Frequently Asked Questions

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General Program FAQs

  • Do you do Testing?

    Do you provide testing?

    I provide a pedagogical assessment — a learning-focused evaluation that's different from official educational testing. Rather than assigning a score or grade, it's an observation of how your student thinks, learns, and applies their skills. How long does it take and what does it cost? 90 minutes, $480. What does it cover? Reading, math, and writing:
    • Reading: the San Diego Quick Assessment (SDQA) — reading aloud for 5-10 minutes at their instructional level, followed by comprehension questions
    • Math: two equations each in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
    • Writing: 2-3 sentences (both print and cursive, if your student writes in cursive)
    I'll also observe balance and coordination through activities like tossing bean bags and other movement exercises — these help me understand the whole student, not just their academic skills. For children ages 5-7, I adjust the amount and level of these activities based on a conversation with parents beforehand. What will I receive afterward? Within one business day, you'll get a written report by email covering your student's thinking style, SDQA results, motivation, and program recommendations (if a program is a good fit).
  • What can I expect the student to gain in a program ?

    What can I expect my student to gain from a program?

    • Tools to focus at will and correct perceptual confusion (disorientation)
    • Mastery of the basic symbols for reading and writing, built with clay
    • Resolution of specific words or concepts that have caused confusion in the past
    • Skills and exercises to support ongoing academic success
    • The ability to focus attention at will, regulate energy, recognize and resolve disorientation, and greater self-confidence in reading, writing, or math
    • Noticeable improvement by the end of the program — the exact schedule depends on which program you're doing (see each program's page for specifics)
    • A plan for continuing the work at home, developed together during Support Training
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  • How Does the Davis Programs Compare to Other Dyslexia Programs?
      Comparison of other dyslexia programs with Davis (data from 2014):
  • How long does a program take?

    How long does a program take?

    • Davis® Mastery for Dyslexia: 30 hours, done as 3-hour sessions each morning over 10 days.
    • Davis® Mastery for Attention: 30 hours, done as 3-hour sessions each day over 10 days.
    • Davis® Mastery for Math: 45 hours, done as 3-hour sessions each day over 15 days.
    • Davis® Foundations for Reading: 2-3 hours a day over 10-15 days, depending on your child's age and pace.
    • Davis® Concepts for Life and Autism programs: fully individualized — there's no fixed schedule. These typically run several months, built entirely around your pace and goals.
    Follow-up work — continuing Symbol Mastery on any remaining trigger words — is done at home at the student's own pace after any program.
  • Can I do this program on my own, just by reading the book?

    Can I do this on my own, just by reading the book?

    Honestly, no — not the full program. The Gift of Dyslexia gives you real insight into the Davis approach and the thinking behind it, and some families do get real value from it on their own. But a book can't replicate the personalized, one-on-one guidance a trained facilitator provides — adjusting to exactly where a student is stuck, in real time. That said, a teen or adult usually can't work through the methods entirely alone, but may have success with the help of a supportive friend or family member working through the book together. Results vary quite a bit depending on the person's motivation and the support available to them.
  • What happens after the program, is there follow-up work?

    What happens after the program? Is there follow-up work?

    Yes — every program includes follow-up work, and how much depends on your student's needs and which program they completed. You and I will build an individual follow-up plan together with your main support person. This is included at no extra cost:
    • A Symbol Mastery kit for continuing the work at home
    • Support training for you (or whoever is helping your student)
    • Phone support
    • Up to three two-hour return visits, as needed
    For the reading program, the goal is mastering the full list of trigger words (217 words). For math, it's the 35 story-problem trigger words. For Attention, the ongoing clay work centers on whatever behaviors you're working to build. All of this can continue over several months or longer, depending on your student's motivation and the support available at home.
  • Can a person lose his/her natural abilities after the program?

    Can a person lose their natural abilities after a program?

    No — quite the opposite. Davis programs build on a person's existing strengths and teach them to use their natural abilities more effectively. If anything, those abilities tend to get stronger.
  • Do I have to have an official diagnosis of Dyslexia or ADHD?

    Do I have to have an official diagnosis of dyslexia or ADHD?

    No, you don't. The first step is scheduling an assessment to see whether a Davis program is the right fit. That assessment looks at:
    1. Your student's ability to think and perceive multi-dimensionally
    2. Their specific skills, abilities, challenges, and strengths
    3. Their goals
    4. Their level of motivation
    5. Whether a Davis program is genuinely a good match
    From there, we design a program specifically around what the assessment shows. The assessment takes 90 minutes and costs $480 — call 206.451.7102 to schedule.
  • How does this program work for home-schooled children?

    How does this work for homeschooled children?

    Davis integrates nicely into a homeschool setting. At the end of the program, we'll have a Support Training session where I'll walk you through exactly how to continue the work over the next 4-6 months, using the materials you'll take home with you.
  • What is Davis Symbol Mastery® and do all programs use it?

    What is Davis Symbol Mastery®, and do all programs use it?

    Picture-thinkers learn best through a visual, hands-on approach. In Symbol Mastery, clients build the basic symbols of reading and writing — letters, punctuation, whole words — as clay models. For words that don't have a natural mental picture (words like on, in, at, and too — we call these "trigger words"), clay gives them one. Every Davis program I offer uses Symbol Mastery as a core tool for bringing real meaning to symbols, words, and concepts.
  • What is the Support Training?

    What is Support Training?

    Support Training happens at the end of the program, and it's genuinely one of the most important parts. You (and anyone else who'll be helping your student — another parent, a tutor, a teacher) join a session where your student and I share what they've learned, and I walk you through exactly how to continue their follow-up work. You'll learn the basics of Symbol Mastery yourself, so you're equipped to coach your student going forward.
  • How much will reading improve after the one-week Davis Dyslexia Correction program?

    How much will reading improve after a Davis Dyslexia program?

    It varies — a lot depends on your child's age, how much they were struggling before we started, and other individual factors. But it's genuinely common for a student to be reading at or near grade level by the end of the program, and some end up reading above grade level, even if they started out years behind. I've worked with adults who couldn't read at all who reached a fifth-grade reading level by the end of the program. I've worked with fifth graders reading at a 2nd-3rd grade level who reached 5th grade level. I've seen kids who couldn't catch a ball learn to do so. Many people see handwriting improve immediately; for others, it takes a few months. Long-term results depend heavily on how consistently a family keeps up with the reading exercises and Symbol Mastery at home after the program. What happens during our time together needs to be reinforced through practice to really stick.
  • How is this program different from others?

    How is this program different from others?

    Many of the families who come to me have already spent years in phonics-based programs like Orton-Gillingham — often the most common approach used in schools and private tutoring for dyslexia. For some kids, that approach works well. But I regularly meet families where it hasn't: where a child has drilled the same sounds and rules for years, made only slow progress, and reached a point where they simply don't want to try anymore. That reluctance, more than anything, is usually what brings a family to me. Davis takes a different approach. Rather than starting with sounds and drilling phonics rules, it starts with meaning — using clay to build a real, felt understanding of a word before ever worrying about how it's spelled or sounded out. It also treats reading, writing, spelling, and attention as connected, rather than separate problems each needing their own fix, and it works from a student's natural strengths as a creative, big-picture thinker rather than treating that thinking style as something to work around. I want to be upfront about something, though: independent, large-scale research on Davis specifically is much thinner than the research behind phonics-based programs like Orton-Gillingham, which has decades of peer-reviewed backing. Davis International points to a handful of their own studies, and there are outside critiques questioning how strong that evidence really is. What I can speak to honestly is what I've personally seen, over and over, in my own practice: kids who'd given up on reading or math — and on themselves — genuinely re-engaging, often for the first time in years. That's not a substitute for rigorous independent research, but it's real, and it's why I do this work. If phonics-based instruction is working for your child, I don't suggest abandoning it. But if you're at the point where your child has stopped wanting to try, or they are working so hard and have diminished self-esteem, this may be worth a conversation.

Other Learning Challenges

  • Can Davis methods help with attention focus problems or hyperactivity?

    Can Davis methods help with attention focus problems or hyperactivity?

    Yes. I've had specialized training in working with clients who have attention focus challenges or hyperactivity. Through Attention Mastery, clients learn Davis tools to maintain focus and regulate their own energy, and they master life concepts like time, sequence, consequence, and order versus disorder — concepts that end up mattering just as much as the focus itself.
  • Will these programs help a child who is taking Ritalin for ADHD?

    Will this help a child who's taking Ritalin for ADHD?

    I generally don't recommend doing a Davis program while a child is on medication for attention focus challenges. Stimulant medications like Ritalin tend to interfere with a student's ability to learn mental imagery control and techniques like dial-setting, which are central to Davis methods. Some families choose to do the program during a school break, when a "medication vacation" is also possible — but that decision is always between you and your child's treating physician, not something I can advise on myself. I'm happy to talk it through with your family either way.
  • Can Davis methods help a child who reads well but struggles with writing?

    Can Davis methods help a child who reads well but struggles with writing?

    Absolutely — and it's more common than people expect. Many dyslexic thinkers are strong visual-spatial thinkers: they can recognize written words just fine, but struggle to produce their own thoughts in writing (sometimes called dysgraphia), or with numbers (dyscalculia). Rather than treating reading, writing, and math as separate problems needing separate fixes, I look at the same underlying thinking style behind all of them. Someone can absolutely be dyslexic and still read well — recognizing a word on a page is a different skill than generating your own words from scratch, and picture-thinkers often struggle with the second far more than the first. Symbol Mastery gives words a concrete connection to mental pictures, and Davis Orientation work supports the perceptual and motor skills tied to handwriting itself.
  • Will Davis methods help with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)?

    Will Davis methods help with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)?

    In my experience, individuals age 7 and up with CAPD symptoms — sometimes called "auditory dyslexia" — do well with Davis methods. CAPD is often diagnosed in people who have real trouble with listening: distinguishing sounds, understanding what's been said, needing things repeated, confusing similar-sounding words, or seeming distracted or "checked out." These individuals usually don't have a physical hearing problem — the difficulty is in how the brain interprets what it hears. These are also recognized symptoms of dyslexia. In my view, the two things driving both CAPD and dyslexia symptoms — disorientation, and difficulty thinking in words rather than pictures — significantly overlap. One distinction worth knowing: dyslexia (as a reading difficulty) is hard to reliably identify before about age 6, since many young children simply aren't ready to read yet. CAPD symptoms can show up much earlier, sometimes by age 3. If your preschooler shows real delays in speaking or understanding language, it's worth getting evaluated by a speech-language therapist, along with a hearing check from a physician or audiologist.
  • What is dyspraxia and what can be done about it?

    What is dyspraxia, and what can be done about it?

    Dyspraxia (sometimes called "clumsy child syndrome") shows up as chronic clumsiness, accident-proneness, and poor motor coordination — real difficulty holding a pencil, learning to ride a bike, or catching a ball. In my experience, Davis Orientation work — the same perceptual tools described in The Gift of Dyslexia — genuinely helps with dyspraxia. The Koosh ball exercises that go along with it are especially helpful for large motor skills, balance, and hand-eye coordination. Many people tell me that after this work, it's the first time in their life they've felt truly "in balance," rather than subtly off-center. More detail on this is in Chapters 11 and 30 of The Gift of Dyslexia, if you'd like to read further.