Dyslexia Tutor with 11+ years Barton Program experience. Passionate about and dedicated to helping my students learn, and discover and utilize their strengths for attaining maximum success.

Melissa has been tutoring my daughter for her dyslexia for the past 6 years and I cannot say enough wonderful things about Melissa. My daughter has learned so many strategies for reading, writing, and spelling which has allowed her to excel in school. Her confidence has grown as well. Melissa has become a mentor and friend to my daughter as well, which has made the tutoring all the more special. Melissa goes above and beyond to send parents resources and supplementary recommendations. Melissa is truly an outstanding tutor!

Our family loves Melissa! We have had her in our lives for about 16 years now. My oldest son and her daughter have been going to school together since preschool. We really got to know Melissa when my son (now 16) struggled with reading and she helped with that in 1st & 2nd grade but when he started the Barton Program for dyslexics in 3rd or 4th grade, he really took off. He unfortunately didn't get to complete all the book lessons but he got pretty far and I saw a huge improvement. When my second son (now almost 9) also struggled with reading in Kindergarten we started having Melissa help him with the Barton Program right away in 1st grade. He is excelling with his reading compared to his brother at this age by having this tutoring sooner than his brother did. Melissa is so loving and nurturing to the boys and she even worked with us to keep my son going with his tutoring throughout the summer so he could continue to grow and learn and not forget what he had learned. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. I would recommend her to anyone who has a child who needs a little extra help and loving support and encouragement!

Our son has dyslexia, and by third grade had become very frustrated with school and himself. Melissa began working with him and found a way to connect. She designed a program, their “toolbox”, around his interest of building things. The “toolbox” they built together was full of all the rules and guidelines he needed to strengthen his reading and vocabulary skills. Melissa further helped him by helping our family understand his challenge and learn about tools that would allow him to study independently. Melissa never let our son feel he was “less than” or “disabled” but rather that he learned differently. He grew in confidence with her tutoring, which we were fortunate to benefit from for several years, and now in high school he is confident and successful. I can not express enough gratitude to Melissa for sharing her gift of teaching. She has been a corner stone in our son’s success. Melissa’s gift of connecting with her students and using their interests to help them grow and understand is what every parent dreams a teacher will be to their child.
Toni and Dean Thiel

Melissa has been tutoring my high school age student for almost two years. She is patient, engaging, incredibly knowledgeable, intuitive to a student's needs and dedicated to her students' success both in reading and in life. My student has gone from being an insecure reader with little reading comprehension to a confident reader who retains a large amount of information from a story. My student has a much firmer grasp on the English language and its rules as well as a a wealth of tools for success in high school and beyond. We are forever grateful for Melissa and cannot recommend her highly enough!

Melissa changed my sons life. My son was really struggling with reading and math, Melissa applied her techniques and worked with my son to the point where today he is reading above grade level and excelling in Math. When the school went virtual, Melissa continued helping, adjusting in the way that best fit our sons needs. Highly recommend.

Melissa has been tutoring our son for the past few years. With her help our son has blossomed as a reader and equally important he is confident in his reading ability. We highly recommend Melissa!