About four years ago, Gracie and Ashlee joined us to share their experiences growing up with dyslexia. At the time, they were both in high school. Now, they’re college students navigating new academic expectations, greater independence, and the responsibility of deciding when and how to ask for support. In this episode, we bring their separate…
Fall screening reports are starting to come home, but terms like below benchmark, at risk, DIBELS, and i-Ready can leave parents with more questions than answers. What are these assessments actually measuring, and what should happen when the results show that a child may need additional support? In this special episode of More Than Words,…
What makes a skilled reader? Dr. Hollis Scarborough, a psychologist and literacy expert, created the idea of the “Reading Rope” to visually represent each component of skilled reading as a strand of thread that is woven together with other threads to create a “rope” that is skilled reading. The components are divided into two main…
Reading may feel automatic to a skilled reader, but it is actually a complex process that requires several areas of the brain to work together. The brain must recognize printed letters and words, connect letters with sounds, access language and vocabulary, and construct meaning from the text. For individuals with dyslexia, these reading networks may…
What if school didn’t have to look the way we’ve always imagined it? In this episode of More Than Words: Treating the Whole Child, Tristen sits down with Joe Casamassima of Fusion Academy to explore the one-to-one school model and how it redefines what learning can look like for students. From personalized pacing to built-in…
Parents today are doing more than ever to support their children, but what happens when all that support starts to feel like too much? In this episode of More Than Words: Treating the Whole Child, Tristen sits down with Casey Pina from Fusion Academy Alexandria to explore a powerful and often overlooked concept: capacity. While…
Starting a conversation with your child’s school can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re unsure how your concerns will be received. In this episode, we talk with Meg Shah about how parents can approach school communication in a way that builds trust, clarity, and true collaboration from the very beginning. Meg shares practical strategies and real-life…
When parents are overwhelmed, stressed, or running on empty, it does not just affect them. It impacts the entire family dynamic. In this episode of More Than Words: Treating the Whole Child, we sit down with therapist Stephanie Kaiser to talk about a topic that often gets overlooked: parent mental health. Instead of focusing only…
In this episode of More Than Words, we take a closer look at what actually happens during an AAC evaluation and why it is much more than choosing a device. Speech-language pathologist Carleton Levert walks us through the full process, from initial referrals and case review to device trials, observations, and recommendations. We also explore…
Psychoeducational evaluations can sound intimidating for families, but they are designed to do something very important: help us understand how a child learns. In this episode of More Than Words: Treating the Whole Child, host Tristen speaks with licensed school psychologist Megan Davis about what psychoeducational evaluations really are and how they help uncover the…