About

My name is Janine Johnston and I did not know that I grew up in a family with dyslexia until my own daughter began to struggle with reading.  When my older daughter was in 3rd grade I discovered, through the results of an educational diagnostic evaluation, that she had dyslexia. Although my mama intuition had known something was unique about her learning for much longer. With time, I have traced a line of dyslexia through my family tree and have come to respect the effects such a genetic inheritance has on our family, and all on families with this neural wiring: both positive and negative. Each family treads a unique path through a variety of learning environments that form a learner. And each family finds ways of leaning into a learning difference at distinct moments of their child’s development. My family’s path lead me to want to become the best possible advocate I could and can be (a common experience); partially by becoming a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT), and subsequently helping not only guide my own child’s learning but also to help other students of all ages improve reading, writing, and spelling. While trekking upon this path, I have come to recognize how emotional regulation (associated anxiety) and executive function skills are also impacted and continuously developing skills and gathering tools to mitigate these elements of dyslexia (in addition to other learning differences such as ADHD and dysgraphia), as well.

I have specialized training in Orton Gillingham based multi-sensory approaches to reading remediation in Sounds In Syllables (developed in New Mexico by internationally respected dyslexia expert Sandra Dillon of the Multisensory Language Institute of NM) as a dyslexia therapist and the Sequential English Education (developed in Dallas, TX by Joyce Pickering at the Shelton School) as a dyslexia teacher.  

 With a license in Special Education (NM), I am currently teaching as a special education teacher at The MASTERS Program and taught at the New Mexico School for the Arts and have worked at the May Center for Learning and the Journey Montessori School as a Learning Specialist. I have a Masters degree from American University, focused on helping the most economically disenfranchised people in foreign countries access more resources, which I have found to be related to helping students, who may feel disenfranchised, get the resources they need.  

I help those with dyslexia, even the most severe, learn to read (write and spell) using the Sounds In Syllables Multisensory Structured Language Therapy.  I also help students strengthen executive function skills (the skills that coordinate activity: planning, organizing, task initiation and completion, flexibility, etc.); improve emotional regulation (becoming more aware of the physical effects of emotions and how to sooth oneself); and to hone math skills (especially basic math, number sense, pre-algebra and algebra).  I have taught keyboarding to students with dyslexia and ADHD, as well as Spanish in a wide variety of settings.  

Part of my lifelong journey has been to develop mindfulness awareness practices that have helped me to grow my capacity for resilience and inner compassion. I am trained in mindfulness facilitation, as well as trauma resilience skills, and bring this knowledge to my work with students and families.