After a very successful beginning of 2016 for our secret agents, February proved to have just as many breakthrough reading moments, if not more!
We couldn’t let the month pass by without celebrating those long-awaited reading breakthroughs. 90 lessons on top of years of struggle seems like a long way away, but once those initial 3 months of lessons have flown by, we guarantee that your child’s decoding will have improved dramatically outside of the programme, and they will be fluently reading words they’ve already decoded and read accurately inside the programme.
So here we are, celebrating all the breakthrough readers of February. There’s quite a few, so here goes…!
Kevin
Before Easyread, 9 year-old Kevin didn’t like to read. He tried everyday but stumbled
over sight words, guessing on words and unable to sound them out. His spelling was, for the most part, inaccurate.
His parents had previously tried other reading programmes at the library and at school but none of the methods seemed to be achieving progress. He was two grade levels behind in his reading at school.
Around lesson 90, Kevin’s mum says he is still eager to logon and do a lesson each day. He even wants to read more of the story after each lesson. They are slowly starting to see improvements, and continue to work on eye-tracking.
Great job Kevin! We’re really pleased he’s enjoying reading more now.
Lucas
11 year-old Lucas sometime skipped small words or changed a word and was known to skip a line in when reading before Easyread, which would often affect his reading fluency, accuracy and comprehension. On joining the programme, his reading was a little below grade level.
Lucas successfully completed our ten days of eye-tracking exercises, and his tracking times are much improved. On a recent Skype lesson with Lucas, I was really impressed with how fluently he was reading, and after only 3 months on the course. Way to go Lucas!
Ellis
7 year-old Ellis is a little later on in the course (lesson 160) but we wanted to celebrate the fact that the boy who was once in tears around reading homework and spelling lists, and in need of a real confidence boost, is now spelling words like “vibrate” correctly!
His reading age is right where it should be at age 8, and he’s now more confident and willing to read, whether that’s non-fiction books or signs out and about. Well done Ellis!
Aliza
When 8 year-old Aliza began Easyread, she hated reading, as it was often a very slow task and she was forced to sound out even simple words in order to progress.
She would therefore often guess at words, sometimes getting them correct, but even those correctly spelled words seem to escape her when she saw them on the next page.
As she was so busy concentrating on spelling and sounding out the word, it was impossible for Aliza to focus any of her attention on understanding and comprehending what she was reading.
At lesson 90, Aliza is now finishing up with the programme as her mum says “she’s reading anything now”. Her phonics have improved tremendously, and they’ll continue to build on fluency with the books Aliza will now be reading outside the programme. Congratulations Aliza! Such amazing progress in the time you were on the programme. You should feel very proud.
Zidane
Aliza’s younger brother, 6 year-old Zidane, adopted a similar reading technique to his sister. He would often guess at words and he was slightly behind his peers in reading ability.
His phonemic understanding seemed to be much better than his sister’s at that stage, but he often mixed up the letters “b” and “d” and the letter “s” with the number “2”.
Our visual cues and exercises soon sorted out the letter and number reversals for Zidane, and he too is just finishing up the programme at lesson 90 and is reading well. Well done Zidane! We hope he now has the sound foundations of reading to see him through a very successful school life.
Jerett
9 year-old Jerett had been identified as being dyslexic. He received therapy at school and outside of school. His mum said he struggled with phonics, spelling, writing, and some reading. He reversed letters when spelling, omitted letters, or omitted a word all together when writing.
He responded very well when asked questions orally, achieving a good result. His mum said he is “very intelligent, but does not learn in the typical classroom setting as easily as his peers.”
Jerett has now finished the Easyread programme at lesson 70. His mum, a teacher, sent us this message: “I just wanted to update you on my son, Jerett. He is soaring in school! Easyread has certainly been a contributor to that success. Thank you for understanding! I will always refer struggling readers that are in my classroom to the Easyread system! It works!!!
Just amazing.
Camden
Before Easyread, Camden’s mum said he struggled with reading terribly. He has some auditory processing problems and still confuses some sounds. His spelling wasn’t too bad when it came to simple words. Other tutoring they’d tried just wasn’t seeing as quick a rate of progress as they’d liked.
Around lesson 100, the guessing of words has now stopped for 11 year-old Camden. He’s happier to be sounding them out, and he even finds it easy to read some words straight away now. His decoding is improving and transferring to his reading outside the programme, and he’s started reading things in everyday life like posters.
Congratulations Camden! Keep up the great work and we can’t wait to see how far you come over the next couple of months.
Corin
Before Easyread, 8 year-old Corin was overwhelmed by big words. He admitted himself to guessing quite a bit when reading shorter words too.
Spelling was a real struggle, even with short words he’d written seemingly countless times before like “are, you, like” etc. However, when he came to spelling tests, the scores appeared to show that he was doing well, as Corin would practice these words in isolation and they are tested in isolation. But his mother suspected that if he used the same words in a free text within the same week, he would not get them right.
His mum said he’s a sensitive boy who is always keen to please, but shies away from things that he perceives as difficult.
When we did a Skype lesson at lesson 90, Corin read so fluently for me! Corin’s still working on the eye-tracking but his overall reading in the lesson was amazing. A big well done to you Corin!
If you feel like your child has reached the point of reading take-off and we haven’t included them this month, then do let us know, so we can send their badge out to them for this month.
…
All our Breakthrough Readers have come a long way to get to their breakthrough moment. But for some, they’ve had to overcome just that little bit more. This month, we’ve chosen Ryan as our Breakthrough of the Month.
Ryan
Ryan has had to overcome a lot of anxiety and shyness to get to the point where he is reading on grade level and loves reading. Enrolling on a separate reading programme prior to Easyread had helped Ryan get to the same point as his peers.
However, his mum still noticed that he was making the small mistakes we so often talk about when reading, switching “and” for “the” etc. And when he did read out loud, it was often at a slow and halting speed.
His spelling was also a big concern for his mum.
The fact that Ryan had the confidence to read for me on Skype, and so well, was just incredible. Their focus on decoding every word out loud in the beginning of the programme, and using the characters to help do so, has meant that the guessing of small words is a thing of the past.
Our blending activities have also helped make that decoding process just that bit easier for Ryan. He was also rereading phrases without prompt, which has definitely helped his fluency to excel.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the transition to Ryan’s spelling now, and want to say a big well done to him for all his hard work. I hope he enjoys his celebration.
…
Congratulations once again to all our Breakthrough Readers, and all those who are working hard to get there. It’s a testimony to your dedication too. And I can’t wait to share your story.
– Maddie