Marshall Roberts

My interest in literacy started when my stepdaughter struggled with reading and writing at school. To support her, I completed Orton-Gillingham training with SPT’s Linda McKillop, and I was quickly drawn into structured literacy. Seeing early progress, I engaged with educators and advocates, leading me to petition Parliament for evidence-based instruction. I wrote Merchants of Illiteracy, which sparked a national ABC News story. Since then, I’ve joined the Code REaD Dyslexia Network as a director and chairman, contributed to literacy platforms, and had work republished in Nomanis. A personal highlight was seeing my writing shared by Prof. Pamela Snow.

I joined the SPT team in 2023 and love the rewarding work of helping clients ‘crack the code’ of written language. I’m quite familiar with kids who may not fit the mould, since my own kids and step kids all have SLDs including dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia, plus a couple of ASD diagnoses. Add my own adult ADHD diagnosis, and it’s clear why I hyper focused on literacy research! Understanding how children acquire literacy—and how to best support them—drives my practice every day.

I’m passionate about giving every child access to effective literacy instruction and always looking for ways to refine my approach using the latest research. Watching a child gain confidence in reading is the best part of my job.