The word means hope. This program offers hope to people who have not been able to learn to read and write in a traditional manner. Esperanza focuses on teaching in a multisensory way using students’ strengths to shore up the areas of weakness. If children can’t learn the way they are being taught, then the way that they are being taught needs to change.

It would be difficult because the goal of Esperanza is for the children to speak, read and write fluently in Spanish. If the teacher is unable to communicate in Spanish, that would impede the child’s development.

The Amplio/Esperanza digitized curriculum is only available for those students who are diagnosed with dyslexia.

Esperanza can be completed in one year, but it often takes two years.

A parent can request an evaluation by a bilingual educational diagnostician.

The Esperanza program has an initial screening for placement into the program. If the student meets the criteria for each subtest that is required, the student can begin at Lesson 25. If the student does not meet the criteria for each subtest, the student begins in Lesson 1.

Phoneme awareness activities predict how well a student will be able to read in Spanish and in English. Although Spanish is a syllabic language, students who have difficulty learning to read are those who cannot blend, segment, or manipulate phonemes.

Students who are learning to read can benefit from the consistent letter and sound correspondences. Including digraphs helps to make the Spanish language more reliable and consistent. This is especially necessary for those students who struggle with decoding.

The goal of Esperanza is to bridge Spanish and English literacy, therefore, sounds and words that are similar or found in English were included to assist students in closing the gap quicker. At the same time, English words were chosen whenever words with a specific phoneme do not exist in Spanish. For example, the word “wagon” was included because Spanish does not have words that begin with the /w/ sound. Given the difference in Spanish dialects, interventionists are able to skip words that may not be appropriate for the student.

Cursive handwriting is helpful for students with dyslexia as the flow of the letters only move from left to right. For lowercase letters, you do not have to decide where to begin on paper. All lowercase letters in cursive begin on the baseline. They all move from left to right. In Esperanza, we use stroke approaches to assist students with their handwriting skills. Handwriting skills on lined paper assists students to understand spacing and proportionality.

Some of the literacy standards include handwriting skills and in research handwriting is superior to keyboarding for learning and memory. This is evident from childhood to adulthood.

Good handwriting skills are helpful for students who may exhibit dysgraphia. Dysgraphia is a related disorder for students with dyslexia. At the same time, it is important for students to be able to learn the correct pencil grip.

These are opportunities to challenge the student, if appropriate. Interventionists can use their judgment and skip words that are too difficult if necessary.

Interventionists choose any appropriate book with the same theme as the lesson. Amplio provides a list of suggested books that can be found in the resources library on the platform. Another option is to open the youtube link in the Amplio Classroom.

The Extended Reading Lesson can be implemented after every 5 lessons. There are 3 passages to choose from that can meet the needs of individual students. For example, if a student demonstrates a severe reading disorder, it would be most appropriate to use Level A reader.

The progress monitoring tool is administered after every 10 completed lessons of Esperanza.

If the student fails a specific section of the exam, review missed items and reteach that section. If the student fails all the sections, go back 10 lessons and reteach.

You can reteach the concept and provide more opportunities for building the automaticity of the concept. Use the reading deck cards and reading practices at the word level. For decoding, use the backing and syllable division process. You segment the word and then blend it back together. Also, practice spelling at the sound and word level with the very same concept. Next practice reading at the paragraph level using the Esperanza readers.

You may contact your adoption specialist at any time and they will assist you.