Parent Reviews of Easyread
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Case Study: Twin brothers, guessing, atrocious spelling
The twin boys who went from reading horror to total reading happiness!
The Problem
Twins Daniel and James had always been similarly happy and outgoing boys. However, their struggles with reading and writing seemed to set them apart very clearly…
The first time Jill started having real concerns about her sons’ reading was during the last year of infant school. At age 6 both Daniel and James were equally reluctant to engage in reading activities of any kind. They would also routinely add words, leave words out, read words back to front and guess wildly. Their writing and spelling were very poor but Jill hoped that as they were so young, things would get better with time. Unfortunately they didn’t. In fact, things got a lot worse.
Not long after the start of junior school, Jill attended a parent-teacher meeting for Daniel. She mentioned that she had some real concerns about his writing, and so they went through his literacy workbook together. Upon looking through it, the teacher couldn’t deny that Jill was right – it may as well have been written in Russian for all the sense it made! This clearly confirmed what Jill had suspected. The teacher however, remained complacent despite the evidence. The school said they were confident that dyslexia was not a factor, and reassured Jill that a dyslexic child would be “much worse than this”. In the years to come she would look back on this as an example of just how little some teachers know about literacy difficulties, even in the current day.
Daniel’s reading was in the average range for a child his age, but was noticeably lacking in some subtle but important ways. For instance, he could read long complicated words in one go but was totally unable to break any word down into its syllables. As the years progressed, the stress he felt about reading became more pronounced too, until it reached the point when the sight of a book had him fleeing from the room in tears and slamming the door behind him.
With James there was nothing subtle about it; reading was a big problem. His reading was so slow, monotone and laborious that it was virtually impossible for him to recall anything about what he had just read most of the time. Whilst his reaction was not as extreme as his brother’s, he would still try every avoidance tactic under the sun when asked to read… “I’m thirsty”, “I’m hungry”, “I’ve got a sore throat” etc.
Something else that James had real difficulty with was his day to day memory. Pattern sets like days of the week, months of the year and telling the time were very hard for him to master and as a result, his maths remained one year behind. He just seemed unable to build on any pre-learned concepts.
Despite their assorted shortfalls with reading and writing, both James and Daniel were highly articulate and imaginative boys. James is a particularly brilliant artist, and has a great flare for telling stories. Daniel is good at maths, chess and anything that involves analytical thinking. But as time went by it became increasingly clear to Jill that her sons’ verbal skills, reasoning and knowledge were not transferring to their written work. She could see that the reason for this was rooted in their inability to identify phonemes.
After a few years, the school couldn’t deny that the boys had some clear challenges. They put extra reading and writing groups in place in an effort to support them. Over the next two years changes did occur, but they were miniscule. By the end of Year 4 Daniel was scraping the barrel of what was considered average for his year in reading and writing whilst James was a whole year behind with reading and maths. As far as the school were concerned, this translated to ‘just about managing’ rather than ‘falling behind’ and so they were adamant that a formal assessment wasn’t necessary, despite the fact that Jill had been appealing for this for over a year.
By now every time there was a homework task – reading-based or otherwise – there were tears being shed by not just the children, but everyone in the Walker household! Daniel and James’ self-esteem and confidence in their abilities was plummeting. It was clear by now that the generic strategies at home and at school just weren’t working. Jill strongly felt that she needed to launch into something that was specific to their needs. She just kept thinking “there has to be something”…
The Solution
So she searched online for Internet based lessons that were specific to children with dyslexia, and weighed these against the cost of bringing in a specialist tutor. Having completed quite an extensive bout of research, Easyread was the final contender. Why? For one thing, everything on the website pretty much described Jill’s vastly different and yet equally unhappy sons. And there were some seriously appealing practical factors too; it was clearly much more affordable than a weekly private lesson each and – crucially – involved playing games on a COMPUTER (James and Daniel’s number one favourite pastime!) The fact that the system was built around a short and achievable lesson every day was comforting as well.
Straight away the support team were very candid about the level of commitment the program would involve – and Jill really valued this. When she discussed with her sons that this would involve totally going back to the drawing board in terms of their learning, and that they could be at it for up to a year, she was surprised by how maturely they reacted to this. Finally they were ready to press go…
As the days, weeks and months on Easyread passed them by, the boys continued to adore the games in the lessons, the prizes arriving through the post and most of all, the mounting feeling of quiet confidence that they could actually “do this reading thing”!
For Jill it was a delight to see this subtle feeling of self-worth happening in line with their slowly crystallising achievements. Finally they began to see that they really were as good as everyone else; they just learned in a different way.
The Results
In June of this year the Walker brothers proudly graduated from the Easyread program. A few weeks later they received their school reports. James is now at the top of the nationally expected level of attainment for reading, and Daniel has boosted his level by 1 year over a period of just 6 months. This means he is actually reading at the same level as children in the year above him at school!
Jill is ecstatic at the news. Her boys are happy; they have learned what can be achieved through hard work and commitment and they finally (and crucially) believe in themselves. So to see these kinds of colossal advances in their learning too is more than she ever could have imagined.
So what’s next for Daniel and James? Well, whilst Jill was delighted to see some definite improvement with their spelling during Easyread, they still have some way to go. But with every week that passes, she can see that they are steadily getting there one step at a time. For the first time, she is not so worried for her sons. She knows they will be OK.
“I sing the praises of Easyread to all, particularly the school. I’ve been delighted to have come across it. The telephone support has been unfailingly outstanding, empathetic, and immediate. I cannot fault it in any way. Thank you!”
—
Laura O’Sullivan has had the privilege of seeing James and Daniel improve throughout the course from day one in her role as a Reading Specialist for Morgan Learning. Easyread is an online course for struggling readers and spellers, especially suited for highly visual learners, dyslexics and kids with weak auditory processing.
15 months reading age improvement in half a year…
Just wanted to send an message regarding Nathan progress. I had a meeting at school and was told his reading in the last 6 months has improved by 1 year and 3 months, which is fantastic!
– C
I would have found it hard to teach my children to read without Easyread…
Nikhil is doing very well and I am happy with his progress. I think he’s learning each day and improving his reading. I am very happy with Easyread. I just feel it helps the kids so much in a fun way to decode and understand that some letters make different sounds in different context. I think I would have found it harder to teach my children to read had I not enrolled them into Easyread.
– F
Thank you so much for all the prizes, and for everything…
I just have to say, about the fart machine – you could not have thought of anything better for a boy aged 8!
Thank you so much for all the prizes you have sent through so far. He really enjoys getting your envelopes and asks as soon as he gets out of school whether it has come. So thank you. He loves his Ape in a Cape t-shirt and goes around saying his code catchphrase which his sister answers back to in code. He loves it! All is going well for us so far and Ben is happy to do each lesson – he actually says “oh, can I do another one”?! It’s good that he keeps looking forward to it. So thank you for everything so far.
– L
A for Effort…
Thought I would give an up-date. H brought home her school report yesterday, having just finished Year 3. Though she received 3 (under achieving) in reading and writing for attainment, she received a 1 (above average) for effort in reading and writing. We think this is very encouraging. Her improvement with reading was highlighted in the report and the headteacher also mention that he was impressed.
We are sure we would not be seeing this if not for Easyread. Hannah continues to enjoy Easyread and has just completed the Eric story, we are now busy drawing a picture of poor Eric after his adventures having written a list of his description!
Just to let you know we are away for a couple of weeks soon so will continue with the lessons about the 12th August. We will still do some reading during the fortnight (Hannah has kept a book she had at Christmas for now when she knew we would be able to read it together).
We tried many options with Easyread being the only true success…
I would just like to say a BIG thank you for all of your support and for an amazing program!! George has really progressed beyond our hopes and dreams and getting more and more confident as every day goes by. I would thoroughly recommend the program to anyone that is experiencing problems with reading or spelling. We tried many options with Easyread being the only true success.
– A
We attribute all this success to the boys hard work and your system!…
We’ve just received two excellent school reports for both Ryan & Allen!
Ryan’s teachers said that his attitude and confidence in class improved markedly from late spring (the time that he started Easyread) and that his reading and writing (including spelling) have improved enormously over the year. The school has even kept back his exercise books to exhibit to OFSTED next term.
Ryan (10) was awarded the headmistress’ prize for his improved attitude to learning over the year. Both myself and my husband found it hard not to cry at the praise assembly. Such a difference from before Xmas, when he seemed to be sliding into bad behaviour and surliness from the shear frustration of it all.
Allen (7) has also had a pivotal year. His teacher commented on the sudden and distinct improvement in his concentration that was apparent when he returned to school after the spring half term holiday (after 10 days of your eye tracking exercises and 3 weeks of Easyread).
Allen has leapt from a bit below expected levels to slightly above in reading and literacy, and boldly above expectations in science and maths.
We attribute all this success to the boys hard work and your system! Well done team Easyread!!
– D
He has found his confidence and his voice! We are so happy…
I just wanted to say how happy we are. Luca’s confidence has really grown since he started the Easyread system this year.
When Luca started the course his reading wasn’t too bad, but he was really struggling with independent writing at school. He has made great progress with his writing in the last couple of months. Where he would struggle to write a couple of sentences he is now writing paragraphs without assistance!
His teacher has commented several times on Luca’s confidence and also the fact that he is now less distracted and much more able to just get on with his work.
He also has wonderful ideas and is making lots of contributions in class during carpet time, which is something he never use to do prior to Easyread. The most notable difference is his high level of confidence in the classroom and that he has found his voice!
There is a reward system in his school called key competency cards which are given out for recognition of achievement. I have never known Luca to receive them. In the last 2 school terms he has received 14!
– J
Such a change from 18 months ago…
Adam’s end of year school report has prompted me to send an email to update you on his progress…
We covered the Easyread program between March and December 2012. His reading got a lot better during that time and subsequently his confidence also grew. We noticed little changes like his ability to have a go at reading signs and instructions with his peers where previously he had held back. However, he was still a reluctant reader and to date prefers visual media to a standard novel. He will happily read a novel if he is sharing the read with us (i.e. a couple of pages and then swap to the other person) and I think it’s because it still takes a lot of concentration which he finds tiring.
He is now working at his year group level for reading and science and at a higher level for his maths. You can imagine how wonderful it must feel to be working at the same level as most of your peers when this previously was such a struggle!
His writing is still a little behind average for his year group but he has gone up 3 sub levels in the last 12 months in this too, which we think is amazing.His teacher commented that the quality of his writing has really improved in recent weeks.
We are really proud that he continues to try so hard at school and can see that he has a fabulous attitude and commitment when he could so easily have given up. He now has the confidence to have a go at anything and believe that he can do it, such a change from 18 months ago when he thought he was “stupid.”
I recommend Easyread to so many parents and teachers; there are different ways to teach children and this certainly taps into a part of the brain that is being bypassed by some children when they first learn to read. It has also helped us to understand how we can best help Adam to learn and has also empowered him to know that he can learn.
I’ll keep in touch and let you know how he continues to get along.
– J
'Re-learning' the alphabet for adults
Hi Sarah
Just to say that P is finding the system really helpful. I don’t think we could have managed without it. Even though the material is not specifically aimed at ‘adults’, in a way, this has been more helpful as the text is easy and fun.
As you know, he suffered a traumatic brain injury a few years ago, and, unfortunately his communication skills, especially reading, suffered.
This system has enabled him to ‘re-learn’ the alphabet and to slowly re-acquire reading skills in a fun and non-threatening way. There is also a positive effect being shown in his handwriting. A great thing is the short lessons – anything longer and he would get tired and lose concentration. The prizes are also a helpful goal, even if he is 57 years old!
We realise it is still very early days, and he is not yet reading ordinary text, but there is an improvement after just a couple of months.
Please feel free to adapt for any testimonial you wish to print
All thanks to Easyread…
Just thought I’d let you know that Liam is now reading the Magic Treehouse series. I have him do a chapter a day. All thanks to Easyread!
– A
His SEN teacher has noticed a vast improvement…
I have been very pleased with Connor’s progress so far. Even at this early stage, his SEN teacher at school pulled me aside to ask what we were doing at home with him as she had noticed a vast improvement in both his reading ability and, more importantly, his willingness to learn…which is great ! Thank you!
– M
The right direction…
Charlotte now spells much more plausibly than before. She gets the spelling of a good number of core words correct when she is concentrating on it.
Thank you so much for your work in putting the course together. I think in summary it has moved Charlotte on a good number of strides in the right direction, and given us confidence that she will be able to overcome her dyslexia given appropriate support and interventions.
– N
The most incredible difference…
Easyread has made the most incredible difference to her reading. She is now a confident reader who loves to read. Many thanks to you and all your staff…
– R
I never would have imagined…
Many thanks Laura for your help during the Easyread course. Joe’s reading has blossomed and, more importantly, his confidence in attempting new or difficult words. He reads every day now and whereas once it was a chore…now he does it for enjoyment! Something I never would have imagined.
Easyread has been a long and at times painful process for Joe. However, the codeword and prizes have been a powerful motivator for him and have encouraged him to stick with it.
Joe said himself that if he has the right attitude and applies himself…that anything is possible. Easyread has helped him to develop this positive attitude.
Many thanks indeed.
– D
p.s. we have just received the helicopter, but have not yet opened it! Thank you.
A unique method of teaching, thank you…
Thanks for the course. Franks reading has improved significantly. I credit this to the unique method of teaching that was presented by Easyread.
Frank never protested about doing his Easyread. Each lesson was a good length. I have recommended it to many friends and teachers at our school.
Thank you again very much. We are grateful for your help.
– B
Yesterday we had a breakthrough…
Yesterday we had a breakthrough – he got a book and read to me for twenty minutes. In the past if he had wanted a story he would have attempted the first sentence and then got cross and frustrated and asked me to read the rest. I prompted him on some of the more difficult words but always let him try to sound them out first. I was amazed at his perseverance (although it was probably just an excuse not to go to bed!). However, I think I would happily let him read all night if he could have. It’s moving in the right direction.
A
She is now starting to enjoy reading…
Maria is having no difficulties with the course and her reading has already improved. In fact, she is now starting to enjoy reading and will sometimes take a book and start reading!
– G (6 weeks into Easyread)
Leons confidence has increased ten fold…
Leons confidence has increased ten fold sinse starting the course, he is actively seeking out text in every day life to read now. He is also now reading his school books, and where once he just wouldnt know where to start, he can now sound many of the words out.
There is still much work to be done but ‘by Joe i think hes getting it’!
– S
Andrew is doing well overall…
Andrew is doing well overall. I think he now “expects” to get everything right and is very hard on himself if he makes a mistake – part of his personality I’m afraid – so we have had some struggles even if he just gets one thing wrong. Still we continue to encourage and explain it is hard to get everything right 100% of the time!
H
We thought you might like to know that…
We thought you might like to know that both boys got excellent end of session reports from their class teachers. Calum’s was particularly glowing, commenting on his progress, hard work and positive attitude. We realise that he is still a little behind some of the other pupils, in reading only, but hope that with continued effort and support he will finally make up lost ground.
He is looking forward to learning a little more French than last year.
Regards to you all
M
We are very pleased with Easyread so far…
We are very pleased with Easyread so far. James is still enjoying it. Eyetracking was a challenge – getting him to remember to do it. We are still taking the capsules as recommended.
We have experienced some problems with the Monkey game – distorted letters and not being able to complete the task unfortunately. Not sure if this is a script error on our computer ??? Also one or two other little computer type glitches, but nothing major.
We will try to be more diligent in re-reading the text. James is still guessing sometimes, so it’s important for me to be with him during this reading time to ensure he decodes properly.
Other than that, all seems to be well and his school will be in touch with you to discuss how you can help in school. I think they are impressed!
S
We are six weeks in and…
We are six weeks in and Ted has no complaints about doing an easy read lesson every day. In fact, when we forget, he reminds us. He’s thrilled with the prizes and motivated to finish every lesson. Before starting easy read, he would complain about reading anything; now, even at this early stage, he’s confident enough to try to read signs and other words around him without prompting. Last week he was moved up a reading group in school. It’s early days, but we are very pleased with his progress so far.
– K
A much more able and confident reader…
Many thanks for all your help – Catherine is a much more able and confident reader now. She recently did a seashore talk on puffins to the class and had to read her cue cards fluently, confidently and clearly- no problem for her now!
– Christine (the proud mum!)
Looking forward to more good results…
I am really pleased with Easyread so far. Reece is doing very well. I have noticed a big improvement with his reading and I have even seen him correcting himself when reading and talking about what sounds he needs to use too.
He is rereading the story until it is fluent and in fact I feel he is reading a lot more fluently with all his reading now.
I am very happy with Reece’s progress and am looking forward to more good results.
– L