Parent Reviews of Easyread
Our most recent reviews:
Dear David…
Dear David
These are my thoughts about easy read. I really enjoy the jokes. I think easy read has helped me a lot. I think the hard level in letter quest is too hard. I really like riddles, I am glad I get to do them now.
From Luca
She LOVES Easyread!
Ruby has also asked me to tell you that she LOVES Easyread!!!
Thank you for what we have learnt together so far and looking forward to your feedback and our continuing journey with Easyread.
Like a duck to water!
Regarding his reading – B is really comfortable with this lesson which is great to see, especially in a child that normal lacks confidence in all other aspects of reading/writing exercises. He is dyslexic has taken to reading the pictures as letters like a duck to water!
– Great Linford Primary School
Permanent progress
The lessons in Level 2 can seem slow and long, but I can see good permanent progress with Caleb. His confidence is building and his fluency with reading the story is increasing.
100% certain it's helped
Summer is doing really well. Some days she can’t be bothered and we struggle but the rest of the time we can really see progress. Her teacher even mentioned the other day how well she was doing in school with her writing and reading. I am 100% certain that without Easyread she would be exactly where she was a couple of months ago.
Good achievement
I have found easyread quite easy. I am happy i have got to gold, because it’s a good achievement my spellings at school seem to improved too. I thank my mum for sitting with me for the whole time i was doing this.
Charlie
I cried with happiness!
Just wanted to let you know that Craig has taken a leap in his reading this week. He’s been doing the nonsense words instead of jungle juggle and has gradually progressed to where he is finding the short words very easy – the long words are much harder but he works through them and is so pleased when he gets them right!
When he guesses a word when reading his school-books I just say, “Pretend its a nonsense word.” And he decodes it, just like that!
Its a major breakthrough for him to have the confidence to decode any word, no matter how long or daunting it appears. I really think that you could add “nonsense words” as a choice in the main program when jungle juggle is wearing thin. It has been very effective at helping Craig to take that step toward decoding the actual letters rather than sounding out the picture characters.
This morning he appeared in my room wearing his glasses – I said, did you forget to take them off last night? And Craig replied that he had read 3 chapters of “The Dinosaur’s Packed Lunch” before he fell asleep. I was so happy I could have cried!
The educational psychologist at our meeting last week said that given Craig’s dyslexic tendencies, it was unlikely that he would ever read for pleasure – I think he will certainly prove her wrong in the next few weeks and months.
Thankyou so much for what you do, its just amazing. We still have a way to go but its so rewarding for Craig to be actually enjoying reading. I thought it would never happen!
Changed her life completely!
We enjoyed the program immensely and are constantly recommending it to others–it has changed Quinley’s life completely. As I write this, Quinley is reading aloud from a Junior Great Books reader for the third grade–a folk tale that is in rather small print–she is reading it to her piano teacher–who knows that Quinley could not read last Spring!
Famous Dyslexics: Jackie Stewart
Jackie Stewart is a Scottish former Formula One racecar driver nicknamed “the Flying Scot”. He won three World Drivers’ Championships, and has been ranked in the top five of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time.
And he has severe dyslexia.
Stewart had dyslexia during his whole school career, though he wasn’t diagnosed until he was 41 when his own son was assessed for it. Stewart couldn’t recite the alphabet past the letter P and spent his school years in deep shame due to his low literacy. He eventually left school at 16.
He remembers one particular instance when he was asked to read aloud in front of the class.
“I looked at the page and saw nothing but a mass of indecipherable letters. Everyone seemed to regard me as a cheeky wee boy with a twinkle in my eye but, in that terrible moment, the thin veneer of confidence was stripped away. As I started to blush, I became aware of my smarter schoolmates starting to snigger. I felt trapped in a nightmare and sensed the tears welling.
“Stop playing the fool,” the teacher said, now getting angry. “You are wasting everybody’s time. Hurry up and start reading.”
“I can’t,” I mumbled.
I cannot exaggerate the pain and humiliation that I felt that day as I walked back to my place, with most of my classmates laughing out loud. Maybe it’s only something that people who also suffer from a learning disability such as dyslexia can understand.”
Stewart recalls that he used to make up false illnesses to get him out of school attendance. He found himself without many many friends and constantly bullied because of his reading difficulties. One day when he was a young teen, he decided he’d had enough of being a victim, and decided to find something he was good at and pursue it with all his might.
That “something” was cars. After a few years of competing, he shot to the top of sport where he stayed for the duration of his career.
Speaking now about dyslexia, he says: “When you’ve got dyslexia and you find something you’re good at, you put more into it than anyone else; you can’t think the way of the clever folk, so you’re always thinking out of the box.”
For more on Jackie Stewart’s amazing story, see: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3634248/Jackie-Stewart-Dyslexia-blighted-my-life.html
—
Sarah Forrest is a Reading Specialist for Oxford Learning Solutions, publishers of the Easyread System. Easyread is an innovative online course for struggling learners with visual learning styles, dyslexia, weak auditory processing, and more. www.easyreadsystem.com
Big leap forward
He was finding the story harder but it seems to have evened out now and he says he doesn’t find it harder. We still get him guessing from time to time but he is starting to want to read stuff now! This is a big leap forward.
Thanks for helping me
Hi David,
I am very excited to be starting level 4. I thank you for helping me have more confidence in reading. I want to continue to improve my spelling of words. I hope I can get to do some more of this in the new level.
From Nathan
More confidence
Sarah –
Thus far, we have been very pleased with the Easyread system. Garrett is progressing nicely, and seems more confident than he was after the same length of time with other approaches we have tried. Our biggest fear comes in that he won’t be able to translate what he is learning here to “real” books and text, but we trust you all know what you are doing. One change we might like to see is a variety of games (other than Jungle Juggle) before the story text each time.
Thanks for all your help!
I wish I could do Easyread forever
Dear David,
Easyread has been fun and has been helping me with my reading. My favourite part has been the riddles and the story about Grace. I am looking forward to hearing more about her in level 5.
I wish I could do easyread forever.
Thank you for all your help in making reading easier for me.
From
Charlotte Bendall
Aged 8 years and 2 days.
Remarkably good progress
Matthew is progressing remarkably well with his reading. He has moved up several grades at school with his books and has reluctantly informed us that he is getting a few comments that his reading is coming along very well. The difference is quite amazing, we’ve noticed that he can read all sorts of information when we’re out and about, for example, signposts and information in shops / museums etc.
Reading and spelling improved dramatically
Hi Sarah,
Yes Jack has not been doing his Easyread lessons for some time. His reading has really taken off with his level now above that expected of his age. He is enjoying reading on his own and books of his choice. His spelling has also improved dramatically.
He certainly enjoyed completing his lessons when reading was a challenge in the beginning, but it was getting harder for us to get him to do it more recently. We are very thankful for all the assistance and the skills the system has provided Jack and cannot recommend it highly enough.
Regards
Tania
Growing in confidence…
Elijah is growing daily in confidence and ability in his reading. Easy read has been such a blessing to us. Thank you for all your help and encouragement.
Stronger and stronger
Thanks, he is very excited to be on the next level and his reading is getting stronger and stronger. Thank you, Jessica.
A great program!
He really is reading better and I am so excited to see if there would be anything to make it less tiring! Thank you so much for directing me to this sort of doctor! I told her you were able to detect that he may have issues with his eyes, and she said wow…that’s a great program!! : )
Thanks from Kirtlington Primary
hi David
B completed lesson 223 today, he was very pleased and proud of his achievement. He is our first pupil to finish easyread and for B has been a great positive experience.
With Thanks
Teachers at Kirtlington Primary
She loves Easyread and doesn’t want it to end!
Hi David,
Agent Q wanted me to write to say that last night before going to sleep (really late!) she read:
Abu Ali: Three Tales of the Middle East
The Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings
Up Goes Mr. Downs
One of the stories from her book: Ursula’s Umbrella
Pig and the Blue Flag
The Knight and the Dragon
She loves Easyread and does not want it to end. 🙂
Thank you so much from Q and her mom and dad!
She loves Easyread and doesn't want it to end!
Hi David,
Agent Q wanted me to write to say that last night before going to sleep (really late!) she read:
Abu Ali: Three Tales of the Middle East
The Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings
Up Goes Mr. Downs
One of the stories from her book: Ursula’s Umbrella
Pig and the Blue Flag
The Knight and the Dragon
She loves Easyread and does not want it to end. 🙂
Thank you so much from Q and her mom and dad!
A weight is lifting off our shoulders…
Certainly his reading decoding and length of words he tackles is steadily improving, and his decoding of the symbols is now faster than me for the shorter words.
The school have noticed an improvement in his literacy, and his recent report was much more encouraging. His new class teacher has been much more empathetic towards his dyslexic difficulties.
With his spellings – they can be pretty “original”, but I think there is definitely an improvement. He’ll sometimes get all the letters in not quite the right order, but you can see he’s remembered or decoded that they are in the word, but I don’t know if he is going by its sound or visualising it.
School says his storytelling, language, use of longer words and punctuation is much better over the last months. He is still getting some support from TA to get his ideas on paper. (He is doing well in art and PE.)
He is much happier in himself.
His own main worry at the moment is the year 6 SATs, which he knows will determine the sets he’ll be put in when he goes to secondary school in September, and that is upsetting him as he thinks he will not be able to be in class with his friends.
The best thing that’s happened is that he is now much more able to read the questions on his homework and practice SATs by himself, which was impossible for him 6 months ago.
I am just telling him how well he is progressing and that he has come on leaps and bounds, and not to worry about the SATs.
Things seem to be going well.
I am feeling much more hopeful than before Easyread – feel like a weight is lifting off our shoulders – it starts to looks like he may eventually be able to read normally which will be so brilliant.
School say his focus is still low, but that he is trying much better, which is a very positive progress from his being depressed in his year 4-5.
I think the lack of focus is often his auditory processing difficulties affecting him as he’s a well-meaning child. We have to repeat instructions to him quite often to ensure he’s been able to register what’s wanted from him.
“I love Easyread”
Adam just told me yesterday morning “I love Easyread” and smiled as we were preparing to do this lesson. This is EXTREMELY RARE for him to LOVE any kind of academics. (and you can put that in a testimonial, even though we are still at the beginning of our journey!)
I think one of the big reasons he loves Easyread is because the narrator has said more than once that learning to read is extremely hard and the hardest thing he will ever do. That was soooo validating to Adam and made him visibly relax, because I think he has secretly been afraid that reading is so easy to all his friends therefore there is something wrong with him. I think hearing even more of that will be very beneficial to get Adam even more confident and motivated.
"I love Easyread"
Adam just told me yesterday morning “I love Easyread” and smiled as we were preparing to do this lesson. This is EXTREMELY RARE for him to LOVE any kind of academics. (and you can put that in a testimonial, even though we are still at the beginning of our journey!)
I think one of the big reasons he loves Easyread is because the narrator has said more than once that learning to read is extremely hard and the hardest thing he will ever do. That was soooo validating to Adam and made him visibly relax, because I think he has secretly been afraid that reading is so easy to all his friends therefore there is something wrong with him. I think hearing even more of that will be very beneficial to get Adam even more confident and motivated.
Reading chapter books
HI Sarah.
Actually, we have gotten off the lessons for a while because his reading really improved and he is enjoying reading age appropriate chapter books now.
I will ask him if he will do a few more lessons with me to test his skills and interest. I think he feels confident reading the big kid books now and when he reads aloud to me or my wife he is much more advanced than he was 4-6 months ago.
Will keep you posted.