Before the Easyread programme, Sean was a kid who loved books, was on grade level for reading, and very strong on reading comprehension.
However, reading and spelling didn’t come easy.
Sean’s mum wanted him to enjoy being curled up with a book, and not be at a disadvantage when it came to expressing himself and showing the world his creative mind.
With Easyread, they found that breakthrough.
We spoke to Sean’s mum to find out more about their journey, from the beginning, to receiving the long-awaited helicopter prize at the end.
What was reading like before Easyread?
It was a struggle to stay on grade level. We noticed at the beginning of first grade that it wasn’t coming as quickly as it was for others. I’d read him 10 books a day and he loved that and would sit quietly for it but for some reason it didn’t take off.
Writing was also coming along slowly, with lots of letter reversals.
We pair our Bear and Duck characters with exercises to help right letter reversals
We started Easyread when Sean was in second grade. We had reached grade level at that point but it wasn’t easy. To get to reading on grade level had involved a reading specialist in his previous school, tutors etc.
What was Sean’s favourite part of the lessons? Least favourite?
Sean loves learning through games. He really enjoyed the games.
Our Fighter Mission game
Interestingly some of the stories he really liked, like Grace’s House [a story within the Easyread library]. It was when he was much more comfortable with the reading and he liked the mystery of the story. I was very surprised!
The least favourite part of the lessons for Sean was Spell Race. He loves games and it’s normally the kind of thing he’d like but he’s a little bit of a perfectionist. He really really wants to do well. But coupled with being slow on typing and not being the world’s greatest speller made the game a bit tricky.
And how did you get around that as time pressure is often something we see our secret agents struggle with?
I advised him to slow down and not to worry about the time and that seemed to help. It was still just a little bit stressful but I believe that was good for him. It’s not a negative thing, we just had to work through it.
When did you start to notice things changing?
I remember speaking with Sarah during the very early stages of the course and saying that reading seems to be a bit easier now.
I don’t really remember an exact moment of when things started to change but before Easyread he’d always pick up a book and say “Could you read it to me?” He would never pick it up and read it on his own.
During the Easyread process he became much more comfortable with the reading. I’d sit with him during the lesson and he became so quick with the characters – it was obvious he was quicker than mom was which gave him so much confidence!
We would then talk about how hard it was in the beginning to read the characters and how now he was reading the character-only pages almost as quickly as he could read words! It was a real wake-up call for him as I explained that the decoding pages were just like reading, reading’s a code too.
He started picking up books and now his favourite way to go to sleep is read before bedtime. And I really think that’s all down to Easyread.
Amazing! And what does Sean enjoy reading now?
Diary of a Wimpy Kid – he reeeally likes Diary of a Wimpy Kid. And he also really likes the Captain Underpants series.
Clearly of his humour! And how’s his spelling doing?
I definitely see improvements in Sean’s writing for sure. He still struggles a little bit with spelling to be honest with you, particularly words that aren’t spelled like how they sound. He is sounding them out though.
But when we started spelling was really a challenge, even more than reading. We definitely saw an improvement in his spelling in the games.
If he’s writing something quickly he knows how to spell he’ll forget. We’re still working on that. But it’s much better than it was before.
That’s great. So just to summarise really, what has the Easyread programme meant for you both?
It took something we both knew was a challenge and it made it into something that was fun. Easyread really was a fun way of addressing Sean’s struggles. We liked doing it together. The games were fun and the stories were interesting. For him to see his own improvement during the games and moving up in the books, it was great.
He does still have these spelling issues and we need to address them but Easyread’s the best decision we ever made. Better than any extra help we’ve used before.
Easyread is a creative thing. It’s not a boring, sit down, be drilled on something, feel like you’re punished in some way thing. It’s fun.
And the things that came in the mail! What child doesn’t want to run to the mailbox and see if their prize has arrived? Every day he’d run there. That’s such a wonderful aspect of the programme. He didn’t need it to be excited by the programme, but it helped to make it over the top great.