Speech disorders and reading

Reading and spelling lessons for students with speech disorders and apraxia

Specialist 1-on-1 reading tutoring for students with childhood apraxia of speech and other speech disorders. We teach reading and spelling alongside your child’s speech-language pathologist, online across Canada and the US and in person in Prince George.

Book a free discovery call

How lessons work

EBLI certified Orton-Gillingham trained since 2003 20+ years teaching reading

Speech disorders

How speech disorders affect reading

Some children struggle to read and spell because saying sounds is hard. Two kinds of speech disorders can affect reading. Motor speech disorders, like childhood apraxia of speech, make it hard to plan and coordinate the mouth movements for speech. The child knows what they want to say, but the words don’t come out as planned. Speech sound disorders affect which sounds a child produces and how they organize them. Both are diagnosed by a speech-language pathologist.

Hearing and processing sounds aren’t the core problem with either one. Auditory processing disorder works the other way: hearing is normal, but the brain has trouble making sense of the sounds it hears. That’s covered on our Auditory processing page.

We teach reading

We teach reading and spelling. We don’t diagnose or treat speech disorders. Your child’s speech-language pathologist leads their speech goals, and we work alongside them.

Why apraxia can make reading hard

Saying sounds accurately helps a child identify and remember them. Many children with apraxia find that:

Sounds come out differently each time, so they’re harder to pin down
Breaking a word into its sounds is hard when the word won’t come out the same way twice
Sounding out a new word means saying sounds in a smooth sequence, the very thing apraxia makes difficult
Sounds they can’t say clearly get left out or mixed up in spelling
Holding sounds in mind relies on a quiet inner voice, and that inner rehearsal can be weaker too
Reading aloud is slow and effortful, even with words they know
Longer words with more syllables are especially hard to say, read and spell

Speech sound disorders

These come in two kinds. Articulation disorders involve trouble producing specific sounds, like r or s. On their own, they usually have little effect on reading. Phonological disorders run deeper. The child’s mental map of sounds is incomplete, so they simplify words in predictable ways, saying “tar” for car or “poon” for spoon. Unlike apraxia, the errors are consistent. Children with phonological disorders may:

Treat two different sounds as the same, in speech and in spelling (tar for car)
Leave sounds out of clusters when they spell (sop for stop)
Struggle to rhyme or break words into sounds
Find it hard to hear the difference between sounds they merge in speech

The speech to print sequence: hear the sounds, say them, write them, then see the word

Why it works

Hear, say, write and see, in every word

Our approach is called speech to print. Each word starts with its sounds: your child identifies each sound in a whole spoken word, matches it to the letter or letters that represent it, says each sound as they write it, then reads the word.

That routine gives patient, structured practice in sequencing sounds, inside real reading and spelling work. There are no spelling or syllable rules to memorize. For students with apraxia, we’ve found physical cues especially helpful. Noticing the shape of the mouth and lips and the position of the tongue helps them feel each sound, not just hear it.

Working together

Your SLP and your tutor, on the same page

With your permission, your speech-language pathologist can see every lesson in our Family Portal: what your child read, the sounds practised and the tutor’s notes.

For speech-language pathologists

Apraxia and reading, explained

Home

Upcoming lessons and your action items.

Reading diagnostic

The full baseline, written for parents.

Progress report

Growth, attendance and every lesson in full.

Resources

Practice material and set-up help.

FAQ

Questions families ask

No. We don’t diagnose or treat speech or processing disorders. We teach reading and spelling, and we work alongside the speech and processing professionals who support your child. Our lessons build the sound skills that literacy depends on. In our experience, speech to print helps students with sound processing and speech challenges, because every lesson centres on identifying sounds. When students need extra support, tutors use physical cues, like the shape of the mouth and lips and the position of the tongue, to help them feel each sound.

Not necessarily. Reading and spelling work can run alongside speech therapy. Talk to your SLP, and we are happy to talk it through with you on a discovery call.

Once or twice a week, in a standing 50-minute time slot.

It depends on where your child starts and what they need to reach. Most students see progress in the first few weeks, and substantial progress within several months. Some students reach their goals in about 24 lessons, for example twice a week for 3 months. Most work with us for 1 to 2 years to make those skills secure, with progress measured at the start, middle and end.

Talk to a reading specialist

Book a free discovery call. We will listen first, then tell you honestly how we can help.