Reading Boost

Tammy Buckley, a middle and high school math teacher with experience, launched Reading Boost amid the COVID-19 pandemic after her first-grade son struggled to read. Buckley's twin children, a daughter and son, enrolled in kindergarten during the pandemic's early stages. Buckley's daughter learned to read while her son, her "late bloomer," did not. Buckley initially assumed her son would catch up, but research indicated that first-grade readers who fall behind almost never reach their peers' level without intervention. Buckley watched her son grapple with remote learning for a year and decided to act. During her internet search for reading strategies, Buckley stumbled upon the Orton-Gillingham phonics method, a scientifically validated approach to teaching reading. Buckley tutored her son with flashcards, sound exercises, and syllable clapping through the Orton-Gillingham technique. After four months of consistent practice, her son could read on average. Buckley's son is now an above-average fourth-grade reader, a voracious reader, and someone who enjoys huddling up with a great book. She has since been developing her reading boost program and has enhanced the reading outcomes of a large number of children since 2020. The Orton-Gillingham Reading Approach The Orton-Gillingham approach is a structured, sequential, and multi-sensory technique designed to teach reading. Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham created this approach in the 1920s to help children with dyslexia. This technique has been approved for teaching all pupils to read and write. This approach incorporates visual, auditory, and kinesthetic components to help students learn and remember the English language's sound and letter patterns. For example, students can use flashcards to reinforce letter-sound identification, or they can clap out syllables to develop phonemic awareness. The Orton-Gillingham approach also emphasizes skill mastery, with frequent review and practice. This method breaks the English language into its constituent parts and teaches them sequentially and directly, allowing students to establish a solid reading foundation. A solid reading foundation can benefit students throughout their academic careers and beyond. Reference Reading Boost | About Us. (n.d.). Reading Boost. https://readingboost.com/about-us/