Author Archives: Dr. Kelli Sandman-Hurley

What Sets Dyslexia Training Institute Apart

We often get this question: What sets the Dyslexia Training Institute (DTI) apart from other certification programs?

Well, excuse us while we toot our own horn for a minute, because we are extremely proud of all the things that set us apart from the crowd. At DTI, our staff has extensive training in the Orton-Gillingham approach, but equally if not more important, we have comprehensive training in Structured Word Inquiry (SWI). Several trainers and tutors in the dyslexia world have training in Orton-Gillingham, but few have training in Structured Word Inquiry. We know that the field or dyslexia and dyslexia intervention is ever-changing and we are always on the cutting edge. Our comprehensive and perpetual professional development for our staff in Structured Literacy approaches and continual field experience providing direct instruction to students of all ages with dyslexia gives our staff a high level of expertise in understanding the the structure of the English language. Understanding this approach guides how we develop our courses and how we provide instruction to course participants so they may gain the deepest understanding of dyslexia, the true structure of the English language and how to teach it to their students. Throw in even more professional development and study of Special Education Law and Dyslexia, Executive Functioning skills and dyslexia in English learners and DTI covers all the bases. We take enormous pride in the quality and breadth of the content and structure of our courses. The proof is in the pudding, just take a peek at the unsolicited comments our participants share with us: Continue reading →

Structured Word Inquiry and OG

Do Structured Word Inquiry and Orton-Gillingham Go Together

Have you heard the buzz about Structured Word Inquiry (SWI)? Are you curious how Structured Word Inquiry answers the call for Structured Literacy for our students with dyslexia? No one can explain it better than Gina Cooke does in the following article, Is This OG?, from Linguist-Educator Exchange. But you must read it, and I mean read it carefully, with an open mind and an understanding that we do the best we can with the information we have at the time. So, what will you do with the new information you are about to acquire?

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Dyslexia Goals are Needy

Dyslexia Goals are Needy by Dr. Kelli Sandman-Hurley

The goals of an IEP document can be tedious and even boring to pore over. Sometimes they are just glossed over, or even worse, totally ignored and just shared as an after thought during the IEP meeting. But goals are the window into what the IEP team understands about the identified and individual needs of your student. They highlight what the goal writer, who is often the person providing the instruction, knows about the reading and spelling process. The goals are what your student is going to learn over the course of an entire year, they deserve your attention. And just like services, goals have needs too.

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Phonesthemes

Phonesthemes by Dr Kelli Sandman Hurley from Dyslexia Training Institute

Do you snarl when you say snivel, snout, snoot, snub, snot, snob or snotty? Do you feel a certain sensation or emotion when you say sneer, sneeze, snoop? Maybe you curl your lip or say them with your teeth close together. Did you notice that words that have meaning related to the mouth or nose can start with the same two letters like the <sn> in snore. These letter strings that coincide with feelings and sounds are called phonesthemes which is derived from Greek φωνή phone, “sound”, and αἴσθημα aisthema, “perception” from αίσθάνομαι aisthanomai, “I perceive”.

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