Product: "Dyslexia Institutes of America"

This one hasn't been advertising in the sponsored links, but I wanted to address what they offer, since they seem to have a business plan a little similar to the BrightStar program. [Editorial clarification: The BrightStar business plan seems to be franchising the machine in stand-alone centers]

Dyslexic Institutes of America offers a model wherein clients come in, are tested using proprietary tests, and then are offered "therapy" based on the diagnostic testing. Treatment is for two hours, once per week, plus drills to be practiced at home. After the first half-year of therapy (48 hours) the "cognitive" part is lessened and more language skills are added.
[Editorial clarification: Les Fredette (who is the president of DIA in Glastonbury, CT) says that the tests are not proprietary.

The test battery used by Dyslexia Institutes of America is designed to detect dyslexia as well as to test current functioning levels in basic reading and cognitive functioning skills. Depending on his or her age, eac client is assesed using the Dyslexia Determination Test, the Adult Dyslexia Test, the Dyslexia Screener for First Graders, the Pre-dyslexia Letter Coding Test, the Dyslexia Early Screening Test, and/or the Analysis of Dyseidesia and Dysphonesia. In addition, some or all subtests from the following nationally normed standardized tests are used:

Would I buy this product for my child Not unless it was the only alternative available. The half year of "cognitive" improvements (which aren't described or evaluated in any way) just let the child slip farther behind. I also have doubts about how well a barely-trained franchisee or "tutor" can help a child with dyslexia.

There are more details to follow.

The services provided are closely tied to one for-profit (franchises available) remediation organization, The Dyslexia Institutes of America.

You can find franchising details here for The Dyslexia Institutes of America. You can purchase a franchise for $54,000.00--other startup costs will apply. (Note--there are a number of franchise tutoring and remedial education opportunities.)

This is not to say that the program offered at the Dyslexia Institutes isn’t good, or effective. It may be. They don't seem to publish data on remediation and improvement. One thing that makes me a little uneasy about the DI approach is that they use Boder's typology (from 1973) which has pretty much been abandoned as diagnostic categories, except among developmental optometrists.

(A sidelight on science: the citation is Boder, E. (1973). Developmental dyslexia: A diagnostic approach based on three atypical reading and spelling patterns. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 15, 663-687. While Boder is still widely cited, efforts to use the typololgy effectively haven't been successful. (More information here

Note that the applicant has to have a specific diagnosed disability, that the testing techniques must be described in detail, and the applicant has to provide the professional credentials of the evaluator, including information about license or certification and area of specialization.

Also please note that the franchising page for the Dyslexia Institutes reads “You do not need highly specialized training and are not required to diagnose or prescribe treatment for your clients. Each Clinic simply have on staff a director, either full or part time who is a certified teacher. perferably with experience in Special Education. As your service provider, we will prepare all client assessment results and therapy prescriptions for you. Your clinic will interview and test new clients, and administer and monitor their ongoing treatments.”

Judging by how strict the CB has been with reputable independent schools, parents who rely on the Dyslexia Institutes testing for accommodations for their children may be sadly disappointed.

The following is a review of the Dyslexia Institutes of America program from woman who is a parent, a Lindamood Bell teacher, and an Orton Gillingham instructor:

I investigated DIA when one opened in my neighborhood. Since I am trained in Orton-Gillingham multisensory procedures for teaching reading to dyslexics, I wanted to see if they use any "recognized" and recommended procedures. I first talked directly to Dr. Jett the founder of the program. She said the facilities spend 24 weeks (nearly six months) on cognitive development (improving the brain's ability to think). Then they do reading remediation activities. The students spend 2 hours, one day a week at the center, and receive homework for the parents to do with them.

The instructional set-up is 2 students with one tutor. When the tutor works individually with 1 student, the other student works on a computer. So you are only getting 1 hour of actual 1-on-1 instruction. I asked her what they did for the kinethetic/tactile part of the procedure, and I was not happy with what she considered a multisensory approach. There is a "whole word" activity which uses the Bell & Howell Language Master where cards are passed through the machine and the word is read to the student. The student then says the word and writes it in the air. Whole word instruction is not beneficial to dyslexics (or they would have learned to read in school since the majority of schools have been using whole word instruction for the last 20 years.)

Dr. Jett got her reading education from the University of Illinois under Dolores Durkin (I have Dr. Durkin's textbook, and it doesn't even mention dyslexia.) Dr Jett developed the reading programs used by the Sylvan Learning Systems. But has only been involved with dyslexia for that past seven years. She told a friend of mine that
O-G and Lindamood-Bell don't work because they don't have this cognitive instruction. But over the last 12 years I have seen great
success with O-G, and my friend's son made terrific progress with Lindamood-Bell.

After talking with Dr. Jett, I talked with the director of the local center; and found that she is not very knowledgable about teaching reading to dyslexics. I asked her what the center does to teach syllabication of words (where long words should be divided--this determines what sound the single vowel has), and she didn't know what I was talking about. She said she hadn't done very well in her English classes. When I explained what I was talking about, she said that they hadn't gotten to that far in the book yet! When I showed her the division patterns, she said she hadn't seen them before. And this is the DIRECTOR of the center who should be the most knowledgeable person there! The directors get only 2 weeks training in management of the centers AND the therapies. (Orton-Gillingham training takes 3 weeks which includes 1-on-1 practice with a student under the supervision of a master O-G teacher, and Lindamood-Bell instructors get 3 weeks of training on LMB instructional procedures.)

I would only use these centers as a last resort. If you are able to find an Orton-Gillingham tutor or are able to afford a Lindamood-Bell center (I worked at one in 2000), I think these would be a better option.