PINE STATE
LEARNING

Reading Tutoring

Structured, multi-sensory literacy intervention for students who are struggling due to underlying skill gaps in phonological awareness or orthographic processing, or missed instruction due to other health or learning needs.

A tutor smiling and holding up a word card during a one-on-one reading lesson

Most tutoring services match your child to a program. We do the opposite: we figure out exactly which skills are missing, then find the approach that fits those gaps. We are trained in multiple research-validated methods, not just one, so we can pull from what works for your specific child rather than what the certification manual says to do next.

Assessment first

Every student at PSL begins with a comprehensive assessment. Pre-assessment allows us to create each student's learning map: identifying the specific processing and academic skill gaps underlying the difficulty. We look at many sub-skills: phonological awareness, orthographic processing, rapid naming, working memory demands, or some combination.

Those results determine which methodology to use, directly shape the individualized learning plan, where to begin in the curriculum, and what goals to set for instruction.

Progress monitoring

Instruction is structured, cumulative, and monitored continuously to ensure measurable progress. Each lesson is tailored to the exact level and need of the student, using the most effective structured, research-based program or combination of programs for their learning profile.

We report progress every 20 hours of instruction. Parent updates include detailed tracking of where the student is in the curriculum, what they have mastered, what they are currently working on, and what comes next.

See a sample parent update (redacted) →

Methodologies

We assess each student's cognitive and academic profile before instruction begins so we can select the right program(s) for how they learn. For some learners that is Orton-Gillingham based instruction. For others, it is Lindamood-Bell LiPS® or Seeing Stars®. 

Orton-Gillingham
Structured, sequential teaching of the rules of English decoding and spelling: phonograms, syllable types, syllable division, and morphology (how prefixes, roots, and suffixes carry meaning). Used when the profile shows gaps in phonological skills and the logic of the code.
Seeing Stars® (Lindamood-Bell)
Seeing Stars®: Symbol Imagery for Phonological and Orthographic Processing develops the ability to visualize letters in words. It goes far beyond phonics, which is why we choose it over Orton-Gillingham for many students: it takes into account the entirety of the science of reading rather than just phonological awareness. Seeing Stars® is recognized by the What Works Clearinghouse and validated by the National Center on Intensive Intervention.
LiPS® (Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing®)
Teaches students to feel the mouth actions of each speech sound, giving a concrete anchor for sounds that are otherwise abstract. The starting point for students with the most significant phonological awareness gaps.
Visualizing and Verbalizing® (Lindamood-Bell)
Develops concept imagery for language comprehension. Used for students who read accurately but do not retain or reason about what they read, once decoding and fluency are established.

Components of a learner's reading plan:

●Sound-symbol and symbol to sound correspondence: this is the orthographic basis of reading and spelling
●Phonological awareness, the ability to perceive the sounds in spoken words 
●Building orthographic proceesing for common patterns in English
●Single-syllable decoding, progressing to multisyllabic word reading
●A growing bank of sight words for reading and spelling
●Once foundational skills are in place, reintroducing reading fluency for connected text, from the student's accurate level toward grade level
●Spelling rules and conventions practiced through dictation and the student's own writing
●Comprehension work once decoding and fluency support it

Our pretesting determines the areas of need and we teach them sequentially. See a sample skills assessment (redacted) →

What the research says

The evidence is consistent: more structured hours of the right kind of instruction leads to more growth.

Dosage predicts gains
A landmark meta-analysis spanning 40 years of reading intervention research found that for every additional hour of structured intervention, student outcomes improved measurably. Dosage was the only intervention characteristic that significantly predicted gains after controlling for all other variables (Hall et al., 2023). A review of 14 meta-analyses confirmed that explicit, systematic intervention of higher dosage rather than duration across years yields stronger effects, particularly for students in upper elementary grades and beyond (Al Otaiba et al., 2023).
Intervention changes the brain
A six-year randomized controlled trial led by Stanford University found that children who received intensive Seeing Stars® instruction grew the visual word form area, the brain region responsible for word recognition, while children who did not receive intervention showed no comparable change (Yeatman et al., 2026). fMRI research shows that after intensive, structured intervention, children with dyslexia demonstrate increased activation in key reading regions, bringing their neural patterns closer to those of typical readers (Shaywitz et al., 2003).
Change comes quickly with intensity
White matter structural changes have been observed in as little as two to three weeks of intensive instruction (Huber et al., 2023). Research on intensive early reading interventions found the strongest results with smaller groups and higher frequency (Wanzek et al., 2018). Research from Georgetown University showed that approximately 120 hours of Seeing Stars® instruction led to both increased brain activity and improved reading outcomes in children with dyslexia.

Start with a free 15-minute consultation.

We will hear your child's reading history, review any assessment data you have, and recommend a starting point.

Book a free 15-minute consult
207.426.4267 lisa.murphy@pinestatelearning.com
Our Commitment to Equity

We are committed to working against the way that racial and socioeconomic privilege manifests itself in the identification and remediation of learning disabilities.

We do what we can by offering need based scholarships, doing pro-bono consultation for families with economic needs, providing services in some of Maine's lowest resource schools, and working with educational advocates on the toughest cases to help ALL students get what they need.