Gray Oral Reading Test-Five (GORT-5), Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE), and Kauffman Test of Educational Achievement Reading Subtests (KTEA-3) for families that need official progress data.