The REED (Reading Education Endowment for Dyslexia) Charitable Foundation is committed to the following initiatives to support dyslexia in our community and beyond:

(1) Scholarships for private academic testing, private tutoring for Orton-Gillingham based instruction, private tuition to schools offering science-based, structured literacy reading instruction/intervention, educator training in Orton-Gillingham based reading instruction;

(2) Educator/School based support including professional development opportunities for educators relating to dyslexia, sponsoring dyslexia screening days for local schools and providing financial support for any proven curriculum or assistive technology that supports dyslexic students;

(3) Community education events that are FREE to the public and are geared to ensure exceptional content and meaningful fellowship; and

(4) Local, state and federal legislative advocacy focused on early identification of dyslexia via mandatory screenings for grades K-3rd, specified structured literacy based curriculum in ALL schools, mandatory Specific Learning Disability (SLD) course in ALL colleges of education, mandatory “science of reading” based curriculum in ALL college of education, mandatory retroactive training for ALL in-service educators in the “science of reading” with an obligation to consistent continuing education and professional development regarding the “science of reading”.

According to the International Dyslexia Association, dyslexia is “a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.”

According to the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practioners and Educators, the Orton-Gillingham Approach (also known as “OG”) is a direct, explicit, multi sensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing and spelling does not come easily to individuals, such as those with dyslexia. To learn more about OG, please visit the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators website.

The International Dyslexia Association explains that Structured Literacy is considered the most effective approach to teach reading, writing and spelling to students who experience unusual difficulty learning to read and spell words, including dyslexic students. The term includes teaching students phoneme awareness (individual speech sounds that make up words), sound-symbol correspondence, patterns and conventions of print, morphology (the meaning of language), syntax (system for ordering words in sentences so meaning is communicated) and semantics (meaning). Because OG is considered a form of Structured Literacy, Structured Literacy also follows the same principles and methods of OG, including: explicit, systematic, cumulative, multi-sensory, diagnostic and responsive instruction.

The National Council on Teacher Quality refers to the science of reading as explicit, systematic instruction that encompasses all five essential components of early reading instruction, which are: (1) phonemic awareness, (2) phonics, (3) fluency, (4) vocabulary and (5) reading comprehension.