Episode 345-Own The Diagnosis, Change The Trajectory with Faye Casell

A lot of bright kids are still stuck on the basics of reading, and too many parents are told to wait—or sold cures that don’t work. We sit down with dyslexia therapist Faye Bankler Cressell to unpack what actually helps struggling readers and how families can start real progress at home without losing years to red tape.

Faye shares her path from special education to structured literacy, sparked by helping her own child during lockdown. She explains why the science of reading matters, what structured literacy looks like in daily practice, and how to tell evidence-based intervention from high-priced “brain training” that promises big results but delivers little. We get specific about foundational skills—phonemic awareness, sound-symbol mapping, CVC decoding, early syllable work—and how systematic, cumulative lessons rewire reading pathways across phonology, orthography, and morphology.

We also talk about the power of telling kids their diagnosis in clear, respectful language. When children know what dyslexia means, shame fades and self-advocacy begins. That confidence scales into high school, college, and the workplace, where naming strengths and supports becomes a strategy for excellence. Faye introduces her Home Reading Coach program, a 13‑week, parent-led course designed to be affordable, practical, and aligned with what research says works. Think printable materials, guided videos, and coaching that help families move from ABC to CVC and into early two-syllable patterns—with measurable wins that build momentum.

If you’re navigating testing, IEEs, IEP meetings, or just wondering where to begin, you’ll find a clear roadmap plus vetted resources and communities like Decoding Dyslexia. You don’t need to wait for formal labels to take action; explicit instruction has no downside and a massive upside. Subscribe, share with a caregiver who needs this clarity, and leave a review telling us the one reading question you want answered next.

Transcript

Welcome And Topic Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Hi, welcome to the SG Child Show. So nice to have you back. Thank you, listeners, for being a part of the show. Always remembering to check in and um see what we have going on. Check our resources. You can always email me if you have any questions or want to get a hold of any of our guests. And of course, follow me on all our social media pages so you can stay informed of any summits that might be coming up or um exciting projects that we have going on. And of course, all the links for our guests are listed in their um profiles on the SJ Child show page on Facebook. So please go check there and make sure to follow and join. Today I am so excited to have a conversation. I've already been having a wonderful conversation with Faye. Is it Casselle? Is that how I or is it Cat? It is. Congratulations. Faye kinetic, right? Um, and we are going to um interestingly enough, continue from not really even continue from the last episode, but I know that my last episode also was about um dyslexia. And it's so interesting to me that over the years, my guests have lined up. And this one, thank heavens for Faye, because I literally emailed her and said, I have an hour if you want to come. And she said, Oh my gosh, I'll do it. Okay. And so bless your heart for being here at the last second call. Um, but it's it's always been fascinating to me how kind of um the universe like aligns these subjects together. And then all of a sudden you all have no idea who's on my calendar, but the three or four conversations are all aligned. Um, I just love the way that works out. So without further ado, please introduce yourself. Let us know a little bit about yourself and where you're coming from.

Broken Systems And Delayed Services

Costly Myths Vs Evidence-Based Help

Empowering Kids With Their Diagnosis

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Thank you for having me. Um, so my name is Faye Bankler Cressell. I am in San Antonio, Texas, where I was born and raised. Um and I have been working in the field of special education for over 20 years. Um, and I transitioned to I was working in early childhood, uh, primarily in inclusion. And then I transitioned to working with elementary school age. And so at that point I thought, oh my goodness, I really need to know how to teach kids how to read. Um, and at the same time, my own son was struggling to learn how to read. Um he is neurodivergent, and we were in lockdown. And so, like many other parents, I thought, oh my gosh, you know, he's he's not doing so well. Uh so I kind of had to work a lot off of special education, instinct, intuition, and tricks. Um, and I launched his reading and then I turned around and I enrolled myself into a dyslexia therapy program and started that. So I have been working in both public and then private settings um as a dyslexia therapist, a certified academic language therapist, and that I in the in the world of dyslexia, there are a lot of different titles and certifications. And um, so I am certified by ALTA and um I'm what's called a certified academic language therapist, and then in Texas a licensed dyslexia therapist. Um and I have been working in small groups and one-on-one with kids, and in the last few years, I kept I kept having the same conversation over and over again. And the basic gist of the conversation was I think my child has dyslexia, the school refuses to test, or they've tested and they said, but she's passing, or he is really bright, or you know, even though the scores tell one story, the school's telling me another story, and it's just it just drives me crazy. Um so maybe about two years ago, year and a half ago, I was going to look, you know, I was going to an open house, and this very lovely realtor greeted us. And when she found out what I do, what I do, you know, she starts telling me, oh, my daughter has dyslexia. And oh, you know, and so I always ask how school's going, how they're doing, you know, um, services, that kind of stuff. And so she starts to tell me this story about how she didn't feel like the services at school really did much for her daughter. And so she met with somebody at a brain training place, and they suggested to her that she spend a lot of money to do their program, and she did. And she did one round of it, and I'm sitting there kind of trying not to let my face fall too much, you know, when I'm hearing this, because it's not dyslexia therapy. I mean, it's sort of um, and so they told her she should do a second round, and then they helped her finance it. And this is a single mom who's supporting her kids. She spent$13,000 on brain training. And I asked her, I said, okay, so I'm curious because you know, I haven't had this conversation before with people. What did you think? And she said, it didn't do a single thing. And I walked out of there, and you know, I turned to my husband and I said, I'm so upset right now. And he said, I am too, you know, and so I that conversation really lit a fire under me. And then simultaneously, there was this mom who kept calling me and checking in with me, and it was the same story. Her son has dyslexia, the school won't agree with her, she's fighting. She would call me at different points during the fight, and this mother was exceptional. Um, she was working with state agencies, she was going through the district, like you know, um escalating it through the hierarchy there. She was a really phenomenal natural advocate. She um was again the primary earner of her family. And uh, when I talked to her again the last time, it was probably about a year and a half, two years after this had started. And I asked her, you know, what's the update? And she said, Oh, I got him services, you know, she walked me through everything she did. I got him services, it started. She started fighting them in first grade. He got services in third grade. She was like, I'm already seeing the improvement, you know, and his confidences come up. Meanwhile, two years have passed. And I asked her, How long do you think how much time do you think you um spent on this process? And she said, upward of 200 hours. And my heart just kind of sank because that is almost an entire dyslexia therapy protocol. You know, that is two years of intensive dyslexia therapy during the most sensitive period of providing it where the evidence really shows that you can get the biggest growth and the long, you know, you can get great growth at any age. People can learn to read, but particularly if you start in that first grade year, the opportunity to kind of really close that gap and then stay sort of on pace is the odds are in your favor. Um so now I'm at a point where I'm sort of I'm so frustrated on behalf of the parents that I'm trying to convince them to stick it to the school. You can fight with them all you want, but let me show you how to do it. It's not that hard at the beginning. And so I am filming myself. I've written it, I've written my own protocol. It's fully aligned with everything, but obviously I can't teach other people's protocols. So I've written, you know, I've written my own um 53 uh lessons to be done over about 12, 13 weeks. I am currently doing the videos and handing parents sort of a scripted um with some flexibility, but like I said at the beginning, you can implement. And I just my message to parents is if you want the services to come through the school, great. I worked through the school, there are phenomenal people in the school. But if it's going to take you as long as I've seen it take, let me do this with you, you know. Um, and so there are other things parents can opt into, you know, coaching calls if they want to do a cursive add-on. I love cursive for kids with dyslexia. Um, but I just I can't, I just kills me that these children are waiting and waiting and waiting on a system that is slow to change, has a lot of breaks to say the least. Um and and you know, the other piece of it is I'm on these Facebook groups and different things where um parents are coming on, I just got a diagnosis. Where do I begin? What do I do? And oh, those brain training people come oh, the war of work and all these things. Yes, right. And so I I did write um a dyslexia roadmap for families that's free just to kind of get them started. So I feel like I'm kind of taking a two-pronged approach. One is just trying to give good information that's free and easily accessible. And listen, it's free and easily accessible already, but parents don't necessarily know where to find it at the beginning. And so if they're gonna come into a Facebook group, then I'm gonna throw it right at them in a Facebook group, um, and hopefully get them then to turn to, you know, really national valid um associations and sort of think taking some parent, um grassroots parent groups like decoding dyslexia, where they can find, you know, parent mentors and other people who um are really aware of, you know, the kind of the most current science and practices, that sort of stuff. Because on those groups you'll still see parent, you know, people pushing for overlays um and things that you know we we we figured out wasn't wasn't the solution, you know, decades ago.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, um, you know, and I want to circle back to something you said because we were kind of talking about it before, but I think it's a really, really important kind of button and hot topic to talk about, and that is the actual diagnosis. Are you sharing the diagnosis with your child? Are you allowing them to be part of their own brain and be a part of their own life, be a part of their own journey and advocacy? Why wait until they're um you know, in the throes of puberty and teenagehood to spring something that would confuse them possibly and make them kind of think back to what they'd already had struggled on, and maybe that you knew this information. That's how I personally might see it. And now I'm just that's just just my opinion, but and because you know, I've gone through the situation and having the psychologist that worked with my daughter be so direct and say to us both, dyslexia, autism, ADHD. And we both looked at each other and said, Oh, okay, you know, okay. And then we got in the car and we high-fived and hung, and I said, I'm so proud of you. Like, good for you. Now we know where to like this is a place to start. Like, we have we can get things in place, and you know, she was only eight, so I mean it's not like she had a lot of ideas or goals of where that was gonna go. Um, but for me, I knew that that was um, and to have her on board to understand exactly um, and to have a professional say it in such a uh wonderful way that wasn't um, you know, shh let me mom, let me pull you out into the other room and tell you this. You know, respectful. He was so respectful. He treated her just like the human I like to treat her as. Um, one who is a human that I love and respect. And I want her to do the same. So, hey, guess what? I give it to her. I give her respect.

Self-Advocacy At School And Work

SPEAKER_00 14:31

And yeah, I mean, it's one of those things, like it's a beautiful brain. This is how it's wired, this is how my brain's wired, this is how your brain's wired. Yes, and there's so much now to um that's showing us that when when you when you when you help kids kind of think about and learn about how being works. There are it's a wonderful thing. I, you know, so right, the conversation we were having earlier, I I mentioned, um, and I feel like it's I feel like it can sound very obnoxious of me to say, but that I will in my private practice, I in make sure that parents have shared or are willing to share the child's diagnosis with them because it's so empowering. And this one little girl that I worked with in Houston, I worked with her for a number of years, a delightful child. And this one day her mom called me and she said, I want to tell you what the teacher told me at school. And she said that her daughter, and at this point, I think we'd been working together for a year and a half or so, and she said that the kids at this particular time were doing some something, an online program. And most of the kids in the class were doing one program, and my student was doing Nessie, which is um great for kids with dyslexia. And the teacher told this mom that a child sitting next to her um said, Oh, what's that? And she said, Oh, it's called Nessie. It's for kids with dyslexia. And he said, What's dyslexia? And she goes, Oh, it's when smart kids struggle with reading. And um he just went, oh, cool. And then they both got back to work. And her mom called me and she said, So I asked my daughter, oh, who who taught you that that's what dyslexia meant? And she said, they did. And she goes, she was like, Oh, yeah, that's exactly what it means, you know. But she it hadn't really occurred to her to sort of sit down and have a conversation. And I think for her, it was sort of a watershed moment. Um, yeah, how calm and relaxed, and like how how much ownership her daughter felt over her brain, you know. This is just, you know, when I when I was working specifically in inclusion in schools, my message was always we all come to school to learn, and all of us need different things to learn. You need to sit up front, you need to wear your glasses, you need to do this, you do this, you know. And I think for this child, it was the same thing. She just was, oh, this is what my brain requires. Your brain does better with that, you know?

Home Reading Coach: Program Overview

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Yeah, that's a powerful thing. Oh, it truly is. And not only is it going to help them right now in their childhood, while they're going through these things to, but when they are in their teens and in adulthood and you know, getting into the workforce, things like that. You know, I always hear people question, do I disclose? Do I disclose to an employer? Will it give me um uh you know, a hand down basically right away? Are they gonna just you know, am I gonna get out the door just because of this thing that I need these accommodations and things like that? What is your kind of a professional opinion and what that might look for for um you know parents with older kiddos with diagnoses that are just getting into the workforce or just getting out of?

What The Lessons Teach And Why

SPEAKER_00 18:40

So I will say I work with younger children, but I'm also very interested in that topic. And I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely young woman. She was Miss Texas at the time that I met her. She is now Miss United States. Um and she is a young adult. Uh, she's about to graduate college and she has dyslexia. And her her, she uses her platform as a way to speak specifically to kind of young adults, uh, college-bound students with dyslexia. We had this really wonderful conversation about how she selected the college that she selected, because she had one idea in mind that was a big state school where a lot of kids go and it's a lot of fun. Um, and she toured one of the smaller schools. And what really helped her was the when she saw the Office of Access for Disabilities and the level of supports that were there. And for her, she said it just made so much sense that I felt as good here as I did there, but here I could see very clearly that the community wanted me to be successful and was very open about accommodating my dyslexia in a way that could allow me to do my best in college. And so she's really interested in talking to people and young people about that. And I think that I mean, listen, I have ADHD, we all have our learning profiles, you know, we all have my job, one of my jobs makes us do those strength finders, personality, you know, all those assessments because we all have our unique um profile. And I think that it's perfectly warranted for anybody, regardless of ability status, um, to say to an employer, you're getting a great hire. I am awesome at what I do. In order to get my best work out of me, I like to use the following. You know, I mean, these are so you know, because you are, you're gonna get great work out of me. I used to do phenomenal work in Houston, but because of the ADHD, the just getting things right at the very end, I would start to fall apart and get it over the finish line. And I worked with this colleague who was remarkable. I used to joke to her that if we could meld our brains, we would have sort of the most beautiful perfect brain. Um, because her strengths were my weaknesses, and vice versa. And I I too, I think that really embracing. Your strengths and knowing exactly what you bring to the table. And you're gonna get even better out of me when we structure it this way.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

You know? Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think that for those who are um empowered by their diagnosis, I think that it is one more step to just validating to someone in that kind of um, you know, saying this is what I need. Like if you want to, if you want me to care about my job, I assume you're going to care about me as a and as an employee. So these are the things I need. And and I'll also care for your company or whatever, and vice versa. So I do think that is so important. And um, yeah, I like that you said that. Well, let's get back to what you do so we can send people um to supporting you and and going to visit you and everything. Tell me about kind of your processes. Is it online, in person, both? Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Sure. Well, um, the website developers are putting the finishing touches. You you caught me a little bit earlier than I was totally doing. That's okay. Um, so hopefully this week, possibly next, at home reading do homereadingcoach.com will be live. Um, I am right now doing a lot through Instagram and Facebook of just sharing information. I do have, like I mentioned before, this dyslexia roadmap for families. And it's specifically just as an initial resource for families who maybe have just gotten a diagnosis for their child or are in the process of testing or wondering. And that really walks families through the assessment process, both public and private. Um, different, different approaches to supporting kiddos with dyslexia, different professionals, because it is overwhelming. You know, there's I'm a dyslexia tutor, I'm a dyslexia associate, I am a cult, I'm this. Um and I did that because I really want them to know where to go to vet resources. So also a ton of resources, advocacy information. Uh, at this particular moment uh of hearing this, probably to go to my Instagram or Facebook profile of Home Reading Coach. There's a link there for all of these things. Um, and then I also have a small, just got it started, YouTube channel. And that's allowing me to go into deeper dives on topics regarding dyslexia. Most recently, I posted a three-part conversation with some former licensed school psychologists who are now licensed psychologists and are doing private testing. And so they are really walked folks through the testing process privately. The IEEE, we did a whole episode on IEEE, which was wonderful. I learned a lot. Um just sort of tips for parents about walking into the IEP meeting.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Um I'm assuming that the Facebook is also called Home Reading Coach.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

It's home reading coach.

unknown 25:32

Yes.

Who It’s For And When To Start

The Literacy Crisis And Science Of Reading

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Thank you. Thank you. Uh yeah, so those, so I'm I'm sort of all over there. Now, the other thing that is in my all my links is signing up for a wait list for my reading breakthrough program, which I had mentioned before. So it is it is a very affordable$97. However, people who come off the wait list um get additional discounts and freebies thrown in. So just to sort of put that in perspective. I'm on the lower range of things. I charge families$80,$85 an hour to do one-on-one with me. Parts of the country, it's$150,$200. So basically, for less than the price of a session with a dyslexia therapist, it's 13 weeks of intervention. And it's walking, it's basically getting kiddos up to the CBC, very consonant vowel, consonant words, um, very beginning of two syllable words, um the foundational dyslexia therapy concept. So um, so I've made my own reading deck, you know, all the pieces come with it as printable. Every lesson has um a daily reading um practice, and then also I'm not sure if you're familiar with the sort of possum structure that's used in dyslexia therapy, but essentially in every reading practice, we enact that and it's scripted for the families. So when you mentioned you got your brain scanned, so when you scan the brain of a typical reader, you can see areas of the brain lighting up. And a dyslexic reader, um it's wired in a way where the lighting is happening, it's depressed in certain areas, it's brighter in certain areas, which is why so many people with dyslexia have some incredible skills. I mean, remarkable skills. Um, it's just that reading is hard because their brain is wired in such a way that it's excellent at this, and reading is a challenge. So um, so with this uh possum piece, it's taking a single word and walking it basically through every part of the brain. So thinking about it phonologically, thinking about the orthography of it, thinking about the syntax, um, you know, and the morphology and usage, and and so really kind of moving the word around your brain, because what you'll often hear is this idea of brain mapping with dyslexia. So that's a pretty sophisticated tool that I'm just breaking down right there so that the parents can do it. And like I said, at the early stage of dyslexia therapy, you're you're covering foundational things. So with the video series that I do for the families, walking them through the lessons before they um teach them at home. And then they can opt into the Facebook coaching, which I'm offering free for people coming off the wait list, um, or the live weekly coaching. Um, and then other add-ons, like I've mentioned before, curative and different things. If it's that you're waiting for a spot to open up somewhere else, or for school to come around, I want you to start, you know, just start. And so that's my goal with this. So the sign up for the wait list is also on there, and um yeah, and then the website will hopefully be live soon.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Wonderful. No, we can't wait to see it, and I'm really excited and thank you so much for bringing this information. What age typically does the program run for? I guess we should mention that too, so everybody has an idea.

No Gatekeeping: Free Guides And Groups

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Sure. I've designed it for when a kiddo would ideally be identified, so like a first grader, uh K first. But the reality is most kids don't get identified until third, fourth, honestly fifth grade. Yeah. Um, and the data shows that in order to maximize the the best window of opportunity is if a child starts getting intervention at the end of first grade, the chances of them being on grade level in third grade and beyond are infinitely higher, whereas a kid struggling at the end of first grade and into second grade is going to be struggling in third, fourth, and beyond. Yeah. The reality is if you're if your child is in third grade and you're fighting for a diagnosis, this is where they're gonna start. Every dyslexia program is going to start at that foundational piece. Ultimately, I would like to build upon that so that heaven forbid, people are not getting their services they need through the school. Or for some people, it I mean, I'm about to say something really scandalous, but just because the services are provided through the school doesn't mean that you're getting the right services or that they're being provided by a person who is knowledgeable. We are in the middle of a huge, shocking literacy crisis right now, where a lot is coming to light about what's happening universally, you know, globally on reading. Um almost 70% of American school children in third and fourth grade cannot read proficiently because our foundational reading instruction has not been aligned with the science of reading. So what's happening within the school is that tier two intervention level is so overloaded and overtaxed, and then you've got tier three, and like I said, every day I just am meeting families of kids who they cannot get qualified for those services. So I do want to continue um building it out, and then additionally, because of the alarm with the uh literacy crisis in America and the fact that so many kids are really struggling, kids who don't have dyslexia, they just don't have um a teacher who knows the science of reading or a school that knows the science of reading and is implementing it. And I think something like 75% of the school districts in the United States, if I hope I have that right, they're still utilizing a curriculum that has been shown to not be aligned with the science of reading. So, so I do want to roll out something that's just a very simple ABC to C B C, you know, just for parents who want to lay a good foundation and do some extra work at home with their kids or if they're homeschooling or whatever the case may be, just to get those, all of those initial sounds down and start those consonant vowel consonant um so that their kids can can get off on the right foot. A B C to C B C I like. It's it's just really cute. Yes. I like that. I just, you know, there's there's just so much information out there about really what you're robbing a child by not giving them access to literacy. Um there's uh that I've seen from an advocate multiple times about how the school to prison pipeline runs straight through the reading class because the percentage of people in juvenile detention and the percentage of people incarcerated as adults, most of them have learning disabilities. Many of them cannot read proficiently. Yeah, and it's just so this is something that our kids deserve. And we can do it. I mean, we know how to teach dyslexic kids to read. This is not it's not rocket science. It really isn't. I think that I think that the data shows that if if kids are given what they need so that their particular brains can learn, probably 99% plus of the population should be able to read. It's it's completely doable. So I I'm tired of of families not not getting what they need. And so this is good my my opportunity to give them an option. It doesn't have to be the option, but but now they have access to it.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

I love that. Well, and I love that you said some important things throughout our conversation.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

I feel like I got a little uh lost there.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

No, you're great, you're great. I was just gonna say you said some really important things. And one definitely was that you like to share resources and information because I number one am a sharer of resources and information. I want people, I think there is no gatekeeping information. I just am a huge fan of that. So thank you. Thank you for being part of the community that gives to the community. Um, and you know, also making a program that suits the um individuals that really, like you said, are smart kids that struggle to read. Like I absolutely love that. And I'm I'm gonna definitely make sure I pass that information along because that is uh just a perfect way to to help um empower uh empower those those kiddos for sure.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Yeah. Right. And that is from Sally Shewitz's overcoming dyslexia. So I can't take credit for that definition, but it's the one with the color. Yeah. She deserves it. Um one other thing I would love to say as far as information is that a lot of families feel like they need a diagnosis before they can intervene. And that is not the case. If you see your kid is struggling, no matter what the school says, if you see it, you can intervene. There's there's no harm, right? No harm, no foul. And uh the reality is especially for kids who are twins twice exception. Um I see that all the time with really young young, right? Most of these kids are very bright, really bright kids and become inquisitive, and it's masked so beautifully, you know. Um, and so if you see it, you can spend 97 bucks and do it my way. You can go online. There's plenty of resources out there.

Where To Find Faye And Final Thanks

SPEAKER_02 37:17

Thank you so so much. Please make sure to go follow. I really appreciate you having me on. Oh, thank you. It's so much fun to have you. It was go follow Faye at IG at home reading coach. Thank you and Facebook. Um, I guess the Facebook Reading Coach. Could anyone join the group?

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Is called Teach My Child to Read. Perfect. So come find me there too. Yay, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Sarah. It's been delightful talking to you. I know, I've had so much fun and I really appreciate it. Keep me posted on your summit. I'm very excited. Thank you.