Because dyslexia affects a child’s language processing, it can make it difficult for them to keep up with the one-size-fits-all information delivered in traditional classes. This can lead to significant challenges at school and can ultimately damage a student’s self-confidence.
Although dyslexia is often identified through screening programs in kindergarten and first grade, some students with dyslexia struggle through middle school or high school before their learning difference is diagnosed. Whatever the situation, tutoring can make all the difference.
Students with dyslexia are capable and articulate. Yet because their learning difference makes it harder to decode words, spell, and read fluently, traditional teaching methods often don’t provide the time or tools they need to succeed. With the support of a tutor who understands how dyslexia affects the brain’s processing — and when the student begins to see it as a learning difference rather than something that needs to be “fixed” — they can strengthen their reading fluency, close learning gaps, and rebuild confidence in their abilities.
In this post, we cover:
- What to look for when researching tutoring programs for students with dyslexia. The most effective programs are led by tutors who understand dyslexia and use multisensory teaching methods, helping students build confidence as they strengthen their reading skills.
- Tutoring programs for students with dyslexia at Fusion Academy. Fusion Academy offers several personalized tutoring packages in person and online.
Looking for personalized tutoring? Explore Fusion Academy’s one-to-one tutoring programs.
What to Look for in a Dyslexia Tutoring Program
Working one-to-one with a tutor offers clear benefits over learning in a large classroom. Still, tutoring alone isn’t a quick fix — especially when a learning difference like dyslexia is part of the picture. As you explore options, asking about a tutor’s experience and approach can help you find the right fit and support your child’s growth with confidence.
A Deep Understanding of Dyslexia
Dyslexia doesn’t mean a child can’t learn to read; it just means they need a different set of tools and more time to learn to decode the written word.
According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, only 17% of teachers feel very well prepared to teach dyslexic students (NCLD, 2021). But, when a teacher falls into this category, they can:
- Apply evidence-based strategies that work for dyslexia. For example, many teachers will be familiar with the Orton-Gillingham method or the Wilson Reading System based on the same “Structured Literacy” principles of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension exercises.
- Choose techniques that fit the learning preferences and interests of the individual student. One of the main advantages of working with an experienced tutor is that they can reframe the material covered in class instead of simply reviewing it. They can go a step further by finding the dyslexia-specific learning strategies a student responds to and giving them opportunities to explore the areas of a subject that are particularly interesting to them.
- Flip the script on how “success” looks. Students with dyslexia tend to struggle with tests because their reading and writing skills aren’t as strong as their peers’, but that doesn’t mean they lack comprehension. One-to-one tutoring can give students another perspective, helping them showcase their knowledge as they discuss it in a session, and making them aware of their progress as their word recognition and reading skills improve.
The Use of Multisensory Teaching Methods
Students with dyslexia often struggle in school because the teaching methods used in large classes don’t align with the way their brains process information. Multisensory methods are much more effective than, for example, cue-and-prompt-based methods used by teachers to scaffold group lessons.
Even if a school doesn’t have a dedicated dyslexia intervention program, multisensory methods are possible with a tutor, so it’s important to ask a prospective tutor how they’ve used a multisensory approach in the past.
Tutors and teachers at Fusion Academy incorporate multisensory tools whenever they can help a student thrive. These strategies are especially helpful for middle and high school students, who often face bigger demands as they move up in grade level and are expected to read and write at a higher level.
- Tools that read texts aloud, particularly when they highlight words as students read along. Tools like Microsoft Immersive Reader and Speechify make it easier for students to track and understand what they’re reading, especially when they have to deal with a longer or more complex passage.
- Text-to-speech software for writing. Tools like Google Docs Voice Typing mean students can focus on their ideas rather than their spelling or typing when they’re composing written assignments.
- Visual summaries, particularly for instructions, can help contextualize new information and make it easier for the dyslexic mind to absorb.
- Sketch noting tools help students create quick, low-pressure drawings or diagrams of what they’ve learned — think arrows, stick figures, and symbols. Sketch notes make it easier for students with dyslexia to retain information. In our experience, they also work well for neurodivergent students with, for example, ADHD or working memory challenges. We often use Sketchnote Army or the icons and symbols in The Noun Project database to get started with sketch noting.
The best teachers recognize that these multisensory tools are not about making work “easier,” but about making the material covered in class more accessible for struggling readers.
Supporting the Whole Child
Dyslexia can have a huge psychological and social impact on a child, particularly if they are diagnosed later in their academic career. It’s very common for students with dyslexia to experience feelings of shame or anxiety, or to feel “less than” their peers. On top of this, many have experienced bullying because of the way the learning difference presents itself.
When searching for a dyslexia program or a one-to-one tutor for your child, it’s crucial to choose someone who understands that a learning difference affects more than just reading and academics. The best dyslexia tutors can transform the learning environment, help students understand how their brains work, and build on their strengths. This approach can restore confidence and self-esteem that may have been impacted by their experiences with dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a lifelong learning difference. With the right support and reading program, students can learn to thrive in school, but they won’t “grow out of” dyslexia. This is why high-quality, holistic tutoring is so vital. It helps students reach their full potential academically, and it gives them the strategies they’ll rely on for their whole lives.
How Fusion Academy Helps Students with Dyslexia
Fusion Academy is a private middle and high school with 80+ campuses across the U.S. and a comprehensive online program called Fusion Global Academy. Both of these options offer personalized learning with a one-to-one teacher-student ratio and an emphasis on executive functioning skills as well as class material.
Every aspect of Fusion Academy’s program is customizable, flexible, and tailored to the individual child. This learning model lends itself particularly well to both in-person and online tutoring because:
- Our teachers have extensive experience working one-to-one with middle school and high school students. Because they’re experienced in this method of teaching, they’re extremely skilled at adapting their teaching methods to the student in front of them.
- Our teachers work with students with a variety of learning differences, including dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and sensory processing disorder, as well as with gifted students. They’re aware of the different ways students process information and the structures they need to help them retain and master the content.
- Our teachers recognize and respond to dyslexia symptoms as they show up in class. For example, if a student’s educational background has made them anxious about reading aloud, our tutors are attuned to that stress and can adjust their teaching methods to offer additional support and encouragement.
- We work under the philosophy of Love, Motivate, Teach. Students must feel safe and understood to learn, so we prioritize building a trusting and authentic relationship that tailors teaching to a student’s strengths, interests, and learning preferences.
Tutoring at Fusion Academy is provided by our full-time teachers, who are experts in their subject matter. We can provide tutoring in all the core and elective subjects in our course catalog. View the current course catalog here.
Now, let’s look at the tutoring packages Fusion Academy offers in more detail.
Personalized Dyslexia Tutoring with Experienced Teachers
Like our general classes, Fusion’s tutoring sessions are one-to-one and customized for each student. For dyslexic students, this means teachers tailor the material covered in a block of tutoring sessions to the student’s reading level, comprehension, the material their teachers are covering in class, and their learning preferences.
In practice, this can look like:
- Adjusting the lesson pace to devote more time to reading a text together, so the student can ask questions and advocate for themselves when they need to slow down or review a word.
- Breaking longer texts into more manageable sections so it doesn’t seem as daunting.
- Building short breaks into the session, especially if movement helps the student to focus and self-regulate.
- Providing or recommending additional tools to help a student with feelings of stress and anxiety, like fidget toys or weighted blankets.
- Demonstrating active listening and note-taking techniques, like showing students how they could use sketchnoting during class and when they’re studying at home.
Fusion’s teachers are also well-versed in the multisensory teaching methods that help students with dyslexia make progress with reading and writing. Alongside text readers, voice typing, and sketchnoting tools, our tutors can create and provide:
- Color-coded learning materials, which can help students categorize and retain information. For example, tutors can color-code the resources for a certain topic or use color coding to highlight the crucial learning outcomes from each session.
- Visual breakdowns, for example, of the instructions or processes followed in a science class.
- Personalized vocabulary lists, categorized in the way that best helps the child practice and retain new words. For example, a dyslexic student’s vocabulary list might use phonemes alongside the spelling of the word.
We make a wide variety of high-quality materials available to our teachers as they’re planning lessons or tutoring blocks. However, to ensure the best results for the individual child, teachers are free to customize those materials or create their own.
For example, if a teacher is planning a tutoring program for a dyslexic student looking to improve their grade in a reading-heavy subject like history, they’ll start by looking at course materials in Canvas, our learning management system.
Looking at the standard materials, a teacher might realise that the pacing of the material in the textbook is too quick for the student in front of them. In this case, they could use one of the teaching tools we provide to generate an alternative set of questions and discussion prompts for their upcoming lesson.
For example, whereas the textbook might suggest six comprehension questions at the end of a chapter, the teacher could use a tool like Magic School to create a question that summarizes the information in each paragraph of text.
Magic School allows teachers to input the student’s grade level and an assignment description to generate custom learning materials. It can also be useful in dyslexia tutoring programs as a way to create alternative assessments. If a student struggles to compose an essay on a topic but excels with a verbal quiz, for example, tutors can create materials that will test a student’s knowledge in a way that gives them a feeling of accomplishment and success.
Current Tutoring Packages at Fusion Academy
Currently, Fusion Academy offers several pre-built tutoring packages in our core and elective subjects. But our tutoring packages are customizable. You can pick the subject your child needs help with, and you can choose whether they’re going to be working on curriculum from their current school or curriculum provided by Fusion Academy.
Tutoring can be organized in-person on one of our campuses, online, or as a hybrid of the two.
For families new to Fusion Academy, our Introductory 5-Pack of Customized Tutoring is an economical way to try out our personalized learning model and find out whether tutoring is right for your child.
The five sessions, at an introductory price of $300 for the pack, are flexible in scheduling and content. We can schedule tutoring morning, afternoon, and evening, and we’ll work with you after purchase to build a customized program.
If tutoring is a good fit, families can continue with longer packages of 10, 20, or 30 sessions.
Reading and Math Remediation Programs
For students with dyslexia, especially those diagnosed later, there are often significant learning gaps to fill. Reading is taught, not instinctual, and dyslexia means that many of the building blocks of literacy — like phonological processing, vocabulary building, and comprehension — are challenging for these students. Because the standard ways of teaching reading in school often don’t break down the skills required in a way that makes sense to them, dyslexic students are often left in a position where they have to catch up later.
To combat these difficulties and help students improve their grades, Fusion offers two reading remediation programs:
- Reading Skills and Strategies for students between the 15th and 40th percentiles
- The pilot Structured Literacy Program for students at the 15th percentile or below
In Fusion’s flagship remedial reading class, Reading Skills and Strategies, students combine independent learning on an online platform with one-to-one instruction from an experienced teacher. A 50-minute class involves roughly 50% teacher instruction and 50% self-study, with slightly more emphasis on self-study.
This hybrid model sets Fusion apart from many other reading remediation programs, which typically rely 100% on the software. While this can be beneficial, our research shows that the additional support, guidance, and accountability from the teacher is more effective in helping students navigate and master the material they find difficult.
The course uses the industry-leading literacy platform PowerUp, created by Lexia. PowerUp is designed to be engaging, fun, and interactive. The software targets and gamifies the essential building blocks of literacy, especially word study, comprehension, and grammar. PowerUp uses AI to adapt to each student’s progress and reading level, and teachers can also use it to track student success and progress by topic, so they can identify areas that need more improvement.
In this program, students attend classes twice a week and complete 30 hours of instruction to finish the program. We recommend at least one hour of self-study each week.
In the Structured Literacy pilot program, we use a multi-sensory approach that incorporates visual, auditory, and kinesthetic methods to recover a student’s reading skills. This program is grounded in the Orton-Gillingham approach and uses auditory techniques (like knocking sounds) and kinesthetic methods (like gel boards) alongside visual and cue-based approaches.
Please note: Structured Literacy is currently in the pilot stage at 30 Fusion campuses and may not yet be available in your area. If this is the case, know that students below the 15th percentile have also achieved success in the Reading Skills and Strategies Program.
Additional Fusion Academy Academic Programs
At Fusion, many students and their families have found a school that sees and supports the whole student, whatever their strengths and challenges.
“I struggled through most of middle school and the start of my freshman year at my old school. Nothing made sense to me, I wasn’t understanding the material, and I was failing most of my classes … until I went to Fusion! I was not the one-size-fits-all kid. I have dyslexia, dysgraphia, and pretty much everything else … I went to Fusion and immediately saw a change in my grades, focus, and attitude towards school. I am now an A/B student.”
– Tyler B., Fusion Student
As well as tutoring packages, Fusion is a fully accredited private middle and high school, and we offer full- and part-time courses for students seeking credit. These include:
- Essential courses: Non-college preparatory courses that meet the requirements for high-school graduation
- College preparatory courses: More rigorous programs that help prepare a student for college
- Honors courses: Advanced-level courses that go beyond the standard curriculum. These courses are faster-paced and have higher expectations for critical thinking.
- AP® courses: A college-level curriculum that can earn students college credit through standardized exams.
For more information about personalized tutoring and course programs at Fusion Academy, reach out or schedule a visit to one of our campuses.
