Every plan starts with an evaluation.
From there, a personalized treatment plan is built around what testing shows, not a default program. Professional services are available any time you need support outside of sessions, no evaluation required.
Find out what's actually going on.
If you're not sure whether a full evaluation is the right next step, a Literacy Screening is a good place to begin. In one hour, I'll assess your child's literacy skills and give you a clear recommendation on whether to move forward with an evaluation and, if so, which one fits.
When the picture needs more detail, a Focused Speech-Language Evaluation or a Comprehensive Language and Literacy Evaluation builds a complete diagnostic profile, ending in a written report, a parent feedback session, and an individualized treatment plan built from what the testing shows.
Therapeutic intervention and enrichment services in speech, language, and literacy, for children with a diagnosis and for those whose families want stronger foundations before a concern becomes a struggle.
Sessions draw on a structured literacy approach, applied to the specific speech, language, and literacy skills your child needs to build, whether that's phonological awareness, decoding, encoding, morphology, syntax, reading comprehension, or spoken language. Methods include Orton-Gillingham-based instruction, Visualizing and Verbalizing, and PROMPT Level 1 techniques, selected based on your child's profile. A formal diagnosis is not required to get started, but if the data supports one, it can be provided.
Built around specific goals,
short-term and long-term.
School collaboration, written recommendations for teachers or other providers, report or document review, and parent collaboration sessions for added strategies and support at home, billed in 30-minute increments for support that happens outside the therapy room.
Support for everyone helping your child, parents included.
Where this evaluation fits.
When a child struggles with reading, writing, or spelling, the struggle is rarely just about reading. Language comprehension, phonological processing, speech, and motor planning all shape how literacy develops, and weaknesses in any of them can be what's actually driving the problem. Finding the answer means testing all of it, and being qualified to diagnose what testing reveals, whether that's dyslexia, a developmental language disorder, a phonological or motor speech disorder, or several at once.
Most families end up comparing three options. Some also consider a neuropsychological evaluation, which maps broader cognitive functioning, working memory, processing speed, attention, and can diagnose dyslexia. That information is genuinely valuable. But a neuropsychologist doesn't treat, and the language testing is broad rather than deep, so families typically leave with a diagnosis, a referral, and a need for the detailed speech-language testing that treatment planning actually requires, at several times the cost of getting that testing directly. For the options families weigh most directly, here's how they compare.
Reading Specialist or Tutor
Who performs it:
A certified teacher or tutor, typically trained to deliver a specific reading program.
What testing they use:
The program's own placement assessments, designed to show where a child starts in that program's sequence, not why they're struggling.
Can they diagnose:
No. Tutors can identify skill gaps, but not the language and processing breakdown producing them.
Who decides the plan:
The program. Instruction follows the method's set sequence, and when a child doesn't respond, the option is usually more of the same, because the training is in the program, not in the language systems underneath it.
What you leave with:
Practice in the program's skills, and ongoing sessions. Whatever else is happening underneath, in language, processing, or how a child organizes and applies what they learn, stays untested and unaddressed.
General
Speech-Language Pathologist
The Literacy Loop
Who performs it:
A licensed SLP, most often a generalist treating a wide range of ages and diagnoses.
What testing they use:
Standardized assessments of spoken language, receptive, expressive, and speech sound production. Phonological processing and literacy are usually outside the battery, so a child can test fine and still be struggling on the page.
Can they diagnose:
Speech and language disorders, yes. Dyslexia falls within an SLP's scope, but most defer it to neuropsychologists, because diagnosing it requires specialized literacy training beyond graduate school.
Who decides the plan:
Often the insurance company. Coverage rules shape which goals can be treated and for how long, and literacy goals are rarely covered.
What you leave with:
Answers about spoken language, and therapy for the covered goals. The bridge from spoken language to print, where early speech and language issues so often resurface as reading and spelling struggles, typically goes unexamined.
Who performs it:
A licensed speech-language pathologist certified in structured literacy, specializing in the connection between spoken language and print.
What testing they use:
Standardized, normed assessments across speech, language, phonological processing, and literacy, combined with informal measures and clinical observation, and selected for your child's specific profile.
Can they diagnose:
Yes, including dyslexia, developmental language disorder, speech sound disorders, and the overlap between them.
Who decides the plan:
Your child's data. No insurance rules, no preset sequence. Testing builds the roadmap.
What you leave with:
A written report, a parent feedback session, a diagnosis where the data supports one, and an individualized treatment plan ready to begin.
Rates and what's included are covered in your free 20-minute consultation, so you'll have complete information before making any decision.