In 2018, my daughter was struggling academically at every level in public school, even though she was only in the 1st grade. She had been diagnosed at the end of Kindergarten with dyslexia, ADD, and Sensory Processing Disorder. I spent countless hours every week driving her to occupational and speech therapy appointments, in addition to private Orton-Gillingham (O.G.) tutoring sessions for dyslexia. Somehow, I managed to continue working full-time as a medical SLP. It was a struggle—expensive and intense. After more than a year of O.G. sessions (4 times a week at school) and private O.G. tutoring, she was finally able to read some words. Despite all our efforts and hard work, she was still well below grade level in reading.
She continued falling further behind in school with reading, spelling and writing. She began having epic meltdowns in school because she couldn’t keep up, she constantly felt overwhelmed and inadequate. She developed new manifestations of anxiety beyond meltdowns and they reared their head more frequently. Many times, she cried, called herself stupid, and even began to slap her face out of frustration while working on her homework assignments. It was heartbreaking to watch. All that her little mind was trying to handle was wreaking havoc on her self-esteem and our home life.
We knew our child was headed down a path that, if we did not intervene, the consequences would be dire. We had done everything we knew to help her. She had an IEP and was receiving in-school support and accommodations. Additionally, she attended multiple private therapy sessions. I knew we had to make a change. So, after much contemplation, in 2019, I took a step back from a successful career as a Medical Speech-Language Pathologist to homeschool her. Given my degree and experience working with patients with neurological disorders, coupled with my mama bear determination, I felt confident that I could help her in a one-on-one setting. It was a sacrifice, but one we were willing to make, as we knew we would never get those early years back to intervene. I rolled up my sleeves and immersed myself in learning all I could about dyslexia, neurodivergent learners’ needs, and literacy and language interventions.
For a year, we continued with private OG tutoring, and I purchased several phonology based curricula, hoping that at least one would be ‘the one’ that clicked. She attended a homeschool co-op two days a week in addition to our lessons at home. She made progress, as she was finally reading at the sentence level, but she still lagged behind her peers. Her spelling and writing was still lagging. Her peers and teachers couldn’t read what she wrote, because she spelled everything phonetically. After all, that’s what she had been taught—to ‘sound out the words’ and ‘to match letters to sounds.’ Despite my best efforts along with professional intervention, she was still so far behind. I blamed myself and felt like I had failed her.
In my relentless search for help, I stumbled across a novel approach to teaching spelling called Structured Word Inquiry (S.W.I.). S.W.I. teaches children to look at the English writing system through investigation. It utilizes a multi-sensory approach by incorporating orthography (the conventional spelling system) that includes morphology (meaning and structure), etymology (origins of words), and phonology (the sound system). As an SLP with a master’s level education in speech-language and communication disorders, this made complete sense as a methodology to teach children! Honestly, it was the answer to all the roadblocks we had encountered using an O.G. approach.
I took many courses from and followed leaders in the field. I also found a fellow S.W.I. SLP mentor and began implementing S.W.I. with my daughter. S.W.I. is dynamic and student-led, and most importantly, I saw results and connections like never before! No more ‘drilling and killing’ to learn ‘sounds’ in isolation and out of the context of language. She made leaps with spelling and writing, gained a larger vocabulary base, and improved her reading skills. She has become an avid reader, reading well above grade level. Undoubtedly, her progress was due to one change—implementing S.W.I.!
My daughter returned to public school last year, entering middle school after five years of putting up with me as her teacher. She recently thanked me for teaching her S.W.I. You see, it dawned on her how her knowledge of orthography, morphology, and etymology has become an asset for her. She will always have dyslexia, and there is no doubt she will face challenges in her future. The difference is that now she has the tools to succeed and is no longer overwhelmed with tasks related to reading and writing. In fact, it has become an area of strength for her!
Last year, she was awarded an Academic Achievement Award in English Language Arts (of all subjects), scored a new school record high in ELA for the end-of-year MAP testing, and is now taking Honors ELA in the 7th grade. These are huge accomplishments for a child with learning differences. I realize many children will never see this type of recognition for the years of toil and hard work to learn what may come easily to most children. I also know that many children are struggling unnecessarily because the instruction they receive is inadequate and limiting their full potential. I am forever grateful that my daughter was patient with me as I was learning right along with her on how to implement S.W.I. I am beyond proud of both of us for having the tenacity and grit to keep going, despite many days when we both ended up in tears before discovering a new way, a better way—the S.W.I. way.
Our children begin their school careers with a focus on ‘learning to read.’ If they haven’t gained a solid foundation, they continue to struggle as the material becomes more difficult and complex. By the 3rd or 4th grade, children are expected to be independent readers, with the focus shifting towards ‘reading to learn.’ As each year passes, the stakes become higher. When our children are not given the proper instruction and lack a strong foundation in reading and writing, this leads to unnecessary and ongoing struggles at school, and even worse, battles with self-worth. The detrimental impact on how they view themselves is far-reaching and long-lasting. No child should suffer as mine did with overwhelming anxiety from feelings of inadequacy.
I am a mama who has been there in the thick of the struggle, dealing with the chaos life throws at you. I have lived with the feeling of being overwhelmed and helpless at times, wondering how in the world to help my child. Life is funny where it leads you! Homeschooling my daughter and discovering the power of S.W.I. ironically led me to a newfound passion and niche as an SLP focused on literacy and language interventions. It has become somewhat of a personal crusade to help other children struggling as my daughter did. The most rewarding aspect of being a therapist is seeing a child who was once shut down begin to get curious about learning and start to gain their confidence back. The best feeling in the world is when they realize they aren’t ‘stupid’ or lacking—rather, the instruction was lacking, and they merely took the fall for it.
I would be honored to get to know you and your child to see if we would be a good team. There is a better way, no matter where they are on their journey.