THE LANGUAGE & LITERACY LAB
Where the science of language and the science of reading meet.
EVALUATE. EDUCATE. EMPOWER.
All learners have a diverse range of strengths and needs, and no two learning profiles are the same. Even when students share the same neurodivergent conditions (e.g., ADHD, ASD, twice-exceptional, dyslexia, dysgraphia), their instructional needs vary greatly depending on their unique learning profiles. At the Language & Literacy Lab, Migdalia carefully evaluates a student’s skill set in order to individualize her treatment approach to target the specific skills that are causing difficulties in the classroom. Migdalia is committed to educating her students using a strengths-based approach that shows that she values their capacity, skills, knowledge, interests, and potential and that they should too. As students develop strategies and strengthen their skills in areas that have long caused them difficulties in school, they become empowered, feel more confident, and are more motivated to become active participants in their learning.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
For students to meet the academic literacy demands of grade-level reading and writing, they need to develop these higher-level language skills:
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Vocabulary knowledge
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Inferencing
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Understanding complex sentence structures
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Verbal organization
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Figurative language knowledge
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Verbal reasoning
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Language is complex in nature. Every student presents with different language strengths and areas that will benefit from targeted intervention. In the Language Lab, we will focus on each student's individual needs to develop the academic language skills needed for understanding and writing grade-level text.
CODING SKILLS
The process of blending sounds together to read unfamiliar words is known as decoding, and the act of hearing a word and segmenting it into its individual sounds in order to spell that word correctly is known as encoding. In order to read and spell unfamiliar words quickly and accurately students need to not only learn the code, but also develop that coding ability to automaticity. Skills required for reading and spelling proficiency include:
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Phonemic awareness
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Decoding skills
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Word recognition
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Oral reading fluency
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Spelling skills
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Handwriting and typing fluency
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In the Coding Lab, we will teach reading and spelling skills to automaticity, using a structured literacy approach and an intervention plan that is individualized to address each student's unique needs.
READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS
The science of reading shows that for a student to truly comprehend what they read they need to have a strong language foundation in these skills:
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Vocabulary
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Verbal reasoning
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Language structures
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Literacy knowledge
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Background knowledge
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Reading fluency
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In the Reading Comprehension Lab, we will apply the most recent research to instruct, develop, and generalize reading comprehension skills and strategies to foster each student's success with understanding grade-level text.
WRITING SKILLS
For students to successfully write for academic purposes, they must be able to integrate the following essential skills:
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Expressive language skills
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Sentence construction skills
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Means for text generation
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Organizational skills
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Understanding of writing mechanics
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Editing and revision skills​
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In the Writing Lab, we will focus on strengthening these essential skills, developing executive functions for writing, and using assistive technology effectively. Students will learn everything they need to successfully manage academic writing assignments and build their confidence in the classroom.
WHERE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED
AT THE LAB
VIRTUAL
SESSIONS AT
HOME
VIRTUAL
SESSIONS AT
SCHOOL
Individual and small group intervention sessions are now available in-person at our West Hartford location with strict adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols.
Too far from the Lab? Online services are an excellent solution for students who do not have access to specialized literacy intervention in their area or who would benefit from the added convenience of working on their skills from the comfort of their home.
We offer school districts, private schools, and homeschoolers a virtual option for students with unique profiles who are in need of one-on-one specialized instruction during the school day.
"Mrs. Fletcher became our child’s most important and consistent teacher, professional speech and language pathologist, educational quarterback, and trusted adult resource."
Mrs. Fletcher is an amazing diagnostician of twice-exceptional (2e) children and an unparalleled service provider; without question, she is the reason for our gifted/dyslexic child’s newfound success in learning, school, reading, and writing. Mrs. Fletcher arrived in our child’s life after 7 rather unsuccessful years in school, after many missed diagnoses in public and private school contexts, and in the face of a declining self-esteem while our child was giving up on reading. After 18 months working with Mrs. Fletcher, our child’s progress in decoding, reading, and writing soared — a set of outcomes directly attributable to Mrs. Fletcher’s initial diagnoses and her skillful interventions.
In a short period of time, Mrs. Fletcher became our child’s most important and consistent teacher, professional speech and language pathologist, educational quarterback, and trusted adult resource. The relationship Mrs. Fletcher built with our child formed the foundation for their very hard work together, and the basis for our child’s progress.
All humans are dynamic and wonderfully complicated - and it is true that all children are unique. Nonetheless, some 2e children possess additional layers of neural complexity that affect educational outcomes - their wonderful brains functioning in extraordinary ways when they are both gifted and impacted by a special learning disability. In some instances, such 2e kids (gifted and living with a SLD) are akin to a complex cipher, and finding the key to meet their educational needs can be extremely challenging. No matter how difficult, every parent and caregiver knows that the needs of such 2e kids cannot be ignored. Mrs. Fletcher is uniquely equipped to work with these unique and special 2e kiddos on account of her expertise, experience, patience and kindness.
Mrs. Fletcher changed our child’s life, redirecting both short-term and life-long outcomes, while significantly moving the needle on our child’s self-esteem. We could not be more grateful.
Parent of an 8th grade student