This Days With Dyslexia podcast launches a five-part series on choosing effective dyslexia intervention without wasting time or money, based on the host’s experience as a parent and as a speech language pathologist who specializes in literacy. The episode explains that research supports structured literacy: explicit, systematic, multimodal instruction that integrates sounds, letters/letter patterns, and meaning (triple word form theory). It warns against meaning-first approaches (whole language/balanced literacy) that emphasize guessing from context and are described as ineffective and potentially harmful, referencing the Sold a Story podcast. The host then contrasts two structured literacy types—letters-first (print-to-speech, e.g., Orton-Gillingham/Wilson/Barton) versus sounds-first (speech-to-print)—and begins Part 1: scope and sequence, arguing sounds-first aligns with natural oral language learning, teaches by spoken sounds, and separates consonant clusters into distinct sounds to reduce confusion and spelling errors.

00:00 Series Kickoff

00:22 Why This Matters

02:52 Avoid Wasting Time

05:01 Structured Literacy Basics

07:08 What Not To Use

09:58 Letters vs Sounds

12:08 Part One Scope Sequence

13:18 Letters First Pitfalls

18:19 Sounds First Logic

22:11 Wrap Up Next Steps