Our Approach

We do not believe in a “wait and see” or “wait to fail” philosophy when it comes to addressing reading struggles. The sooner challenges with reading are accurately identified and tailored intervention begin, the better. BKR has established a virtual program delivery model so that our services are accessible to more children with fewer logistical barriers. This results in our unique, integrated, team-based approach.

Our CARE Program

Comprehensive Advocacy & Reading Evaluation

Step 1 — Welcome to Beyond Kids Reading

Our first step is to meet with parents to accomplish three goals:

  1. Listen deeply to your story of struggles and successes in supporting your child;
  2. Begin acknowledging and uncovering the gifts of your child;
  3. Provide guidance and education about the most effective ways to support your child moving forward.

Step 2 — Three-part Team Based Evaluation

Our second step is to conduct a three-part evaluation of your child. For those who struggle with reading, evaluations are a critical step on the journey to lifelong success. The recommendations obtained can help ensure that your child receives appropriate and tailored educational instruction and guidance regarding their social and emotional well-being.

1. Neuropsychological Evaluation

We partner with neuropsychologists, who meet 1-on-1 with your child over several sessions to administer a series of interactive cognitive tests. The evaluation measures such areas as attention, organization, problem solving, memory, language, and visual-spatial skills.

The neuropsychologist will turn the results from their evaluation and observations of your child into a report. The neuropsychological report illustrates your child’s learning profile, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. Public schools may require these evaluations in order to consider providing special education services for children who struggle with reading.

2. Academic Evaluation

We work with special educators, with years of classroom teaching experience, who meet 1-on-1 with your child over several sessions to administer norm based tests that measure your child’s academic skills and achievement. This is a critical point of differentiation to other traditional neuropsychological evaluations. Our evaluations are conducted by professionals with language based learning expertise. From these tests, we gather strong data about your child’s academic skills. These results are reviewed by our entire evaluation team and incorporated into a final report.

3. 1-on-1 Diagnostic Tutorial Sessions with a Reading Specialist

Your child will complete a minimum of eight 1-on-1 sessions with an Orton-Gillingham trained Reading Specialist. This is a critical point of differentiation compared to other evaluation approaches. We begin working with your child directly to provide greater depth and richness to our team-based findings. This means your child receives initial immediate reading intervention, avoiding more lost time while a final report is being written. Findings from the tutorial sessions are also reviewed by our entire evaluation team and incorporated into a final report.

Step 3 — Parent Coaching Sessions

After your child has completed the three components of the evaluation, we plan personalized parent coaching sessions. Topics of this session include: an overview of the Orton-Gillingham approach, structured literacy, and multi-sensory strategies; information about how, when, and what to read with your child; and specific insights about your child based upon our work to date. We also provide an Educational Advocacy 101 coaching session to help you understand the IEP process.

Step 4 — Parent Feedback Session: Action Plan & Next Steps

As the last component of the evaluation process, we hold a meeting with you to review the neuropsychological report and our BKR Action Plan. Our plan is user-friendly for parents and substantial in content for practitioners and educational experts. Each of the experts who meets with your child during the three-part evaluation will participate in a collaborative process of producing recommendations for your child. This is an integrative, team-based approach, in contrast to working with different independent specialists with no formalized working relationship. This plan is designed to be accessible and action-oriented, and it is written with you, the parents, as the audience.

Step 5 — Meeting with School to Review Findings and Recommendations

Once you have the final reports and recommendations, you have the option to contact your child’s school to provide them with the results. If you choose to do so, we will walk you through best practices on how to work with your school or school district. A BKR educational consultant can join you for this meeting to provide support, expertise, and advocacy on behalf of you and your child.

The Virtual Experience

After you sign up with us for the CARE Program, you will receive a BKR Toolbox. In it you will find a document-view camera. Our experts find that the use of a document-view camera makes the virtual learning experience more personalized and effective. The toolbox also includes a headset with microphone, a binder of material for the reading sessions, a reading guide, an Expo white board, a variety of writing utensils, and tools for kinesthetic learning (e.g., Unifix cubes, silicone popper fidgets).

Our practitioners are skillful and familiar with working with children virtually. Central to our virtual learning philosophy is building strong relationships with students from the outset. This helps with student engagement and creating a positive learning experience.

Other Services

  • 45-minute sessions with Orton-Gillingham trained Reading Specialist.
  • Areas of focus during the sessions will be based on your child’s needs, as determined via our core package’s evaluation process. (This service is contingent upon completion of the CARE Program.)
  • Executive functioning support will be integrated into the sessions.
  • Progress Report will be provided upon completion of the sessions.
  • Option to get weekly parent emails, summarizing progress and key areas of focus, as well as suggesting specific reading or other work to reinforce the learnings at home

  • 60-minute sessions with a Reading Specialist.
  • Targeted to either general education (e.g., how do I learn how to “tap” sounds with my child?) or child-specific needs (e.g., what are my child’s specific areas of struggle, and what specific books should I be reading with my child?).

  • Provide educational consultation
  • Review all testing, school records, and IEP documents, if applicable
  • Join meetings with your child’s school or school district
DISCLAIMER: Beyond Kids Reading (“BKR”) is a 501c3 educational not-for-profit organization.  BKR provides comprehensive education and advocacy services.  BKR does not provide legal or medical advice or services in any manner or form.