Become a Lexercise Structured Literacy Therapist
Looking to partner with Lexercise to provide structured literacy intervention? Join our network of experts in the science of reading and leverage our structured literacy curriculum, lesson plans, and operational resources, so that you can focus on what you love: helping struggling readers.
Partner with Us
So you have a passion for literacy and teaching and want to help children with learning gaps or disorders? Great – we do too! Become a Lexercise partner and leverage our online platform and it’s cutting-edge, evidence-based tools to make a meaningful impact on the lives of more children. Gain the flexibility and control to set your own schedule and work from anywhere.
In order to become a Lexercise Educational Therapist you need thorough training in the structured literacy approach (Orton-Gillingham). Whether you are just starting out or already meet our qualifications, below you will find your options to become a Lexercise Educational Therapist.
Your Pathway to Become a Lexercise Educational Therapist:
1
Pass our qualification exams, or take our courses to learn this material. (The Lexercise IDA AccreditedPLUS course sequence is the most convenient, affordable, and effective professional development available.)
2
Provide evidence of a prior practicum in structured literacy, or complete our Practicum to get this supervised experience.
“After working with Lexercise for 6 months, I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you! I have had a very positive experience! From the on-boarding process, to training, to technical support, and curriculum support everyone has been very responsive, professional, and helpful. I love being able to set my own schedule and do something I love on my terms all while having an experienced team to support me. Thank you again for all of your hard work behind the scenes. It is a pleasure working with all of you!”
Elyse Loudenbarger, M.Ed.,
The Umbrella Classroom
Gain Control of Your Career
What career qualities matter most to you: autonomy, a flexible schedule, the freedom to work anywhere, financial security? Lexercise offers everything you need to build, maintain, and grow a thriving practice. You’ll get research-backed curricula, assessments, session plans, progress monitoring tools, student activities, parent support materials, practice management tools, and a supportive community of therapists to help you succeed.
Reach More Clients
Tens of thousands of parents visit our website annually seeking help for their children. We connect these families with qualified experts like you, and we provide sales and marketing support to help you grow your practice and serve clients anywhere.
Reduce Admin & Planning Time
We know administrative tasks can take up your day. That’s why we’ve developed tools to handle billing, track client progress, streamline parent communication, and reduce session planning time. This allows you to serve more clients with less effort.
Enjoy Flexibility
Work from wherever you want and choose a schedule that fits your life. Enjoy the freedom of controlling your workday and being your own boss, all without being tied down to a school or traditional office environment.
Deliver Better Client Results
Our model of individualized instruction, combined with games and activities for daily practice, achieves remarkable client outcomes. We empower you to deliver life-changing results to the families you serve.
“Lexercise provides well-thought-out support for running the business side of a private dyslexia therapy practice, freeing up my time to focus on reaching out to parents and working with students. Leaving public school teaching was possible for me due in large part to the Lexercise community and support-system.”
Jen Parra, M.Ed, CALT, SLDS,
Executive Director, Multisensory Reading Center
Frequently Asked Questions
What credentials do I need to work for a Lexercise therapy group (or start my own)?
You must have at least a 4-year degree from an accredited university. (A Master’s Degree or higher is preferred.)
You will need to pass the Lexercise Clinician Qualification Exams to demonstrate your knowledge of the structure of written English and of the structured literacy intervention methodology, consistent with the International Dyslexia Association’s Knowledge and Practice Standards. (If you don’t already have this knowledge, you can gain it through Lexercise Courses 1 and 2 instead of taking the qualification exams.)
We require all those who will work with clients on our platform to pass the qualification exams (Course 1 and 2 Test Out Exams) and prove their expertise in the competencies they cover because it is critical to us that the professionals who use the Lexercise therapy platform have the knowledge and skills needed to provide effective structured literacy treatment. Research has repeatedly shown a correlation between clients’ therapy progress and their therapist’s knowledge, and we are committed to getting the best and fastest results for our clients.
You need to have had a supervised practicum in structured literacy of at least 100 hours of supervised clinical intervention in structured literacy in a one-to-one therapeutic setting (as opposed to in a group or classroom application) where you worked with at least 3 heterogeneous students. (If you don’t have this, you can gain it through the Lexercise Practicum, and it is also available through private training institutes like ALTA.)
Unless you wish to join an existing therapist group, you will need to have a business entity, e.g. a sole proprietorship, limited liability company, partnership, corporation, or a non-profit agency. Our current Teletherapy Partners are often looking for qualified associates to work for them, so if you prefer, we can put you in touch with those groups that are hiring after you’ve successfully completed the qualification exams and fulfilled the practicum requirement.
You must be willing to be trained in, and comply with, the Lexercise teletherapy procedures, consistent with the American Telemedicine Association’s Telemental Health teletherapy guidelines, and you must agree to acquire and maintain the necessary hardware and software. (See technical requirements below.)
Where can I learn more about Lexercise Professional Therapy?
You can learn more about Lexercise’s Professional Therapy on this page. You can also preview the Scope and Sequence of the Lexercise Structured Literacy Curriculum here.
What are the technical requirements to do Lexercise teletherapy?
- A dependable, high-speed internet connection, adequate for video-conferencing. Our general suggested minimums are upload and download speeds of +5 Mbps. (Test your internet speed here.)
- A modern computer(s) with a webcam and a headset with a microphone.
- A quiet space with a professional video backdrop (e.g. no bed or kitchen in the background).
- A general comfort and confidence with your computer and online technology.
Why must I wait until I have passed the qualification exams to learn all the details about a partnership with Lexercise?
As you can imagine, there are many people who want to work for Lexercise therapy groups or to create their own therapy groups. We have very limited time which must be focused on supporting those already working on our platform and answering the questions of qualified professionals who demonstrate that they are serious about joining this talented and like-minded community.
If you are serious and qualified, we would love to engage with you and we encourage you to take the first step by taking the Lexercise Qualification Exams. (There is a free study guide for the exams on the link so you can see what the exams cover.)
What happens after I pass the qualification exams?
This is when you will get all the details!
After you pass the qualification exams (or successfully complete the full courses), we ask that you complete the Teletherapist Application. This is a formality to allow us to check your education and experience.
Once we receive notification from our courses site of your qualification exam results, we will be in touch with you to provide next steps. We will enroll you in the Lexercise TOUR for Prospective Teletherapy Partners. We’ve worked hard to make sure the TOUR is thorough and can answer all you need to know about how Lexercise Teletherapy works. It covers:
- The components of the Lexercise platform including the clinician, parent, and child interfaces
- How parents pay for services and the financial side of being a Lexercise teletherapist
- Your income potential
- Considerations around having your own practice or joining an existing one
We will also ask you to provide us with PDF copies of your resume and documentation of your prior supervised practicum in structured literacy intervention.
I’m comfortable doing structured literacy therapy in person, but how do I learn how to do teletherapy?
We have developed a thorough Lexercise Teletherapy Training Course for qualified professionals. Once you have passed all qualification steps and have decided you will work on our platform, we will enroll you in this training program where you will learn everything you need to do online therapy. It covers all aspects of technology and how to use our platform to serve clients.
Why is Lexercise better for my clients than the traditional Orton-Gillingham model of 2-3 sessions per week in my office?
It offers faster results!
A couple of decades ago our founder, Sandie Barrie Blackley, discovered that, compared to the old model that required the client to come into the office for both direct instruction and practice, she could get faster results by including a way to do monitored, daily, structured practice every day at home. She found that using a once-a-week, live, direct instruction session with the parent and child, and then empowering the parent to lead the child in a little structured practice each day, she could more than halve treatment time from 2.5 years on average to about 1 year. Since Lexercise splits the direct instruction and practice (using online games), Lexercise clients get on average 400% more practice than if they were doing a twice-a-week traditional Orton-Gillingham session. That’s over 600 response challenges per week!)
Today, using online technology and the latest in research science, we’ve lowered that 2.5 year average for client remediation down to months (usually 1 to 2 semesters).
It’s more thorough.
Not all structured literacy intervention is updated to conform to the latest reading science research. In particular, we now know there are three essential elements that predict progress (The 3-Legged Stool). Paper-based products can not support treatment fidelity or accountability the way the Lexercise platform can. With reading science moving at such a fast pace it’s important for both the curriculum and the therapist to be able to adopt best-practices as soon as they are proven. The Lexercise platform makes that possible.
Clients are more likely to comply with best practices.
Let’s face it: structured literacy intervention takes work and parent commitment. If you are seeing clients in the clinic, it’s not always easy to get parents to keep their appointments 2-3 times-a-week. Plus, it is often a challenge for parents to be consistent about completing any practice you might assign between sessions. This lack of consistency is one of the main reasons for limited or slow progress.
Lexercise improves treatment consistency in several ways. First, it’s much easier for parents to commit to and honor a single, weekly therapy session that they can do from their computer, no matter where they are. There’s no commuting or taking off work, no cancellations due to inclement weather. All they need to do is go to a quiet room and turn on the computer. Second, the child’s daily practice games don’t require supervision, so all the parent has to do is make sure the child logs in and gets started for 15 minutes of meaningful, daily practice. Third, the parent-led activities are straightforward and easy to complete in 10-15 minutes a day, which even the busiest of families can generally manage. And finally, the platform tracks all activity and holds everyone (the therapist, the parent, and the child) accountable for doing their part so that the therapy is “running on all cylinders” all the time and truly setting a world standard for effectiveness.
How can a single session per week be enough for my client?
This is a common question because in traditional Orton-Gillingham therapy a therapist sees the client for a one-hour session twice per week. During a session the therapist teaches the client new material (direct instruction) and does practice activities with the client.
In contrast, Lexercise splits the direct instruction and practice. You see the client once per week in a video session where you teach them new material and set up their practice. The other days of the week your client practices and reinforces what they learned from you in the live session by doing games and activities through their online account. (Lexercise clients get on average 400% more practice than if they were doing a twice-a-week traditional Orton-Gillingham session. That’s over 600 response challenges per week!)
All of this allows you to focus your live, one-on-one video session on teaching new lesson material and using your expertise to address each client’s individual needs because the Lexercise platform is providing your client much more practice than would be humanly possible in the traditional Orton-Gillingham model. In Lexercise teletherapy, clients have access to intensive practice between lessons using games and activities that can increase targeted repetition 400%.
Why don’t I just do this on my own?
We’ve built Lexercise to let you focus on what you enjoy and do best, helping children. Our platform lets you minimize the things you don’t enjoy, like chasing clients for payment and record keeping, so that you can focus on providing the best possible therapy.
The benefits of using Lexercise are:
- Major time savings: We have more than halved the time it takes to deliver structured literacy therapy each week. Read on to see how.
- Billing: Lexercise does all the billing and dunning for you. No more chasing clients for payment of sessions you’ve already delivered. Your clients pay up front so you are never left with an unpaid session, and payments are deposited into your group’s bank account once a month. (For therapists working for a therapist group, most groups also pay therapist invoices once a month).
- Note taking and record keeping: You capture and store all your session notes and record them right in the session flow. No more papers and file cabinets.
- Customizable digital therapy materials: In a live session, you can review your client’s practice data and progress, and then immediately customize his/her new lesson with a few clicks by selecting the lesson objectives. Then the relevant materials appear on the screen so you can walk your client through a complete structured literacy lesson personalized to the client’s needs.
- Streamlined client communication: You easily manage client communications right on the Lexercise platform. Use templates for common client questions and support, communicate in the same place as all your client notes and performance data, and capture all client communication history in the same place as your session notes.
- Online customizable parent and child activities: With a few clicks at the end of your weekly client session, the Lexercise platform allows you to quickly customize and deliver the practice your client needs to master what you taught him/her that week. Both parent and child are given daily practice activities that relate to the objectives you just taught. The client’s performance on these activities is logged and reported to you.
- Comprehensive suite of assessments for progress monitoring: Our progress monitoring assessments can be delivered by you to your clients during the flow of your sessions. Assessment reports are automatically saved for each client and are visible to you and the parent through their parent portal. Some assessments are automatically assigned as part of the client’s practice to add important data to you and parents for progress monitoring.
- No copyright violations: If you are using other publishers’ printed, copyrighted material in video conferences, you may be violating their copyrights and may be at risk of prosecution. As a registered therapist with Lexercise you have our permission to use our copyrighted materials in your Lexercise client sessions by videoconference.
- Deliver intervention from anywhere: If you have high-speed internet, you can be located wherever you would like. We have a number of therapists who have lived in or traveled to interesting places like the Caribbean, Mexico, Europe, and even Australia all while delivering Lexercise teletherapy. If you like the tropics, probably the best place to live would be Hawaii because during your normal business hours you would be able to serve clients in the coveted after-school hours for all U.S. time zones.
- Training, on-going marketing support and resources: For those who will have their own therapy group, we will also provide you with access to an additional course as part of your group setup that will provide guidance on business management, speaking to parents about reading struggles and how you can help, and marketing your practice to grow your reach to new families in need of your help.
How much can I make as a Lexercise teletherapist?
It depends on a number of variables, including how many clients you see and if they have been scheduled through Lexercise or through you. Working full-time, a number of Lexercise teletherapists make over $80,000 a year.
Where do I get my clients?
If you work for a therapist group, your group administrator will be working to provide you with clients. Most therapists are able to bring customers from their professional & personal networks and through word-of-mouth advertising and referrals. Also, Lexercise sends clients to our therapists when possible.
If you have your own therapy group, then you will have the opportunity to use the Lexercise consultative sales tool. This tool is integrated into the Lexercise platform. It allows you to contact your own leads as well as potential new clients who have screened their children with our tests and/or completed symptoms checklists where the results have shown a risk for a literacy problem and the likely need of your help. This sales tool takes much of the work out of contacting and following up with potential new clients because it includes templates, scripts, scheduling, record-keeping, and much more.
You will also be supported with resources that allow you to do marketing for your own online practice to build up your group’s caseload. Lexercise provides a variety of supportive tools and materials to our therapy groups for use in marketing their online practices and reaching new families who need the help that you can provide using our platform.
With consistent marketing and consultative sales work each day, our therapist groups are filling up their caseloads.