About Kimberly

Kimberly started tutoring her son with the Barton Reading & Spelling System in September 2013, while he was a second grader at his local Fairfax County public school. Although his Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) showed him reading at grade level, she had a strong suspicion that something was amiss.

After he was identified as dyslexic through an all-day screening process by a seasoned certified academic language therapist, she learned that she could remediate his dyslexia on her own. As someone who has always loved reading, spelling and grammar, she was excited to learn this highly regarded, Orton-Gillingham based approach to these subjects.

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By the time he completed Level 4 in August 2014, he was reading for pleasure, without prompting. He also showed remarkable improvements in spelling. This was particularly gratifying as poor spelling is one of the key warning signs of dyslexia.

In fact, she chose to homeschool her son starting in 2014, as it was clear from several meetings with his teacher and principal, that there was virtually no chance that the school would acknowledge and accommodate his dyslexia. Because he wasn’t failing, the school had nothing to offer, even though it was a regular exercise in frustration for him.

The Barton system, which thoroughly covers reading, spelling, basic grammar, and prosody, now serves as the cornerstone of his language arts curriculum.

Since each student’s dyslexia varies across a continuum of severity, Kimberly customizes the speed of each twice-weekly tutoring session so that her students are left with a real sense of accomplishment and mastery. These new rules for reading and spelling are presented in a fun and engaging manner.

Creating new connections in a dyslexic’s student’s brain is hard work and requires a minimum of two hours of instruction time each week. Kimberly is steadfast in guiding and supporting her students through each level of the Barton system.

Susan Barton, who still administers the exam herself to insure the competency of tutors, certified her in Levels 1-3 in July 2015, Levels 4-6 on March 18, 2018 (achieving the Advanced certification level) and Levels 7-10 on December 9, 2019 – achieving the Masters certification level.

Kimberly became a Certified Dyslexia Advocate on December 31, 2018.

Teachers very impressed!

Hi Kimberly,

I know C. mentioned to you the meeting we had with our daughter’s classroom and special education teachers. I wanted to share the specific comments from my notes that he made when he did an assessment on phonics and phonological awareness for background (not required by her IEP). He said that he sees she has had “very good instruction” in both of those areas and that he has “never seen a child who knows how to segment phonemes and read nonsense words as well as A.”

Thanks,
H.

H.L.

Kimberly,

Thank you for making a difference in C’s life. Your tutoring has improved her reading and self-esteem greatly. The positive change in her has affected our family also.

K&D

Teachers notice results from early-stage tutoring

(From mom to teachers): I’m really glad you both believe that E. is making strong progress, and you’ve seen the results of the tutoring in her classroom performance.

She was just in Level 3 at that time and the effects from remediation were already noticed.

A.K.

What a difference!

Thank you for everything!!!! What a difference you and the Barton Program have made in K’s life! We appreciate you!

KC

From despair to the Honor Society!

Hi Kimberly,

I wanted to share the good news that G. is invited to join the National Junior Honor Society. I remember her despair a few years ago saying she was stupid and didn’t care about school. I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all of your guidance and patience with G. as she’s worked through the Barton system with you. She couldn’t have overcome dyslexia and accomplished this without you.

Thank you.

J.

J.

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