Caleb's early reading development was…

Caleb’s early reading development was one of frustration and most times confusion. He attended school and was taught to read phonetically. It was noticed that Caleb’s reading development was poor and he was constantly behind targets. I was advisted to practice with Caleb at home. I noticed that Caleb became incredibly anxious at trying to read. He would often guess a word in the hopes of getting it right. He struggled with the ability to decode a word. We would try and learn words for a spelling test and I would notice that Caleb would always try and spell a word with the hardest sound he heard for example with the word cat. He would start with T. After three years of schooling, Caleb became withdrawn and lacked confidence. He was getting lost in a teaching environment that required he read from the whiteboard. I withdrew him from school with the aim to homeschool him. I gave him the opportunity to learn at his own pace and ability. At the age of 9, I was very concerned that he was still not reading. I tried phonetic methods but found Caleb still struggled with reading. If we read a book Caleb would guess a word. I thought he was reading until he encountered that same word on the same page and not be able to read it because he had forgot what it was. Sounding out a word was confusing. He could sound out CAT and hear the word but when he sounded out CAR, he could not hear the word. I searched the web and I found the Easyread website and watched the videos. A lot of what David mentioned was like he had been in my living room watching Caleb read. I became more aware of why Caleb was finding it hard to read. I took the plunge and signed Caleb up. At first, Caleb resisted reading. It was too hard for him. With a lot of encouragement, Caleb started to relax. He started to enjoy the games especially Fighter Pilot and Hangman. Easyread Eggi and Eyetracker have become a favourite part of the lesson. We are reading the stories and although it is slow going, he has stopped guessing the words and decodes the word with the aid of the pictures. I have on one occasion been encouraged with Caleb’s progress. We were travelling on the road and I heard Caleb decoding two words from a sign board. The words were “To Let”. This is the first time he has read without any anxiety. Kind regards Lisa