In part four of a series on choosing effective dyslexia interventions, Michelle reviews three approaches (meaning-first/whole literacy, which they advise avoiding, and two structured literacy approaches: letters-first/Orton-Gillingham “print to speech” and sounds-first “speech to print”).

She emphasizes that doing a single sound-awareness lesson before moving to letters is not the same as a true sounds-first approach, which should integrate sounds throughout instruction and quickly connect sound awareness to letters.

The episode focuses on what children say while writing: letters-first programs often have children say letter names, which encourages memorizing letter strings and limits sound-letter integration, while sounds-first instruction has children say each sound as they write the matching letter to strengthen sound-letter connections and pattern recognition.

A story about a student (“Jay”) shows how letter-name studying led to poor spelling and an inability to read studied words until the approach shifted to sounds.

00:00 Dyslexia Intervention Overview

00:57 Three Reading Approaches

01:39 Sounds First Clarified

03:33 Series Recap to Part Four

04:35 Bouncy vs Stretchy Speech

06:16 Letters First Pitfalls

09:18 Sounds First While Writing

10:38 Jay’s Spelling Test Story

13:22 Study Smarter With Sounds

15:08 Wrap Up and Part Five Tease