Therapy for Dyslexia: What to Do if Your Child Has Trouble Reading

If your child has trouble reading, you aren’t alone. More than 40 million Americans struggle with dyslexia. That’s about 15% of the population, making dyslexia one of the most common challenges in the classroom[*]. 

In recent years, brain research has revealed that dyslexia is much more complex than scientists previously thought. It involves disorganized communication between several brain regions that control speech, language, reading, and writing.

In addition, many children (and adults) with dyslexia experience anxiety around reading. Children are particularly susceptible -- they’re often afraid of embarrassing themselves in front of their peers, and may even feel socially isolated because they aren’t reading as well as their classmates. 

The good news is that we understand dyslexia better than ever before, and in the last few years, dyslexia therapy has advanced considerably. 

At Brain Harmony, we specialize in helping children and adults with dyslexia. We use a unique approach that improves brain organization from the ground up, builds practical skills, and even addresses anxiety or stress associated with reading. 

Over the years, our licensed therapists have helped thousands of patients overcome dyslexia. If you or your child is struggling to read, we can help. 

Here’s how we approach therapy for dyslexia, and why we get such positive results. 

What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is the most common reading disorder in the United States. People with dyslexia have trouble spelling words, reading quickly, writing, sounding out words in their head, pronouncing words out loud, and understanding the words and sentences they read. 

One of the most important things to understand about dyslexia is that it has nothing to do with intelligence[*]. Dyslexic people are perfectly smart -- their brains are just organized in a way that makes processing words difficult. 

Some people with dyslexia report seeing letters move on the page when they try to read, as well as letters swapping places (for example, the “a” and the “s” switching with each other in the word “reason”, so it reads “resaon”). 

These are issues with processing. The brain’s pathways are mixed up, so it’s struggling to take what it sees and convert it into accurate information. 

This neurological disorganization is at the root of dyslexia[*]. Dyslexia is not laziness or low intelligence; it’s a brain that’s struggling to stay organized and communicate. That’s what we can help address. 

Brain Harmony’s Approach to Dyslexia Therapy

Most therapy and tutoring sessions for dyslexia take a top-down approach. They encourage repetition, reading words out loud over and over, extra studying, and taking words a single letter at a time. 

While this kind of tutoring can help, it’s often very frustrating for someone with dyslexia. Results are typically quite slow, and without practice, they often don’t last long-term. That’s because the underlying brain function hasn’t changed -- it’s still disorganized, so the person with dyslexia is still struggling. 

At Brain Harmony, we take the exact opposite approach to dyslexia therapy. We focus on rewiring your brain from the ground up, starting with basic brain organization and sensory input (sight, hearing, touch, and so on). 

Once you have a strong, organized foundation of brain function, we begin to move up to higher-order functions (like reading and writing). By starting at the bottom and working up, you can literally rewire your brain for better organization, creating long-term change that doesn’t go away after you finish with therapy. 

The 5-Step Plan of Care for Dyslexia

When one of our patients comes in with reading difficulties or dyslexia, we set up a 5-step plan of care. Each step is tailored to the patient and builds on the previous steps, gradually improving brain function. The steps are:

Step 1: Vagal Regulation

Many people with dyslexia feel deep-seated anxiety around reading and writing. They often feel stupid or embarrassed and are afraid of reading in front of other people. This is especially common in children, and if left unaddressed, it can even lead to panic attacks. 

That’s why we start our plan of care with vagal regulation. The vagus nerve influences stress and your fight-or-flight response. If you’re chronically anxious about something, your vagus nerve is constantly activated, and over time, it becomes difficult for it to turn off. 

It’s very difficult to do therapy when you’re stressed out about it. That’s why we use a special 5-day protocol to teach your vagus nerve to regulate itself again, leaving you calm and relaxed at a biological level. Once you’re calm and open to therapy, you can get to work on improving your brain function. 

We find that patients who start with vagal regulation are far more successful with therapy. They also see results much more quickly -- often within days. 

Step 2: Neurological Organization

In Step 2, we use one or a combination of proven tools to help your brain regions communicate with each other. We call this step “neurological organization” because it is literally the process of reorganizing the brain so it works for you instead of against you.

In dyslexia, people have a baseline deficit in phonological awareness -- the ability to associate spoken words with written language. Their brain mixes up the signal that connects what they read and what they understand. 

Our therapeutic tools improve communication and organization between brain regions, which helps to address the root cause of dyslexia. That’s what creates lasting results. 

Step 3: Reflex Work

It may seem odd focusing on reflexes during dyslexia therapy. At first glance, the two don’t seem to be related. However, a large percentage of people with reading disorders have poorly integrated reflexes, and reflexes and higher-level skills like reading are actually closely linked[*]. 

Reflexes are a fundamental type of brain function that you develop at a very early age (typically before three years old). They’re supposed to integrate in a specific order, and if they don’t integrate properly, they can limit a wide variety of higher-level brain functions. 

Step 3 in our plan of care involves integrating reflexes and training them to work properly. We’ve found that reflex work is one of the most effective (and overlooked) ways to improve dyslexia. 

Step 4: Therapeutic Activities

Once you’ve developed a strong foundation of brain function, you can begin to work on reading, writing, and more complex mental processing. In Step 4, we introduce therapeutic activities and technology that teaches your brain to process its surroundings efficiently and accurately. 

These activities are tailored to each patient. We have a large suite of activities and will choose ones that address your specific challenges, leading to rapid growth that lasts. 

Step 5: Self-Care

In Step 5, we master an essential part of therapy that’s often overlooked. Your therapists will help you create a healthy home for optimized performance. This includes removing stressors, adding resources and activities that can help you continue to strengthen your brain on your own, and other strategies to ensure that you get the most out of your therapy, even when you’ve finished working with us. 

Schedule Your Free Brain Harmony Consultation Today

If you or a loved one is struggling with dyslexia or another language disorder, we can help. Schedule a free consultation today to talk to one of our licensed therapists. We’ll listen to your needs and work together to develop a custom plan of care that will help you improve your brain performance. 

Dyslexia can be frustrating, but with the right therapy, it’s possible to treat it. Reach out today; we’re here to help.