If your child struggles with reading, you’ve likely encountered the term reading intervention. But what is a reading intervention and what does it actually involve?
A reading intervention session is more than just extra reading practice—it’s a targeted, research-based approach to help children overcome specific challenges and build the foundational skills they need to succeed.
In this post, we’ll go over what happens during a reading intervention session and how Smart Start Tutors uses the most effective methods to help struggling readers.
What Is a Reading Intervention?
Before diving into the details of a session, it’s helpful to understand what reading intervention is.
Reading intervention is a specialized program designed to help children who are behind in reading or struggling with specific skills, such as decoding, fluency, or comprehension.
It focuses on addressing the root causes of reading difficulties through personalized, evidence-based strategies.
What to Expect During a Reading Intervention Session
When parents think of tutoring, they often picture a child working through their homework with extra support.
While this can be helpful, traditional tutoring typically reinforces classroom content rather than addresses the root of a student’s reading struggles. Reading interventions, particularly those using the Orton-Gillingham approach, offer a completely different experience.
An Orton-Gillingham-based reading intervention session is designed to build foundational literacy skills in a systematic, engaging, and multi-sensory way.
This evidence-based methodology focuses on essential building blocks of reading, such as phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, spelling, and comprehension. Unlike traditional tutoring, these sessions aim to fill gaps in foundational skills so children can gain the confidence and ability to read successfully and independently over time.
Here’s what you can expect during a typical reading intervention with the Orton-Gillingham approach:
1. Sound Drill: Each session begins with a sound drill, where students review letter sounds that have been introduced and practiced in previous lessons. This quick, focused activity builds automaticity, helping children recall sounds confidently and quickly.
2. Listening Game: Next, the literacy specialist does a listening game to develop phonological and phonemic awareness. These activities may include rhyming words, blending sounds, or segmenting words into individual sounds. This step is critical for strengthening the foundation for effective reading and spelling.
3. Review of Previous Skills: Before moving forward, we take time to review previously taught skills to ensure retention and understanding. This might include practicing word lists, sentences, or specific spelling patterns. By reinforcing prior learning, students master concepts and feel prepared to progress to new material.
4. Introduction of a New Skill: A new concept or skill is presented systematically and explicitly, building on the child’s existing knowledge. The progression is broken down into small, manageable steps to ensure the child experiences success and avoids feeling overwhelmed.
5. Building and Reading Words: Using a multi-sensory approach, students actively engage in constructing words with tools like letter tiles or tactile writing techniques. Afterward, they practice reading these words aloud to strengthen decoding skills and build fluency.
6. Dictation: Dictation exercises connect auditory and visual learning with writing. Students write letters, words, or sentences as they hear them, often using techniques like writing in sand, tracing letters, or repeating sounds aloud. These multi-sensory methods make learning more engaging and help cement the connection between sounds, words, and spelling.
7. Sight Words Practice: Sight words, which often don’t follow typical phonetic patterns, are practiced using visual cues and motions to aid recognition. Students may build sentences with sight words to reinforce their understanding and make learning interactive.
8. Reading a Decodable Book: The session culminates with reading a decodable book that aligns with the skills practiced that day. These books are carefully selected to match the child’s current reading level, allowing them to apply their learning in context while building confidence and fluency.
9. Games and Engagement: To make learning fun and engaging, the specialist incorporates interactive games that reinforce the day’s skills. These could include board games, card games, or digital activities tailored to match the child’s progress. By including play with learning, children remain motivated and excited to participate.
What Makes Reading Intervention Effective?
Reading intervention is highly effective because it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Each session is carefully personalized to address your child’s unique needs and to target the root causes of their reading struggles.
Using a structured, multi-sensory approach like Orton-Gillingham, specialists focus on building foundational literacy skills such as phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and comprehension.
Progress is tracked consistently, allowing the specialist to adjust their methods as needed and ensure your child moves forward at a manageable pace. The systematic, evidence-based techniques used in these sessions not only build skills but also boost confidence, making reading a less stressful and more enjoyable experience.
Most importantly, reading intervention is led by trained experts who understand the science of reading and how to tailor instruction for children with challenges like Dyslexia, ADD, or other reading difficulties.
By targeting the root of the problem rather than surface-level academic tasks, reading intervention equips children with the tools they need to succeed independently, both in school and in life.
How Is Online Reading Intervention Different?
Online reading intervention at Smart Start Tutors offers the same targeted, research-based approach as in-person sessions, with added convenience and flexibility.
Using the Orton-Gillingham methodology, an evidence-based approach designed for struggling readers, we focus on building foundational literacy skills like phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and comprehension.
Through our virtual platform, your child works one-on-one with a trained reading specialist in a structured, supportive, and engaging environment—all from the comfort of home.
Each session is carefully personalized to meet your child’s unique needs and incorporates multi-sensory activities to make learning interactive and effective. Tools like letter tiles, auditory exercises, and decodable reading materials keep your child motivated and focused while reinforcing key concepts.
What sets Smart Start Tutors apart is our commitment to addressing the root causes of reading struggles, not just surface-level challenges. Our systematic and consistent approach builds confidence, ensures skill mastery, and helps children achieve lasting success in reading—without the need for travel or scheduling conflicts.
If your child is struggling with reading, Smart Start Tutors provides the tools, expert support, and encouragement they need to thrive. You can schedule a call to see if a reading intervention is right for your child!
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