A year ago Daisy was constantly taking two steps forward and one step back with her reading. Now, she’s full steam ahead!

The Problem

Daisy’s initial experiences with reading seemed very promising indeed. She was tackling surprisingly difficult words, and her first year at school at age 5 saw her developing key skills alongside a keen interest in books. However after a year of being in the fast lane, it was suddenly as if she had run out of steam.

A few more months down the line and she had gone from being one of the top readers in her class to a child who was clearly struggling with reading problems, and who found any form of reading intensely frustrating. She had lost all confidence in herself. For mum Natasha, a primary school teacher by profession, it had become a total battle to read with Daisy. She was utterly confused by the quantum shift in her daughter’s attitude and aptitude.

Unfortunately, Daisy’s teachers had no ideas to offer either. Why? Because Daisy’s difficulty with reading was totally at odds with her other academic abilities. They were as confused as she was! The lack of evidence of global difficulty also meant the school could not justify offering her any extra support in the classroom. The funding just wasn’t there.

Part way through Daisy’s second year at school the family moved to a new area, hoping that the new school she joined would have a different take on things. No such luck; yet again Natasha found herself being told about her daughters ‘baffling reading problems’ and that the school budget simply wouldn’t  stretch to accommodate her needs.

Natasha herself struggled to learn to read, and still feels it is an issue for her. So her daughter’s struggles were eerily familiar. She was determined that Daisy would not to go down the same path.

The Solution

Levels of frustration were at an all-time high when Natasha came across the Easyread website. As a teacher, mother and dyslexic she identified with the principles behind Guided Phonetic Reading. They also liked the interactive nature of the program, how there was no set time limit and the money back guarantee if it did not work out.  It was clear this was no scam. They signed up without delay.

The Result

Just before Daisy began Easyread in March 2012 at age 6 a test showed she had a reading age of 6.1. A few months later, once the daily Easyread lessons had become a firm part of the family’s dailylife, she was retested as being 8.1 – an increase of 24 months, and much more in line with her general intelligence! Natasha was astonished and delighted.

This improvement alone was more than they ever could have hoped for. And yet, unbelievably, that wasn’t all…

Before long, Daisy was in the top literacy group at school and had been predicted a level 3 or higher in her key stage 1 SATs for mathematics. A year ago this would have been utterly impossible, since she was unable to read any maths questions. So thanks to Easyread, she is well on the way to becoming a maths whizz too!

And the icing on the cake…

Daisy’s school recently ran a competition to launch their new reading initiative, with a prize being awarded to the child who reads the most books in each Key Stage. This week the smiling 7 year old came home announcing that she is leading in the Key Stage 1 category, having personally read over 80,000 words read so far this term!

“We are proud of Daisy’s achievements, but most importantly we have our happy confident girl back with the added bonus of her being a bookworm who can’t get enough of Michael Morpurgo, Daisy Meadows and Roald Dahl books! Thanks again for this amazing program.”

Many congratulations to Natasha and Daisy for being Easyread champs! Talk about going for gold…

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Laura O’Sullivan is a System Coach for Easyread, an online program for children with highly visual learning styes who are struggling with reading problems or need support for spelling. Easyread works through short, fun lessons and has been proven effective for kids with dyslexia, auditory processing disorder and other learning difficulties. Find out more at www.morganlearning.com