About Me

I’m Cy Simonsgaard.

As a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT, Dyslexia Therapist) with over 12 years of experience, I am dedicated to empowering learners with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences. My extensive research focuses on effective reading instruction methods and how the brain learns to read. Throughout my career, I’ve successfully taught diverse learners, including those with dyslexia, ADHD, epilepsy, receptive and expressive language disorder, and other challenges.

Training and Approach

I hold an M.Ed. focused on multi-sensory reading education and have undergone three years and 700+ hours of additional Orton-Gillingham training at the Atlantic Seaboard Dyslexia Education Center, enhancing my ability to address the unique needs of dyslexic learners. My training also includes Structured Word Inquiry (SWI), the Lindamood-Bell Visualizing and Verbalizing comprehension program, Neuhaus, Winston Grammar, William Van-Cleave and other programs.

I am honored to have completed a contract research position with the Kennedy Krieger Institute, an affiliate of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, which enabled me to work with students while further learning how the brain learns to read.

Personal Perspective

As a parent of a young adult with neurologic challenges, I’ve explored a myriad of options to support learning to read. Through continued years of effort and research, I use scientifically proven teaching methods, emphasizing the science of reading, structured multi-sensory language therapy, and the role of Certified Academic Language Therapists (CALT).

My unwavering motivation is to guide students with learning challenges to realize their full potential in reading and writing. Witnessing their transformative journey, where hard work culminates in significant achievements, brings deep joy. The moments when students achieve independent reading are genuinely profound.

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” – Margaret Fuller

Intervention methodology

  • Instruction simultaneously uses the associations of the auditory (hearing), visual (seeing), and kinesthetic-motor (movement) neural pathways in the brain to strengthen memory and learning.

  • Orton-Gillingham is a learning methodology which is scientifically proven effective with students who have been unable to acquire reading and spelling skills using traditional school methods. Each lesson contains the five O-G components of reading instruction including: Phonology and phonological awareness, sound-symbol association, syllable instruction, morphology, syntax, and semantics.

  • Bottom line? It is still a good idea to explicitly teach [learners] to hear the sounds within words (phonemic awareness), to decode (phonics), to read text aloud accurately, with appropriate speed, and with expression (fluency), to know the meanings of words (vocabulary), and to use reading strategies when reading text in order to understand it better (reading comprehension). –Dr. Timothy Shanahan

Let’s learn together!