Author Archives: Tori Whaley

About Tori Whaley

Since 2003, Tori has been a committed special educator, working as an elementary special education teacher. Her drive to improve outcomes for her students with dyslexia led her to the Neuhaus Education Center, where she was trained in Orton-Gillingham the summer after her first year of teaching. "I was so frustrated as a first year teacher, not knowing how to meet my students' needs. I spent the entire summer learning about dyslexia and was thrilled by my students' progress the next year!" Since then, she has used the method in English and Spanish with students in three states. In 2009, Tori completed her M.Ed. in Special Education at the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, where she focused on educational strategies for students with learning disabilities. Tori joined the Lexercise team full-time in early 2014 after seeing students online for over a year. When she is not working, Tori loves to read, cook, garden, and spend as much time outdoors as possible.

Identify Dyslexia Early

Parents and teachers alike have often asked “how early dyslexia can be diagnosed?” While diagnosing a reading disability prior to literacy […]

December 29, 2015 in Blog Posts, Dyslexia, Reading

What Should My Child Read?

Dyslexia Therapist, Tori Whaley, gives her advice on what your child should read depending on their needs. Since I was […]

How Can I Help My Struggling Reader?

If you’re reading this post, chances are good that you are concerned about your child’s reading.   Maybe in a recent […]

Is a Dyslexia Diagnosis Necessary?

Help Now, Diagnose Later In seven years as a special education teacher, I sat in countless meetings where we reviewed […]

The Limits of Reading Accommodations

A Story About Reading Accommodations One day, a bit more than a month after we’d started therapy, I noticed that […]

Do More Boys Than Girls Have Learning Disabilities?

A recently published study examined identification of students with learning disabilities in Florida schools. The authors were exploring why more […]

Signs Your School Doesn’t Get Dyslexia

The vast majority of students learn to read once they start school and parents rightly expect that it will only […]

Summer Slide and Dyslexia

When I was a kid I counted the days till summer vacation!  I lived for the hours that would extend […]

The Unfunded Dyslexia Mandate

At recent hearings, Senator Cassidy asked Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about special programs for students with dyslexia, including screening […]

Lexercise Structured Literacy Therapy Makes the News!

We’re excited to share more in-depth news coverage on how Lexercise’s Structured Literacy (aka Orton-Gillingham) teletherapy is a turnkey solution […]

Happy National Handwriting Day!

National Handwriting Day is celebrated every January 23rd! When I was in school, I hated handwriting practice.  Being left-handed, the […]

Grade Retention and Dyslexia: Why Kids Don’t Outgrow Dyslexia

The first few years of schooling can be a time of uncertainty for parents of struggling readers. Parents wonder: is […]