Parent Reviews of Easyread
Our most recent reviews:
A whole different picture…
Hi Everyone at Easyread,
We have suspended Emma completing Easyread at the moment as she has made considerable progress with her reading and comprehension at school. Emma will be taking her SATs this term and her teacher has indicated that Emma is above average for her age.
This is excellent news and we can not thank Easyread enough because I know without it we would be in a different place, so thank you.
During the summer we will probably use Easyread again and hopefully complete all lessons, this will help Emma to keep ticking along.
Thank you again.
– F (Emma, age 7)
Case Study: Highly verbal, poor phonics, guessing short words
It seemed that Harry the super sight-reader would never happily pick up a book. Now he smiles, he reads and most of all, he enjoys life!
The Problem
At age 5 Harry had everything going for him. He loved the activity of reading, and he’d been speaking fluently since age 2 using superb vocabulary. He also had a huge knowledge base and a powerful imagination. However, from the first day that he started to learn phonics at school everything changed.
Making the ‘oooa’ ‘eee’ and ‘arr’ sounds as seen on a flashcard was no problem. But if you asked him to apply it to a word he saw on the page of a book he looked totally blank. Harry could not fathom that one thing had anything to do with the other. As a result, very soon he became reluctant to read. Mum Susie, was shocked – she just hadn’t seen this coming.
The school were very relaxed about the situation, at first. The fact that he was a summer baby, a boy and ‘an old fashioned sight-reader’ were, they felt, good reasons to believe that given time it would just come. But by the end of his Reception year, things had gone from bad to worse. Harry would only read now when forced, and even then it was only the long and unusual words that he was willing to tackle. He was side-stepping common words like ‘come’ and ‘when’ and yet could read a word like ‘photosynthesis’ with great ease. It just didn’t make sense!
During year 1 Susie was surprised and pleased to discover that Harry did make some progress with his reading. However, the fact that he only had to look at a long and complex word once in order to know it by heart still seemed strange to her. By year 2 it was clear that Harry was reading solely through memorization of whole words, and at 7 years old he was totally unable to identify a word by its sounds. Every time he came across a new word he either broke down into tears or became passionately angry, refusing to read anything.
Harry was waging a war against reading, homework and school – and for Susie it was a horrible sight to see. At this stage the school began to express their concerns too, since despite being bright and able in other areas, Harry’s difficulties with reading and writing were causing him to fall behind in all his subjects. Then, in August 2012 Harry was diagnosed as being dyslexic. Susie now knew that if she wanted to change things for her son, it had to happen soon, and it had to come from her.
They started by having a tutor once a week, who, as well as helping Harry with basic word building, shared her suspicions about his visual processing ability. So they saw an optometrist who diagnosed severe Irlen Syndrome and gave Harry a prescription for glasses that instantly made a difference.
The family felt hopeful for the first time; surely now that the words were no longer jumping around on the page they could solve the puzzle! However, despite being much happier with looking at a page of text he still point blank refused to read anything on it – even in a comic. And so the homework battles waged on. It was clear that Harry needed something more…
The Solution
Susie came across Easyread during an anxious late night search online. As she read through the list of causes for reading difficulty, it seemed that every single one applied to her son. It was like it had been written for him! The fact that the program was on the computer was instantly a plus for book-weary Harry, so they tried the free session and he loved it. So much so that the following day he asked if he could do it again!
From Susie’s point of view the unlimited coaching and support was the big selling point. She had spent so long single-handedly worrying, trying and failing to help Harry that the thought of having someone there to lend an ear was a real lifeline.
It became evident after just a few days that Easyread really was an apt name for the course; Harry enjoyed it so much that every day he wanted to do more, and this boosted his confidence hugely. The games and stories contained the perfect recipe for laughter – a little bit rude with some interesting themes and a bit of silliness – delicious! Since the lessons were so short, it became a positive part of their morning routine and not at all a chore. Plus, whenever Harry needed a boost – lo and behold an awesome prize arrived through the letterbox, and he was raring to go once more! This new routine of success and smiles was a breath of fresh air for mother and son.
What’s more, the support from the Easyread team was every bit as fabulous as Susie had hoped it would be. Whenever she called or emailed the response was detailed, expert and speedy. Susie and her son were no longer engaged in endless combat; Harry and David Morgan were running this show, and she was just along for the ride!
The Result
At the start of the school term in September of last year, Harry was a boy who loved looking at books, but hated to read. 4 months after starting Easyread, the Jack Stalwart Series was at the top of his Christmas list! The confidence he was gaining was infectious, and made its way into every part of his life very quickly.
For Susie, it’s as if he is opening new doors everyday – he will now read anything and everything in the world around him whether it be BBC children’s news programmes, maths homework or a cereal box.
The fact that the team offered additional practical therapies for Harry’s Irlen Syndrome also means that they can deal with this longer term with understanding and expertise.
The school meanwhile have happily moved Harry up a reading group, and his tutor is astonished by the change, having observed that Harry’s fluency, pace and energy levels are much higher compared with this time last year.
Put simply: day to day life has been transformed for Harry and Susie since they began this course, and that’s something that no one can put a price tag on.
—–
Laura O’Sullivan is a System Coach for the Easyread System, an online phonics course for children who need support for spelling and reading problems. Over a decade, Easyread has helped children with dyslexia, auditory processing disorder, highly visual learning styles, and more, to reach their full reading potential. Find out more at dm-ed.com or www.facebook.com/easyreadsystem
Easy Read has exceeded all of my expectations.
Hi – I would have to say that the progress that I have seen in Emilio in the short time we have doing Easy Read has exceeded all of my expectations. I have no doubt that my goal of having him reading at grade level proficiency will be met sooner than I expected. This has also been a big boost to his self esteem. Thank you so much for having this program available.
Accelerator, Age 6-9, USA/Canada, Parent
Thanks so much. After having an older son, now 20 who also had difficulty in reading and writing (there were very little resources available back then) I was a little sceptical.
However, I feel L is a ‘good little reader’ now. His progression has been rapid and although he is still behind as far class work he now has the foundations in place which most likely I would have not been able to help with alone. L still struggles with reading some words and his spelling isn’t great, but progressing. Only this weekend L wrote his own story using my apple phone (lots of spelling mistakes but it was the fact he wanted to write a story). He now reads signs in the street and actually picks up a pen and paper pretending to be a waiter, taking an order. He is also carrying out much of his homework unassisted. This is a huge step for L as last year we did struggle to actually get L to put pen to paper! I’m not sure if this is a testimonial but this has been real life for us and the stresses that go with it.
In respect of the course in general it has been very good. The change to the spelling and reading course has definitely been more effective for L. He loved the games at the end, but he started to know what some of the answers would be due to the repetition before they appeared. He did lose a little bit of interest just about half way through but we got through that. I think at the beginning we did raise the way some of the words sounded – I think this was due to our thick East Lancashire accent, however L adapted well. Apart from that I understood that to keep reading little and often was the answer.
When the stories finished and there were only 10 days left I did feel a little bit of panic – it was like wow that’s it L’s on his own now, but like I’ve said the foundations are there and we have to keep building on that.
Just to thank you all again. For me the aim was to have L reading and he is. For us this has been a success and I would recommend the course to others.
– M (L, age 7)
We are really happy with her progress…
Annebelle is starting to recognise words like and, the, to , pigs etc. We are really happy with her progress. I particularly find The Jungle Juggle game to be a very, very GOOD exercise for learning her sounds.
Thank you SO much.
– S
Worth every cent…
I am delighted to report that David is making slow but steady progress in both confidence and fluency and is showing an interest in sounding out words outside of Easyread lessons. He looks forward to each days lessons and tackles them confidently, thanks to the aid of the phonic characters.
David is re-reading each line of the story, reaching fluency in the second reading. He is also reading through the second page of the story (with no letters) quite quickly.
I cannot fault anything within the program. The daily encouragement that David receives from David M throughout the lesson, along with the prizes in the mail and the support that I receive through phone calls and messages make this course worth every cent (or penny…).
– M
Impressed…
Today it was day 13 on Easyread, and we got a silver medal in one of the games, so that was good. She is really decoding very well now. I am impressed!!
– M
Fun, brilliant and hard!
Thank you for the course we have noticed a vast improvement in heathers reading and writing even if school doesn’t appear to have. Heather described the course as fun brilliant and hard she enjoyed getting certificates and of course the prizes which we both consider really good ideas and have had lots of fun with them.
Once again thank you to all of you and those people that replied to heathers e-mails great. Heather has asked for a picture of you all if possible, for all your help thank you. A great learning tool, i would recommend this to anyone whom has problems with reading.
– K (Heather, age 6)
Dear David…
Dear David
I have enjoyed easy read because it has helped me to decode words
correctly .
My reading has improved so much since the beginning of the course.
Thanks David
from Molly
Case Study: Baffling reading difficulty, stress spirals
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…
—–
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
I have just seen Cameron's SENCO…
I have just seen Cameron’s SENCO teacher today and she told me of his great progress in reading, spelling and comprehension. He has come on really well since we started this course last summer and I can see a huge leap in his reading ability and confidence. He has even volunteered to stand up in class and read aloud this school term. We are both noticing how much better, easier and less stressed his reading has become.
Can’t thank you enough!
Kind regards – B
He's doing well…
He’s doing well. He sometimes still guesses when he sees words, but his overall reading comprehension is much improved. In fact, even though he sometimes struggles to actually pronounce words out loud, he nevertheless seems to get the overall gist of what ever he is reading.
Many thanks to you for this helpful program.
Best,
Roland
We had been concerned about Alex’s reading since year 2 he is now in year 3. From being a confident and more importantly happy to read child, he became frustrated and then would refuse to read his school books. My husband couldn’t work out why especially as we have read to our boys from being tiny babies,they have an extensive library of books mostly chosen by them, we are members of the local library and visit our local bookshop regularly. He still loves to be read to at home thank goodness. Just before coming across your site we started reading Gormy Ruckles books by Guy Bass. Alex would read the first page then my husband or I the rest of the chapter. Although he wanted to read the first page most words were guessed at wildly and everything was rushed and seemed very stressful. Anyway after showing Alex your site he completed your 1st lesson and asked to repeat it 3 times! the first day and several after that. What was most heart warming was that his eyes lit up and he was genuinely delighted at how easy he found the lesson. After doing this for several days he asked if there were anymore games and that is when I started him on the trial lessons.
I’ve already noticed an amazing difference in his reading he is slower but less stressed sounding, due to taking time to decode the words and is only guessing once or twice now. Alex was getting stuck on many “easy” words but could then read long complicated one. I’ve since found out from doing lots of reading up on reading problems this is due to them being abstract and therefore hard for the child to comprehend.
He has been happy to do all the lessons so far and has asked when he can. He likes logging in himself and loved the glasses and the spy theme. We all loved the “reading is important so you can tell jokes” angle. In fact the whole scheme seems very child centered and based on their enjoyment unlike most others we have looked at. I’ve also downloaded your manuscript so far I have found it both insightful and informative.
Kind regards
– K (Agent A, age 8)
The good news is that…
The good news is that Ashrya’s reading keep on improving. To give you concrete examples: she has been reading at school a Jacqueline Wilson book in which she gets herself ‘lost’ and reads a lot more than the 10 minutes she is supposed to do every day. I was feeling poorly last week and she read me a story in the evening: ‘The selfish giant’ from Oscar Wild. It is a big, illustrated book I got her for Christmas but it still has long pages of medium-sized text. She read beautifully, in a much smoother manner than before. She loved it so much she read for herself ‘The nightnigale and the rose’ the following day. I can’t ask anymore than that! I am thrilled that she is enjoying reading and she is feeling happy with her progress. I am seeing the teacher this week who will hopefully confirm what we have noticed at home.
Thank you.
Spelling and confidence have both improved…
I think Cameron’s spelling and confidence have both improved in the last few months-thanks so much. He has been getting extra support at school but even they are impressed at the degree of improvement. The main thing is he now breaks words into chunks in order to spell which wasn’t happening before, making it almost impossible. Thanks again!
– N
Easyread gave us a simple way of doing something about our daughter's dyslexia…
Thanks for lovely presents and great program…
When asked to do her homework Stevie can often be stroppy. However she will happily come skipping in to do her Easyread! Somehow still, everyday, she finds she is achieving and is motivated to keep going. Impressive.
Teachers have noticed improvement in her spelling and reading as well as in her confidence. Easyread gave us a simple way of doing something about our daughter’s dyslexia. It allowed us to step back and let her get on with it. Which is exactly how she likes it.
Next we hope to see her get better with spelling, but as Easyread is kind of the Kumon for literacy I think it will just take time and patience…
– F
Complete turnaround
Robert is thrilled that he’s been moved on by the way. As well as improving his reading, all the positive feedback that he’s been getting from the course has improved his confidence, his behaviour & his way of relating to other people, and all enormously. The old (pre-school) Robert is re-emerging. Phew!
Additionally, the emotional temperature in the whole house has dropped immensely.
– D (Robert age 10)
I am absolutely delighted!…
Just got back from a parent’s evening and I am delighted to report that Joshua’s reading age has gone from 5.8 years of age in October (when he turned 7) to 6.8 when they assessed him this month! I am absolutely delighted, thanks so much to the team at Easyread.
– J
Really helping her spelling…
Things are progressing very well. I think the Scribe game has been excellent. It is really helping with Olivia’s spelling. I think she surprises herself at just how much she gets right!
– J
When we look back at his tears and tantrums we can't believe how far he's come…
We have been delighted with your support and the whole programme. William’s confidence in spelling has improved greatly and he now reads books for pleasure on occasion-which he never would have done before. He is keeping up at school in English classes.
When we look back at his the tears and tantrums at any literacy task in year 6, both of us cant believe how far he has come. Many many thanks.
– J
His reading has improved…
Harry feels his reading has improved since doing the lessons. He has found doing the lesson on the computer a lot more enjoyable than reading a book.
I also feel his reading has improved. His reading at school last year was graded at 69, this year it has gone up to 74. If this year he can improve by a further 15 points he will be near his reading age I think.
– N
Amazing progress…
Just a quick update to say that in the last three days we have seen enormous progress – Raff moved up yet another level in his school reading books, and today he picked up James and the Giant Peach and read two pages entirely on his own and really fluently. He only stopped at one point and that was due to the word ‘immediately’! Amazing progress – we are so pleased.
– H
Rapid progress!
Leo’s teacher is extremely pleased with his progress in fact she has said since September his progress has been ‘rapid’. He is beginning to construct sentences with correct punctuation and they have introduced a spelling tool in the shape of a colourful ‘rocket’ with regular used words that Leo has trouble spelling. He is now joining letters together and his reading has developed
– M (Agent L, age 7)
Case Study: Bilingual English/French, guessing short words
Expat Caroline was nose-diving with reading both English and French. But since Easyread, she has been flying in more ways than one!
The Problem
Caroline’s family moved to France in 2009 when she was 4 years old. Being bilingual English/French speakers they were pleased to find that there was good support at the local school for people who, like themselves, wanted to build on their second language but also keep up with their native English.
In light of this, when Caroline’s parents were told about an early intervention reading program, they instantly signed their daughter up. Surely if she was being exposed to reading English from such a young age, they could rule out any difficulties later on, right?
But as it turned out, this wasn’t the case at all.
Two and a half years down the line and her reading ability had not progressed much at all, despite interventions from some excellent teachers. The gaps in her reading armour were apparent, but equally very puzzling.
For one thing, Caroline would guess at words based on pictures on the page. Sometimes this was deceptively effective, other times not. She could also have no recognition of a word despite seeing it page after page after page. And it was always the short words which gave her the most difficulty. The moment it was clear she had made a mistake she became intensely frustrated.
Despite all this the school remained unperturbed, attributing Caroline’s slow progress to her bilingualism. What’s more, Mum Clara could see that her daughter was very clever at covering her tracks. For instance, she would ask the adult reading with her for just enough of a clue so that she could guess the remainder of a word. She was also capable of achieving 9 out of 10 in English spelling tests! And yet Clara just couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t adding up. She could sense it.
Perhaps in large part this maternal sense came from the rapid deterioration of Caroline’s confidence. It seemed that at just the age when her peers were starting to really take-off with their reading, she was grudgingly picking up books, glancing at the pictures and becoming instantly angry and upset at the suggestion she try to read the words.
It was at this point that Clara decided to undertake some research of her own and thus came across the Easyread System. As she read through the various causes of reading difficulty on the website, it quickly became apparent that Caroline fell into at least 3 of the categories including: poor short-term memory, fluency block and stress spirals.
After taking the free trial, Clara could see that the lessons were going to be fun, so they signed up for the course immediately.
The Solution
Miraculously, Caroline’s attitude started changing from Day 1. Her confidence started to grow and it kept on growing, lesson after lesson. Clara felt as if the program had been specially tailored for her daughter; everything from the computer-based games to the principles of Guided Phonetic Reading fitted perfectly with her kinesthetic and highly visual learning style.
Because Caroline hated to make mistakes in anything that she did (most especially reading) she needed a lot of hand-holding and encouragement from Clara in the early days. But Mum was pleased to discover that the support from the Easyread team made her feel fully confident in her ability to do this, and it became a true labour of love for both of them.
Clara can remember that at times it was a tough journey! During the twelve months on the system they had tears, tantrums, frustrations and setbacks. But what most impressed Clara was that at no stage did Caroline give up. If she needed a breather, they simply turned the computer off and came back to it the next day. What’s more, the timely prizes and David’s encouraging words throughout each lesson really kept her going.
The Result
One year later, Caroline has completed the Easyread course. What’s more, she is now the super-duper English reader that she always dreamed of being!
She has moved up into the top half of her class in terms of reading, going from a ‘D’ to a ‘B’ level, and she is on track to be at ‘A’ level by the end of the term.
What most took Caroline’s parents by surprise was that the Easyread experience actually helped to build up her confidence in starting to read French too! Given that French and English are very different languages, Clara was impressed with the integrity of Guided Phonetic Reading as a system, in promoting reading and fluency in a second language as well. Caroline really had developed a skill-set that was serving her well across the board.
Last week, following months of waiting, Caroline’s final prize – a remote-controlled helicopter – finally dropped through the letterbox. As she opened the envelope, the grin on her face stretched from ear to ear! Following an afternoon spent in the garden playing around with it, she had it soaring high in the sky …
“I am thrilled to have my confident 7 year old little girl back again. And Caroline is even more thrilled that she can now read to mummy at bedtime! Now that’s really learning to fly!” says Clara. “Thank you David, thank you the Easyread team. You are amazing!”
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Laura O’Sullivan loves helping kids around the world learn to fly as a System Coach for the Easyread System. Easyread is an online learning platform for kids with dyslexia, auditory processing disorders and highly visual learning styles who need support for spelling and reading problems. Find out more at www.easyreadsystem.com, www.morganlearning.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/easyreadsystem
Thank you so much for devising this program…
However, the unexpected benefit is that now she is much more engaged at school. She no longer day-dreams, plays, talks and is utterly focussed in class. Now she is able to join in, she is hard working, keen and extremely motivated.
She has also been able to translate her thoughts onto paper for the first time, as her writing and spelling have also improved now that she has started to read. At present she is choosing phonically plausible spellings, as it is still far too early to see correct spelling choices being made. She is so excited by writing, and other people being able to understand what she has written.
One sentence in her story read “There was a red chested robin singing beautifully in the tress” This is amazing writing for a 7 year old! Her teacher always maintained that she had a brilliant brain in there. Now she can demonstrate her skills in the manner that the outside world demands.
Thank you so much for devising this program, and all your support. It is so lovely to have someone to tell when she is making progress who I know wants to hear it as well. It is certainly paying dividends for Seren in more ways than we could have possibly imagined when we enrolled.
– A