Lauren here! For those of you who don't know me, I'm a certified structured literacy and dyslexia interventionist and an SLP. I've specialized in dyslexia for my entire career (over 12 years now), and it's my biggest passion. A few weeks ago, a customer reached out and asked me this: "What literacy product should I start with?"

I love this question, because it shows that SLPs are eager to dive into the world of literacy! I hate to answer it this way, but it totally depends. Let's dig into where to start:

1. Bjorem Speech Sound Cues. I started using these before I worked here. I loved them for phonemic awareness activities and would just add my own letters. I'd create rhymes with the pictures, add in multiple spellings for one sound, talk about onset-rime, segment words, blend words—I'd use the cues for all of it. They're great for early phonemic awareness (PA), even though they're not technically a "literacy" product.

2. Prefixes, Suffixes, and Bases. My first three years as an SLP were spent in a middle school, working with dyslexic kids in a language-based learning program. We spent a lot of time on morphology (prefixes, suffixes, and bases). I had the privilege of working with Leanne Dall on this product, and I honestly love it so much. What's important about it is that you don't have to wait until the later elementary grades to start incorporating morphemes into your instruction. Early suffixes like -s, -ed, and -ing can be added as early as first grade. This product comes with cards that are easy to manipulate and feature great black-and-white pictures. A wonderful, versatile product for all grades.

3. Better Letters with the Laurie Berkner Band. This product was born out of frustration with the alphabet songs floating around the internet. We had the amazing opportunity to meet with Laurie Berkner and talk with her about letter-sound correspondences. It's fantastic for early alphabet awareness and letter-sound correspondences. It pairs beautifully with her songs and has ACCURATE letter-sound-keyword matches (no more x for xylophone!) alongside fun, engaging pictures.

4. Better Letters Educator Edition. This comprehensive product gives you SO much bang for your buck. While working on it with Jennie and Kelly Farquharson, we were really thoughtful about choosing the graphemes and the information on the back of each card. We wanted to accomplish a few things with this deck. For one thing, I didn't want a super long explanation trying to unpack the visual and the grapheme. It's great for those who are familiar with the Bjorem Speech Sound Cues (or not!) and want to go beyond basic letter-sound correspondences. We're talking one letter with multiple sounds (the two sounds of the letter c) or one sound (the "er" sound in motorcycle) and the various ways to spell it. The back of the card holds SO much info, too—it explains spelling rules and categories, giving you both speech and reading/spelling information.

5. Links and Ladders. This product is genius, from both Casey Harrison of The Dyslexia Classroom and Leanne Dall . I love it, and you can do so much with it: word chaining, reading, spelling, phoneme manipulation, multiple-meaning words. It's very thoughtfully planned out to move from simple to complex. Stay tuned for more companion resources!

6. Spelling Decks. The four one-syllable spelling generalization decks each target one sound or one rule at a time. They include the target words, a misspelled word (forcing kids to make a choice about the rule), and an instructional booklet packed with ideas. These are great for embedding literacy—spelling, reading, and phonemic awareness—while targeting an often-forgotten skill: spelling.

7. Sound Decks. We're just getting started with this series, but these decks target one sound (e.g., the "oy" sound) and the various ways to spell it. They're rule-based and quite predictable, and the Better Letters divider tab allows for easy sorting.

Hope that helps you make a decision!