2025 Year in Review

Clients, students, colleagues, and friends,

Thank you for sharing the journey of 2025 with us. This year offered many opportunities to learn, reflect, and grow—both individually and as a community—and we are grateful to continue this work alongside you and your children.

Below are a few highlights from the past year.

📘 Book Launch

Jen Petrich and Brad Johnson published a long-anticipated book! Investigating English Spelling: An Interactive Guide to Understanding How English Spelling Works, is an interactive workbook designed to introduce word study and foundational concepts of how the English spelling system works. Readers learn through guided discovery—just as our students do—making the book accessible and engaging for those new to this approach.

🎓 Outreach & Education

Throughout the year, we connected with educators and learners across a wide range of settings. Jen presented in three graduate-level classes, at Georgia State University, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Chapman University—engaging future literacy professionals in thoughtful discussions about language, writing, and instruction.

In April, Jen presented “Why and How to Include Morphology and Etymology in Primary Literacy Instruction” for the Science of Reading-What I Should Have Learned in College Facebook Group, with nearly 500 registrants.

Summer brought Dr. Peter Bowers’ annual conference on Wolfe Island, Canada, along with several podcast interviews exploring Structured Word Inquiry, spelling, and literacy instruction (see below for links to the episodes.) Additional in-person highlights included IDA’s DyslexiaCon in Atlanta, an SWI dinner downtown for members of the SWI community from all over who were here for the IDA conference, and our own Literacy Dr Mini-Conference. The mini-conference was a particularly energizing experience, bringing educators together to explore neurodiversity, reflect on the current literacy landscape, and reimagine grammar instruction in meaningful ways.

In addition, we hosted 27 sessions of Wednesdays with Literacy Dr—our free, weekly online drop-in for parents, teachers, and professionals. These virtual conversations created space to ask questions, share experiences, and explore a wide range of literacy-related topics in a supportive, community-centered setting.

🎙️ Podcast Episodes (Available Now)

Another new highlight of 2025 was stepping into podcast interviews for the first time, expanding how we connect with educators and the wider literacy community.

• For the Love of Literacy Podcast

  • How Dyslexics Make Sense of Written English - Marie Foley & Sara Lee

  • How English Spelling Really Works - Jennifer Petrich & Brad Johnson

• The Reading Teachers Lounge Podcast

  • Deliberate Orthography - Jennifer Petrich & Brad Johnson

We’re also looking ahead to an upcoming episode of The Reading Teachers Lounge, featuring Sara Lee’s discussion of grammar and syntax with practical classroom applications.

🧠 Professional Learning & New Resources

This year, we expanded our professional development offerings to better meet the needs of educators and clinicians. New small-group grammar workshops with Sara Lee allowed participants to focus on their most pressing questions and immediately apply new learning to their own teaching or writing.

Additional opportunities included:

• A new cohort of the D.O.T.S. class

• A book study of Sue Hegland’s “Beneath the Surface of Words” and a summer journal club

• Continued collaboration within the Writing in the Trenches community

We also added a new video to our library—History of English, Part II—along with several new blog posts (see below for links to each post).

👥 Staff Professional Development

Behind the scenes, the Literacy Dr team continued to grow as well. Our therapists participated in a professional development session on neurodiversity-affirming activities, developed by Chris Wenger (Speech Dude). This session supported our ongoing commitment to learner-centered, respectful, and inclusive practices.

✍️ New Blog Posts

Three new blog posts were added to our library this year—short, thoughtful reads exploring important ideas related to writing and literacy:

• Why I Don’t Have Kids Label Parts of Speech

• Potential

• Guest Post by Renée Pinchero: There Are No Good or Bad Writers

We are deeply grateful for your partnership and trust as we continue this work together. Thank you for allowing us to support your learners and to grow alongside you. We look forward to another year filled with curiosity, connection, and the joy of learning.

Warmly,

Jen Petrich and Sara Lee