Dr. Holly Shapiro, our founder, dedicated her career to helping children master the critical life skill of reading.

 

After completing her doctoral studies at Northwestern University, Dr. Shapiro set out to assist children struggling with reading. She established a private practice and worked diligently with her students. While her practice achieved some success, the results were not consistent. Dr. Shapiro lacked a reliable roadmap for improvement and sufficient experience to tailor her methods to each student's unique struggles.

 

In her quest for better outcomes, Dr. Shapiro attended a series of workshops where she was introduced to the Orton-Gillingham phonics-based approach to reading instruction. Under the guidance of pioneers such as Jean Osman and Paula Dozier Rome, who had worked with Samuel Orton himself, Dr. Shapiro built a strong foundation in this method. This experience ignited a lifelong interest in the origins of words. While the Orton approach proved effective for some students, Dr. Shapiro found that many could only progress through phonics-based instruction.

 

Research is crucial for specialists in any field, and in 1997, Congress established the National Reading Panel to promote successful reading instruction. The panel reviewed over 10,000 studies on reading, and their findings, published two years later, confirmed that systematic phonics instruction was more effective for struggling readers than a literature-based approach. This validation aligned with Dr. Shapiro’s experiences and studies.

 

Over 25 years have passed since the National Reading Panel's report, and current research indicates that even better outcomes can be achieved by incorporating morphology, etymology, and phonology along with rules, patterns, and conventions. From the beginning, teaching students how the English writing system truly works has become essential. Dr. Shapiro’s training as a speech-language pathologist has been invaluable in this regard.

 

Ravinia Reading Center is staffed exclusively by speech-language pathologists (SLPs), a decision Dr. Shapiro stands firmly by. The clinical focus of their training equips them to tailor instruction expertly to each student. SLPs are trained in both phonetics and phonology, understanding nuances like the common substitution of 'b' for 'p' due to similar phoneme production. They also recognize that spelling challenges, such as "separate" spelled as "seprit," require more than simply sounding out the word.

 

Understanding meaningful word parts and how English words are constructed is key.

 

Outcomes at Ravinia Reading Center are consistently better when starting with the premise that all words can be understood. This principle helps students achieve measurable levels of reading fluency, preparing them for the increasing volume and complexity of reading as they progress in school and life. While measurable achievements at Ravinia are important, the ultimate goal is for students to read effortlessly outside the center.

 

Reading is a skill that can be taught, and Ravinia Reading Center is dedicated to ensuring that every child learns it well.