The 4 Best Online Dyslexia Tutoring Services of 2023

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Dyslexia is the most common cause of reading, writing and spelling difficulties. Between 70% and 80% of those with reading difficulties are likely to have a form of dyslexia, according to University of Michigan’s Dyslexia Help Center. Between 5% and 10% of the population may have dyslexia, but that number may be as high as 17%.

Students who struggle with dyslexia are likely to benefit from specialized reading tutoring. Although many popular methods for teaching students with dyslexia involve sensory approaches traditionally carried out in person, modern technology and pedagogical adaptations mean that some of these approaches have been able to adapt to the digital age. Below, we've compiled a handful of online dyslexia tutoring services that offer a variety of approaches to help students improve their reading skills long-term.

The 4 Best Online Dyslexia Tutoring Services of 2023

Best Overall: Online Reading Tutor
Best for Frequent Check-Ins: Dyslexia Connect
Best for Kids: Lexercise
Best for Hourly Tutoring: Wyzant

Best Overall : Online Reading Tutor

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Key Specs

Price: Plans start at about $97 per month and go up to approximately $150 per month
Grade level: Any, plus adults
Frequency: 20-30 minute practices 5-6 days a week

Why We Chose It

Online Reading Tutor is the best overall dyslexia tutoring service because of its accreditations by top organizations such as the International Dyslexia Association.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Backed by expert research
Unlimited access to Orton-Gillingham based software
Individual adjustment of lessons
One-on-one

Cons

Can be expensive

Students of any age or grade level are likely to find Online Reading Tutor incredibly helpful. The service employs the Orton-Gillingham approach, a direct, multisensory method of teaching literacy and phonics to those with dyslexia and others who struggle with reading, writing, and spelling. Top organizations such as the International Dyslexia Association have certified and partnered with the site, so students and families can be assured the program is backed by expert research.

The service focuses its tutoring on five specific areas that its experts have identified as crucial to teaching students with dyslexia: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and reading comprehension. Flexible schedules are the norm, but students are asked to make a commitment of 20- to 30-minute practices at least five or six days a week.

Tutors not only give lessons, but constantly monitor individual progress and make adjustments to help students keep improving. Pricing starts at roughly $97 for a prepaid six month subscription and goes up to roughly $150 for a pay per month prescription.

Best for Frequent Check-Ins : Dyslexia Connect

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Key Specs

Price: Approximately $215 to $1,225 per month
Grade Level: Any, plus adults
Frequency: 1 to 5 55-minute tutoring session(s) per week; 4 to 19 other learning sessions per month.

Why We Chose It

With Dyslexia Connect, your child will be paired with the same instructor for the duration of their tutoring, and the plans involve frequent check-ins and learning sessions to keep your kid on track.

Pros & Cons

Pros

No commitment needed
Monthly progress updates
Frequent learning sessions and weekly tutoring sessions

Cons

Can be expensive

Using the popular Orton-Gillingham Method, Dyslexia Connect promises results without locking students into a long-term contract.

All tutors have undergone significant training for a multisensory approach based on forming clear connections between letters and sounds. The service pairs students with the same instructors every time, allowing them to form one-on-one relationships and continually tailoring lessons to meet each student’s needs, goals, and ongoing progress.

The majority of the service’s plans involve relatively frequent one-on-one check-ins and lessons with students. Plans involve (at minimum) over an hour and a half of sessions per week, allowing tutors to frequently adjust and reinforce the lessons. The silver plan is the sole exception: students get either one lesson of 55 minutes or two of 25 minutes per week for $229 per month.

The Silver Plus and Gold plans are $369 and $459 per month, respectively. They also offer the following additional plans:

Gold Plus: $629 per month
Platinum: $709 per month
Platinum Plus: $819 per month
Diamond: $939 per month
Diamond Plus: $1,225 per month

Best for Kids : Lexercise

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Key Specs

Price: Starting at about $150 per month
Grade Level: Not disclosed on website
Frequency: 1 one-on-one weekly session, or self-guided option

Why We Chose It

Lexercise caters to kids as young as 6 who are dealing with reading, writing, and spelling struggles. The site includes games that are fun for young kids, and educational too.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Can choose between self-guided or professional therapy
Highly accredited
Many therapists employed

Cons

Site is a bit vague on what to expect
Only one live 45 minute tutoring session per week

Like many reading programs for kids to integrate games and other activities, Lexercise combines therapeutic tutoring with fun, practice activities and games.

The service uses its own custom program to work with kids on techniques that help improve reading skills. It’s specifically geared toward younger learners, so parents can be certain that the lesson materials and the live tutors are focusing on their kids’ needs, both on a broader level and an individual one.

The site offers two types of tutoring services: self-guided and live tutoring. The self-guided lessons allow parents to pay a (lower) subscription fee to access an online, pre-made version of the program that consists of pre-recorded expert lessons that can be watched at one’s own pace.

Best for Hourly Tutoring : Wyzant

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Key Specs

Price: Around $35 to $65 per hour
Grade Level: All, plus adults
Frequency: As needed

Why We Chose It

You can search Wyzant for the price point you want, and tutors will work with you on an hourly basis, rather than adhering to a specific curriculum or schedule with set prices.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Ability to search for the type of tutor you want
Search within your price range
No platform-specific curriculum, tutors can individualize sessions

Cons

Not specific to dyslexia
Experience is very specific to the tutor you choose
Site does not have tutors adhere to a specific methodology

Wyzant is a general tutoring platform that connects students with tutors in a wide variety of subjects and specialties, including reading tutors who specialize in working with students with dyslexia.

Students and families can narrow down search results to instructors who use particular methods or approaches in their tutoring, allowing for a high degree of specificity that’s often important for finding the right match. Tutor profiles also include information about their experience (including certifications, training, and so on), how many hours they’ve logged on the platform, and ratings from previous learners.

The site offers an on-platform classroom for instructors and students to use in lessons, including interactive whiteboard and screen sharing, as well as chat options. Tutors on Wyzant each set their own individual rates. For dyslexia specialists, payment is a little higher than some of the other subjects: The average rate, according to the site, is between roughly $35 and $65 per hour, but many tutors charge about $70 or more hourly.

With that being said, however, the site does have a one-hour guarantee: The first hour with a tutor is free if the student is dissatisfied.

Final Verdict

Online Reading Tutor is the best overall online tutoring service for those with dyslexia because of its accreditations by trusted organizations as well as its heavy use of the Orton-Gillingham method.

Tutors are very involved in assessing students’ progress. Students have unlimited access to the company’s software, allowing them to practice throughout the week, even when tutoring sessions are not scheduled.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is an Online Dyslexia Tutoring Service?

An online dyslexia tutoring service is a platform that gears its reading tutoring toward students dealing with dyslexia or related learning disorders. It may be a smaller sub-section of a broader website, but many of these services are completely specialized, since the skills needed to tutor in this field are more specific than just a general reading tutor might need.

How Much Do Online Dyslexia Tutoring Services Cost?

Online dyslexia tutoring services, like any other online tutoring program, have a wide range of prices. While some platforms charge monthly subscription fees, others allow tutors to set hourly rates of their own. The one thing that’s true across the board is that specialized and certified dyslexia reading tutors are often more expensive than standard reading instructors due to the more specialized training typically involved. For instance, tutors tend to charge about $35 to $70 per hour, depending on the type of guidance needed. Monthly packages tend to run from roughly $300 to $700.

What Is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a learning disability that causes struggles with language skills, like reading, spelling, and writing. It is a language processing disorder, and can also cause problems with pronouncing words, acquiring vocabulary, learning to talk, and following directions.

According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity, the difficulty those with dyslexia face has no connection to their overall intelligence. The center states on its website that “dyslexia is an unexpected difficulty in reading in an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader. While people with dyslexia are slow readers, they often, paradoxically, are very fast and creative thinkers with strong reasoning abilities."

Do Online Dyslexia Tutoring Services Work?

A research review published in the Journal of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development found that people with dyslexia improved writing skills and writing activities in virtual learning environments. The same review published findings that those living with dyslexia also greatly benefitted from learning games focusing on spelling and other areas of difficulty.

These findings are notable as many online tutoring services employ technology, including videos, games, sensory approaches, and other virtual learning forms specifically created to aid people with dyslexia. Online dyslexia tutoring is more than just a one-hour study session with a tutor. Most programs are comprehensive, research-based and evidence-based programs that help to greatly boost language skills.

What Features Do Online Dyslexia Tutoring Services Have?

Because online dyslexia tutoring services often adapt multimedia and sensory approaches to a digital-only curriculum, they’re likely to use a variety of techniques to work with students, along with the expected video chat and screen sharing for communication. Most services will incorporate phonics lessons, techniques involving multiple senses (i.e., hearing or tracing letters and sounds while also reading or saying them), and other methods to build reading fluency and comprehension.

Several of the services we’ve listed employ the Orton-Gillingham approach, a direct, explicit, cognitive, cumulative, and multi-sensory method of teaching people with reading difficulties. In a recent critical review published by the University of Western Ontario, seven studies evaluating the Orton-Gillingham based approach’s effectiveness with elementary school-aged children were reviewed. Two of the seven studies found that the Orton-Gillingham approach was more effective than the control in all measures. Four studies found that the method was more effective than the control in at least one, but not all measures and one study found no difference between interventions.

Methodology

It’s only been in recent years that dyslexia tutoring has really gone online, since many of the well-supported approaches involve sensory learning in some form. In our selections here, we’ve emphasized tutoring services that build on tried-and-true approaches and find ways to adapt them to a digital-online classroom environment. Many of our selections specifically use popular dyslexia learning approaches and hire tutors who are experienced in those methods.

With the understanding that students will be coming to these services with a wide range of needs and knowledge, we’ve tried to cover several different learning styles and particular needs. Whether students need an approach that’s more or less self-guided or more or less flexibly scheduled, there are options here that will suit their needs. The emphasis here is on finding a service that can help students develop their skills for lifelong reading, no matter their starting point.

Article Sources

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