Parent Reviews of Easyread
Our most recent reviews:
Already noticing positive change…
We are already noticing a positive change in Blake. First he is prepared to read and give it a go. Second he is guessing less and sounding out the words…all this and we are only at the end of level one!
– T
My experience has been good so far. I have appreciated the support all the way through the course. I like the constant “remedial type” advice about reading. For example the eye tracking exercises, the omega 3 supplements. The “no guessing” rule etc. These have been really good solid pieces of advice that has made a big difference in their practice sessions.
Yes I believe that both girls especially O has built confidence and fluency in the Easyread system. K has been a bit slower in getting fluency because she tends to guess more and possibly an age thing. However, as you have said there is still no expected effect in their normal reading until Lesson 90, which is what I ultimately hope the girls will achieve.
I have noticed that this course, different to most courses we have done, has kept the girls interested and motivated. I do not battle to get my girls to do the lessons each day.
The girls do love the playing the games and don’t realize they are learning. Mushroom picker is hard as you have already stated and at times they have walked away in frustration. However, the advice that tomorrow it will seem easier seems to appease them both.
O being competitive, has at times been despondent about her time for the eye tracking exercises. However, after walking away in a huff, she still returns to try again
It has really helped him…
Yves’ reading has greatly improved since he was on the Easyread program. I feel it has really helped him. He still needs to practice however, so we’ve agreed that instead of 10 mins of Easyread each day, he’ll do 10 mins of normal reading which he enjoys.
Thank you for all your help.
– F
Noah's success…
Noah can read with text without the characters above with relative fluency now, although he will stop and decode words as needed as well.
We still sound out the pictures every now and then, especially with the hard words.
I think this is where Noah’s success has been. We kept on sounding out ALL pictures until around lesson 60! It certainly helped him to learn the words.
Most pictures he can put into words immediately. Especially common words like the, boat, etc.
Noah is super excited about the next prize – The FART gun!!!!! Oh my, what are we in for. LOL
Can’t wait to hit level 3.
– W
Outstanding support
Although we’ve had our ups and downs in N’s motivation (she really pulled back when she made the step to level 2 and found the story reading really hard) her ability to decode and read words fluently with the Easyread system has progressed significantly and we are now seeing an increase in confidence. Thank you, we will keep going as feel the best is yet to come. The individual support over the phone and by email has been outstanding, you get the feeling that your child and their success really matters to the Easyread team, they have been brilliant. Finally the quality and prompt dispatch of the reward prizes as you go through the scheme is also of a very high quality and does help with motivation.
Doing really well
Agent Sis doing really well with his decoding, and beginning to read some of the more frequent words fluently, however he has not been re reading the sentence again so i will try and encourage this, he sounds out each word and says the word, which has been hard but he is really picking up on the blank decoding now as he really knows his character sounds, some like Oak in cloak he gets a bit stuck on we just go to the sound again and review them. Eye tracking is a little improved but he does use the cursor on the computer to keep his place.
He is enjoying the story content and getting the meaning from what he is reading. He loves the games and i see the benefit of him doing them they really help and he likes that he can do them well so he really tries his best.
Overall we are seeing his reading at school and at home begin to improve his teacher has commented that he is really making good progress, she is also putting effort in at school with sounds.I think he may have some auditory problems his hearing is fine but he finds some sounds hard to hear again we are working on this and it is possibly his dyslexia causing this.
We have got into a good routine and try and do daily lessons depending on other commitments ( maybe once twice per week we miss due to tiredness) etc he is settled into his routine and gets down to work quickly. Lastly he is now reading signs when we are out which he has never done before! really happy about this and his confidence is growing, thanks to easy read.
We have a great time…
Kieran is doing well and I do believe he is improving. We have a great time when he is having a good day and feeling positive. We are working on trying to have less negative days. Kieran is re-reading lines to improve fluency as well.
– C
Very Pleased with the Easyread System
So far we have been very pleased with the Easyread system. The lessons are short and Cooper does not complain about doing them. He enjoys some of the games and will replay them. He now rarely complains about reading books at home. We keep that reading time short as well.
I have noticed that his eyes are moving less to the pictures to help with the context. He is not losing his place nearly as much as he was before. If he starts to guess again, I remind him to slow down and just read the words and he is doing better. I would say the lessons he has now are fairly easy for him. The text portion he can read fluently very quickly. The decoding page take a bit longer but not much. A second read thru is almost always very smooth. (Not sure if it should be harder for him at this stage or if this is good.)
Thanks, J.
Never complains…
Tori never complains about doing Easyread, which is a huge relief as we had spent many years struggling through traditional school reading after school.
Tori’s reading has increased in confidence and fluency within the Easyread set up and it’s great that you reward with prizes as this really motivates her. They are of great quality and she is very proud of her prizes.
We do re-read for fluency, however she is very good at using her memory to just re-phrase the sentence, so I will further express the importance of her reading each word!
– K
Definitely Noticing a Difference in Spelling
We are definately noticing a difference in Lexi’s spelling. She is also noticing the difference herself and is a lot more confident! Thanks for everything!
— J
On the homestretch…
Just a note say Matthew is on the homestretch to finishing Easyread. I asked him at the weekend what he thinks has helped him find reading easier and he said the Easyread System!
Thanks so much.
– T
Feedback at 8 weeks
I was very unsure with easy read when we started as I was not sure if my son really needed help and if easy read would be the right thing for him. Before we started with easy read, he would refuse to read, half way through the book throw it away and reading was a constant battle. Now, through your help we found out that he has eye tracking problem, which we are addressing.
Nowadays, he actually looks forward to reading with easy read. Also school books get read without a fuss 2 – 3 times before we return them to school. His actual reading did not progress greatly but his attitude has changed completely and that is just after 8 weeks of reading with easy read great.
I, as a non-native English speaker, have been convinced that easy read is a great tool not only for kids struggling to read but for all kids learning to read English. The system of putting picture sounds above the words is fantastic, if used correctly.
Moved up a whole year!
In May, J had a spelling age test which gave him a spelling age of a 7 year old and he has just been tested again and his spelling age has moved up by a whole year!
– C (after 85 lessons on Spellmagic with J, age 9)
She is no longer upset…
Briana has moved up one reading level at school since starting Easyread 6 weeks ago. She does require motivation and encouragement from time to time to attend to Easyread. However, I feel this is fine for Briana as she has only been at school for 5 months and is therefore very young. She is getting the hang of decoding & learning to overcome when she makes mistakes. She is no longer upset when she loses a life or when the monkey screeches at her when making mistakes with changing words in the Monkey Jungle Juggle game.
I’m not sure if its because she is a very girly girl, or because of her age and the fact that she is still into pink and purple pretty things that she is not as excited by all the prizes as her 7 year old brother. She still loves receiving them though!
– K
I wish we had started Easyread earlier…
Ethan is progressing along nicely with Easyread. It is part of our daily routine now. The prizes certainly help to motivate his interest.
He has moved up one reading level at school already which is great. The feedback from his teacher is for Ethan to work on reading being more fluent – i.e. reading with ease and a clear nice flow. I am imagining that we will achieve this through Easyread. I can definitely notice subtle little improvements in his reading. I am glad that we started the Easyread program for Ethan. If anything, I wish we started it earlier…
– K
Case Study: Poor decoding, no progress, shyness
From losing streak to winning streak: last year 10 year old Nathan was unable to decode even single words. After a few months of using The Easyread System, he is happily reading entire chapters!
The Problem
Nathan had always been a shy child, and so starting school was inevitably difficult for him. His natural coyness wasn’t helped by the fact that he was also a summer-born child and therefore up to 11 months younger than some of his classmates. By the end of year 1 however, Nathan’s mother Caroline was happy to see that he seemed to be progressing well with his subjects, friendships and general school life.
From the start of Primary 2 onwards however, the tables decidedly turned…
Not long after the start of the new term Nathan’s teacher expressed concerns about his ability to understand what was going on during lessons. Not long after this, Caroline began to have concerns of her own, specifically with regards to her son’s reading. Nathan wasn’t interested in reading any books at home and instantly became upset or stressed if he had to read for homework. Caroline strongly suspected that his difficulties in the classroom were connected to the struggles they were facing at home with his reading, but she had no idea how or why.
So, they struggled on in this way for the next couple of years, during which time Nathan made zero progress with his reading and writing. When he reached Year 4 the school decided to have him assessed. The results confirmed that due to dyslexic tendencies, Nathan was likely to struggle to follow information that was presented to him in a classroom setting. To an extent, this could be managed at a practical level by providing him with extra support with his class work. What worried Caroline the most was the extent of her son’s abilities, and his state of mind, when it came to reading itself. By this stage he was reading at the level of a 7 year old with a chronological age of 9 and Nathan’s feelings towards reading were very negatively charged.
In an effort to break this spiteful cycle, Caroline substantially upped the amount of reading they were doing with Nathan at home. Being a big fan of non-fiction, they started with the Ladybird series ‘Peter and Jane’. They then proceeded to buy numerous fact files, science books etc. During this time they saw a spurt in his confidence with books, but that was all. Caroline could see that as well as having something that engaged him, they needed a technique that would approach decoding from a side angle. At 10 years old he was quite often dumbstruck by the prospect of reading even a single sentence; conventional methods had failed him utterly.
It was during a chat with a friend about their quest to find that elusive ‘something else’ that Caroline first heard about Easyread. She listened as Clare described the success she had seen with using the system for her son and daughter – both of whom had been floundering a year ago and were now achieving great results. Such a definitive personal testament had Caroline signing up the second she got home and sat down at the computer!
The Solution
After just 2 weeks of daily lessons, Nathan was able to decode and read small sentences. The games and Trainertext characters combined to make for both a fun and a highly beneficial learning environment, which is exactly what Caroline had been praying for! Nathan was reading and having fun for the first time in his life. Decoding during his Easyread lesson became commonplace even each day. They were well and truly finished with the ‘siege against words’ that they had experienced before. What’s more, the vocabulary in the stories and the nature of the games suited his age and interests down to the ground, and so this spurred him on even more.
As the weeks went by and the lessons and prizes continued to come in, the drip, drip, drip of reading enthusiasm soon turned into a flood! His confidence at school was progressing in line with this too, and reading meanwhile, turned into something that he just couldn’t get enough of!
Caroline will always remember the day that he sat down and read an entire chapter of a book; an event which she had never dared to hope was possible. He only got stuck on three words overall and the entire 10 pages took him no more than 10 minutes to complete. His fluency was impeccable as well; but most of all, the smile on Nathan’s face when he had finished told the story of what this meant to him. Caroline is certain that Easyread is to thank for that wonderful experience.
The Result
Nathan’s joy of reading and general progress is, brilliantly enough, still a work in progress!
With just over a month left to go on the course, his reading level is now at 10 years and 3 months-that’s an increase of 3 years and 3 months compared with where he was before he started the course! Caroline can see that the more of the Easyread system he completes, the more confident he will become and the more equipped he will be to begin senior school. To contemplate how ill-equipped Nathan was last year compared with now leaves her speechless.
—
Laura O’Sullivan is a Reading Specialist for the Easyread System, an online course that helps children with dyslexia, auditory processing disorder, poor memory, and more. www.easyreadsystem.com
After years of going nowhere I'm hopeful we are heading down the right path…
I am pleased with how Easyread is going. Grace picked up the characters very easily at the start of the course, and 6 weeks in her decoding using the characters is great. She certainly enjoys Easyread compared to a book and the praise and prizes are changing her mindset towards reading slowly.
The games are good and a definite confidence boost.
Early days but overall I’m really hopeful that we are heading down the right path now, after years of going nowhere.
– S
Needless to say, I was very happy…
Today when Billy was out on his own, he read a poster on the side of the road about a Fun Fair in Cobham!!!
He sounded out the words ‘Fun Fair’ and then told me about it. Needless to say, I was very happy.
-L
Pleased so far…
We are pleased with the easyread system so far for a number of reasons. We like the fact that it develops a daily routine of short lessons based on reading text and games. E is happy to take part and slotting the reading text between Funky Monkey and the game is definitely a good idea, as the part she likes least, at the moment, is the text read. I expect the reading section to become more attractive for her once reading gets easier.
The games are great – fighter mission/hangman is her favourite, pinball her least favourite. We like the joker too.
The support is really excellent for me as her guide and when we did the eye tracking, the emails addressed to her were very helpful as encouragement. The prizes by post are great and certainly helpful – mainly because they seem to appear at just the right time when enthusiasm is temporarily waning!
We are a bit of a lowpoint at the moment as she is abit resistant to sitting down to Easyread since getting back to school, I think mostly due to tiredness. That’s where having nice short sessions is a real boon. I am fully expecting E to feel up and down about doing it but we usually manage to do a daily session (except busy Mondays).
At the end of the day I really am keen not to unnecessarily stress E. I want her to build up her confidence and enthusiasm for reading slowly and in her own time. I think easyread does this very well with a good deal of fun on the way.
Thank you – glad you popped up on the search engine.
The first clear sign that the process is beginning to take effect, amazing!…
Since the last support telephone call this week I have noticed an improvement in Daniel’s sounding out of words. Previously some of his spelling problems related to him spelling phonetically but not being able to “hear” all the sounds in a word. But today in the Letter Quest game I noticed a major improvement in how he was sounding out the words – somehow the decoding practise has taught him to hear more letters in the words. -Amazing! This is the first clear sign that the process is beginning to take effect. Great!
– K
Time and inspiration
The Helicopter arrived today – thank you very much. Agent S’s exact words were “awesome!”.
We’ve found the course invaluable so thank you for all your time and inspiration.
Tom and I are both very happy with how things are going…
Tom is doing really well with his lessons. He is keen to do them every day and even if we can’t get it done first thing in the morning he is quite happy to do them at some other point during the day. He is getting quite used now to sounding out the words using your characters and does this with no problems. We always work the same way – he decodes the story and I write it down and then the next morning we redo it and check it against what I wrote down the day before. This works well and he is happy with it.
Now he is back at school and having had the summer off from reading he is now getting back into nightly reading and we are choosing short Barrington Stoke type books, so nothing to freak him out or frighten him. He is getting on well. He is gaining confidence every day. There is little guessing going on and much more trying to work out a word if he doesn’t know it.
Tom and I are both very happy with how things are going.
– D
His reading has taken another jump…
We have got to a stage in the course where Sam is now reading fluently and with speed. Sams reading in general has taken another jump as well. He has taken to reading the Boy vs Beast series which has him reading 75 pages in around 20 minutes or less (depending on distractions) which is great!
– L
Lovely to see…
Hi Sarah,
I wanted to let you know we have seen a really significant improvement in Charlie’s spelling since he has started EasyRead. He had his first selling list for school and straight away, with only one practice, he got 10/12 in our test at home. He would previously have been unable to break down any of these words into component sounds at all.
It is lovely to see him finding things easier.
I am very glad that he is happy to do Easyread every morning…
Stefan has got into the routine of doing Easyread in the morning before school.
He follows the instruction given to him and he is reading and decoding well (as confirmed during the last guided lesson session with Laura).
Reading has never been Stefan’s problem but understanding what he reads is a challenge, especially in the context of mathematical questioning. As the story text is not too difficult at this moment, with occasional new words, Stefan is understanding what he is reading.
I am very glad that Stefan is happy to do Easyread every morning as I understand the importance of reading and decoding.
– P