7 year old Francis is dyslexic. Testing had revealed significant phonological and auditory processing problems and a shockingly low working memory capacity. What the test did not measure, was his terror when it came to reading a book.
Daily intervention for Francis’ reading and writing at school and at home for over a year failed to achieve a significant improvement.
Tessa dreaded the daily tears that were associated with the journey to school. She would describe the whole process as being nothing short of “torture” for both of them.
Before breaking up for the summer holidays this year, Francis’ class was asked to complete a reading test. The test required each child to read 40 words unaided. The aim was for each child to correctly identify at least 32 of the words, to confirm that they were on target. Francis managed to read just 2 of the words.
Tessa decided that a different approach was needed and came across Easyread on the Internet.
Francis responded instantly to the shortness of the lessons, the interactive nature of the games and the positive momentum throughout. She found the coaching provided by David Morgan and his team clear, straightforward and thorough.
In just a few months Francis went from being a boy devoid of confidence and unable to read, to an Easyread superstar! Already he was showing vast improvements in his sound recognition, decoding, encoding, reading and spelling skills.
Intrigued to see what would happen, Tessa ran the same test with Francis that he had completed in June. After 16 weeks on the Easyread course Francis had gone from a 5% success rate to 75%.
Given his diagnosis of dyslexia Tessa thought Francis would inevitably still need support for spelling. However Francis’ spelling had shifted from being atrocious to satisfactory for a child his age.
This all culminated in a very special item, which Francis brought home from school. His teacher had presented him with a postcard that showed a dragon spewing fire, and the words ‘good reading!’ spelled out in the flames. As an avid dragon enthusiast, Francis could not have been more proud!
As for Tessa, her comment on Easyread was “as a parent, knowing what you need to do and how you need to do it couldn’t be easier on this program.”
The convenience of the system has also been a huge factor: “It is fantastic that the lessons are limited to 10 to 15 minutes, as even a working parent like me can make time for a daily session”.
Of course Francis still has a way to go on his Easyread journey, but Tessa feels safe in the knowledge that they are finally heading in the right direction.
For more amazing stories like this, visit the daily flow of parent reviews on our website: https://dm-ed.com/parent-reviews/
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Laura O’Sullivan is an Easyread Coach for the Easyread System, an online phonics course designed to help kids who need spelling and reading help. Easyread specializes in helping children with dyslexia, auditory processing disorder, and highly visual learning styles. Find out more at www.easyreadsystem.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/easyreadsystem.