Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves reading, writing, and language processing. People with dyslexia often experience difficulties with both oral and written language skills, such as writing, identifying and producing speech speech sounds, and learning how speech sounds relate to letter and words. Dyslexia is a neurological condition that impacts the area of the brain that processes language and can affect individuals across the lifespan; however, it's impact can change at different stages in a person's life. The earlier a person receives dyslexia intervention, the sooner they can remediate the impact of dyslexia on their daily life.

Melissa treats children and adults that exhibit signs and symptoms often related to dyslexia:

- Difficulty with the development of phonological awareness and phonological processing skills.
- Difficulty in accurately decoding nonsense or unfamiliar words
- Difficulty in reading single words in isolation
- Inaccurate and labored oral reading
- Lack of reading fluency
- Various degrees of learning the names of letters and their associated sounds
- Difficulty with learning to spell
- Difficulty in word finding and rapid naming
- Variable difficulty with aspects of written composition
- Variable degrees of difficulty with reading comprehension

Melissa provides clinical services and support to children and adults that have dyslexia. Melissa provides intervention related to phonological awareness, which refers to an awareness of the sound structures of words, identifying and using individual units of sounds, reading comprehension, building vocabulary and reading aloud. Melissa is a Wilson Dyslexia Certified Practitioner (WDP). This credential recognizes individuals as prepared to diagnostically teach students identified with a language‐based learning disability, such as dyslexia, at the beginning levels of encoding and reading. In addition, Melissa is a Wilson Just Words Practitioner. Just Words® is a highly explicit, multisensory decoding and spelling program for students in grades 4–12 and adults who have mild to moderate gaps in their decoding and spelling proficiency, but do not require intensive intervention.