The things parents ask us first.

No. A dyslexia diagnosis is welcome, but it is never required to enroll. Any family looking for help with reading, writing, spelling, or math is welcome to start with a consultation. Our screening and assessment show us where your child stands, and we start there.

Students can begin as early as kindergarten, and we work with learners all the way through college. We screen young learners to catch difficulties early and tailor instruction at every stage.

The first visit is free. We start with a short interview about your child’s history and goals, then a roughly 15-minute Barton screening to confirm the program is a good fit, and a WIST assessment to set a standardized baseline. You leave with real information about your child and a clear plan, whether or not you decide to enroll.

Two 50-minute sessions per week. This is the schedule Susan Barton, who developed the Barton Reading and Spelling System, recommends. Consistency is what makes it work: when sessions are spaced too far apart, students spend the next lesson reviewing instead of moving forward.

Both. We tutor in person at our Saint Paul and Oakdale locations, and online over Zoom. Online sessions become available once a student has completed levels one and two.

For reading and spelling we use the Barton Reading & Spelling System, an Orton-Gillingham based program built for students with dyslexia. Students who need to build phonemic awareness first begin with our Foundations in Sounds program. For math we use Math-U-See. Everything is one-on-one.

The Barton system has ten levels, and each level has a different number of lessons, so the full program usually takes about three to four years. Every child moves at their own pace and advances only once a skill is mastered.

The first visit, including the consultation, screening, and baseline assessment, is free. Ongoing tutoring varies with each student’s needs, so we share detailed pricing through our contact form or at your consultation, with no surprises. If cost is a worry, ask about the Irene Turner Christy Scholarship, which helps families afford the help their child needs.

We reassess with the WIST every six months, and at the end of each Barton level your child takes a post-test they must pass at 80 percent or higher before moving on. Results come back as standard scores, percentile ranks, and grade equivalents, the same language used in a formal evaluation, so progress is measured, not guessed.

Yes. We are glad to understand the goals in your child’s IEP or 504 plan and support them, and with your permission we can share screening and progress results with your child’s school team, so everyone is pulling in the same direction.

We are a structured-literacy remediation center, not a diagnostic clinic. Our screening and WIST assessment pinpoint exact skill gaps, and if a comprehensive evaluation would help, we are glad to point you toward a neuropsychologist.