Parent Reviews of Easyread
Our most recent reviews:
No longer a battle…
Over the first six weeks I have noticed Sorrel’s confidence growing – not just with her reading but generally as well. She asks to do easy read each evening and also gets her reading book from school to read (before it was a constant battle to even get her to try!)
-M (Sorrel, age 7)
Thank you so much to you all…
We cannot believe how far Henry has come with his reading. He reads absolutely anything; from ads on TV to road signs, is sailing through school reading books and starting his bedtime story while his dad sorts a hot water bottle. Thank you so much to you all at Easyread.
– A (6 weeks into the course)
We would like to carry on…
We have just reached the end of level 4 and would now like to do the optional lessons in level 5 so that Emily can carry on with The House of Grace story. She has so enjoyed Easyread and it has helped her a great deal.. so thank you.
– C
Steady progress…
I feel Alice is making steady progress with Easyread. She remains enthusiastic about the lessons and is enjoying reading Snow White and doing the games.
– M
Easyread calms him down…
Angus continues to do well. His reading is a lot more fluent and he certainly has the confidence to give text a go in a variety of contexts (he is reading, fairly successfully, what I’m writing as we speak!!) Angus rarely guesses these days.
We also have a few issues with hyperactivity and the inability to sit still. But I often find that a session of Easyread calms him down somewhat.
– D (6 weeks into the course)
Case Study: 15 years old, highly intelligent, with no reading skills
Kevin and Elaine knew that their son had problems with reading and spelling from day one. This niggling feeling was followed by mounting evidence at school and at home. After a long wait and a hard fight, his parents finally convinced the local education authority to assess Callum at which time their suspicions were confirmed.
By now Callum was 8 years old. He had been diagnosed as dyslexic and his reading was 3 years behind his peers. It was Kevin and Elaine’s hope that following the battle that had built up to the diagnosis, this would be the first step towards expertly and swiftly ending their son’s struggles. As it turned out this could not have been further from the truth.
When inaction from the school continued Elaine set out to discover for herself the options that were available. A few months later Callum started the Dore programme. It seemed to have quite an impact at first, especially on his balance. But after the initial boost it became clear that the improvements weren’t permanent and the guessing habit quickly re-emerged. His spelling too continued to be very poor, and that year he was moving up to senior school[1].
In other areas of his life Callum was a self-starter. A good football player; he started refereeing when he was only 11 and qualified as soon as he could at 14, officiating in tournaments throughout the country. Callum also joined the Police Cadets after doing work experience with them and was promoted twice before his age forced him to leave at 18.
What’s more, despite his own troubles Callum set out to help others like himself with their reading problems. He pioneered a scheme for tackling dyslexia by creating focus groups and giving talks to teachers and other professionals at national conferences. He even gave an earful to the Secretary for Education!
At school Callum fought against the tide as best he could, partly due to his passion and talent for science. At 14 he gained a GSCE[2] in Astronomy and was also put forward for an AS Level[3] in Critical Thinking.
No one could deny that Callum’s passion and drive in all areas of life set him apart from his classmates. Unfortunately when it came to reading and writing he was set apart for a different reason; this came to the fore when he was 15 years old.
As usually happens during life defining moments, Callum was motivated by a shocking failure. Verbally he was a high flier in his Critical Thinking class. But when the fifteen-year-old sat down to take the written test he failed. Why? He couldn’t read the questions. Even with the help of a reader he was stumped. For so long, avoidance of reading has been a solution for Callum. But this blow was the turning point he needed to understand that in order to live his life to the full he had to be able to read.
A few weeks later Elaine discovered Easyread. Following some research she talked it through with Callum and they decided to give it a go. Initially they didn’t work alongside Callum as he did the sessions, and as a result some avoidance was able to creep in. But after some coaching from the team at Easyread of the benefits of a guiding hand, Kevin took on the role of sitting alongside his son as he worked through the sessions.
After just a few days Elaine and Kevin observed their son’s confidence rising in a way that they had never seen before. After 6 weeks Callum experienced significantly improved word recognition and as the weeks went by this blossomed into unprecedented success in outside reading. Elaine, prevented from daily involvement by ME, could hardly believe the transformation.
He even set himself the challenge of reading a chapter from one of the most challenging texts in English Literature-The Lord of the Rings-and managed it! Writing as well started to improve beyond recognition. Most importantly throughout all this Callum was actually having fun!
And the rest, as they say, is history…
Since finishing Easyread Callum has achieved 13 GCSEs-including a C in English. He is about to complete a Diploma in Applied Science, for which he is on course for a Triple Distinction (equivalent to 3 passes at A* at A Level).
Easyread had also transformed Callum’s’ life outside of education too, from being able to read road signs to confidently “booking” players when refereeing; everything had changed for the better.
As far as Callum’s future is concerned, he is well on the way to achieving everything he ever dreamed of. Next year he will begin his degree in Computer and Digital Forensics at Teesside University. It’s the only course of its kind in the UK and as such he fought off fierce competition to be offered one of the sought after places. (It’s worth adding that its likely most of his competitors had been reading since they were 6, unlike Callum who started when he was 16.)
When Kevin looks back, he remembers how something always “hung like a shadow” over his son: “but that something has gone with the growth in his confidence and his ability to read. Those silly little Easyread symbols gave him the key to the world of reading. Thank you for changing his life”.
Callum’s is a story of strength in the face of adversity and unswerving determination. He is an example to us all.
It really does work…
Just a quick note to say thank you to everyone involved in Easyread.
Tonight, before Harry went to bed and he decided to read a story to his brother. We heard him work his way through the whole book, decoding as he went and correcting himself and re-reading a sentence if it didn’t make sense but more importantly NO guessing!
Harry was so proud of himself and excited that he had read the whole book, without stopping. A first in this house!!
I know each lesson has had hours of planning behind it but keep up the good work as it really does work!!!
– S
I am definitely happy with his progress…
Peter is doing really well on the course. He is happy to do a lesson a day, and enjoys doing it. He likes the decoding without the text, as he can read things that his brother and sister can’t!
I am definitely happy with his progress so far, and I’m sure it has made a difference already with his spelling.
– HG (on Spellmagic course)
We are pleased to have used Easyread…
Since starting Easyread 6 weeks ago, the good news is that Will has changed from disliking reading and us fighting to try and keep him reading; to him enjoying it. He will write out a list of words and copy from books for enjoyment because he can. A large step seems to have been his listening and word formation. Previously he struggled to understand how to break the words into individual sounds, where as he will automatically do it when reading a book with words that he is unsure of. Finally the spy equipment is a significant help with his motivation and really does spur him on. We are pleased to have used Easyread to date and look forward to the ongoing success. Thank you.
– M
We are very pleased…
Rafferty is continuing to improve all the time and still enjoys Easyread a lot. He is re-reading every line in the story and the only mistakes he makes on the games are when he’s fidgeting and hits the mouse on the wrong thing, so his accuracy is amazing. His confidence is brilliant to see, and we have seen definite improvement in his reading from school too, so we are very pleased!
– H
Much better…
I have enjoyed easy read and I am now much better at reading. I really liked doing the fighter mission game.
– Ch (age 12)
Roll on the good reading times!
We have seen a remarkable change in James in the past few months. His confidence is sky high and I am now content that I am actually helping him with the challenge of learning to read rather than getting frustrated and cross! He re-reads all the text until he is familiar with it. Without doubt he still tries to guess words but much less frequently and when prompted to decode them he can do it without difficulty. I know it will take time to lose the tendency to guess. We are very pleased with his progress so far. Roll on 6 months time when he may even be an independent reader!
– S (James, age 5)
Amazing rate of progress
Seren continues to be really enthusiastic about Easyread. She rarely guesses words, when she does, it is usually during the re-reading of the passage, and when she is tired. I always pull her up on it, and we re-read again. She continues to decode most words, although as she reads more, she is naturally progressing towards sight recognition of some words.
Seren is getting more fluent. She is sometimes reading with a little expression. We talk about the stories and I ask specific questions to monitor whether she understands what she is reading. I am happy to report that this isn’t a problem. This suggests to me that the programme is progressing at a good rate for her.
Her joy at reading and starting to write is clearly evident. Although she is naturally a loud happy child,who appears confident in all situations, it has become evident that she was more worried than was apparent with her literacy problems. Other aspects of life have improved for her. She is an even happier child than she already appeared to be. She is enjoying school much more. She is able to follow up on the ideas she had. Luckily for her, her teacher always recognised that she had wonderful ideas and encouraged her to share them, but now she can extend those ideas and produce written work about them. She is so proud of herself. She often makes me go into school and look at the work she has done on the display boards.
I am astounded that so much change has occurred so fast.
– A (Seren, age 7)
Verging on the miraculous…
I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you for what you’ve done for Theo. He’s been doing Easyread since 1/2 term and the progress he has made is incredible verging on miraculous. He now “gets” it (the ten day blending session seemed to be a real breakthrough) and he is delighting in what seemed to previously to be an impenetrable mystery. He is asking me how to spell words and starting to write things for his own pleasure, he is telling me how words are spelt and starting to get enough confidence to sound out words at school. His self confidence and self esteem are so much higher as a result. I assume there’ll be another phone interview at some point but I didn’t want to wait until then!
– K (Theo, 5)
Final Big Thank You
Dear Laura, Sarah and David
We are writing to say a final big “Thank You!” for all the help you have given us throughout the past year while Elina has been working through the Easyread course. It has made an amazing difference to the support we have been able to give her with reading at home alongside her work at school. Elina’s confidence and ability with reading have grown enormously over the past year, which is of course what we hoped for. But beyond that she has also been able to discover the joy of reading for herself. I’m not sure one could easily express everything this will bring over a lifetime, but it is something we will cherish and, particularly looking back to where we were a year ago, it underlines the value of having found the Easyread programme.
Thanks again, and our very best wishes in your work to help other families.
-M (Elina, age 9)
Yippee!…
Catelin is thrilled that you will be sending her another certificate!
I must say that I am pretty thrilled myself actually. Yesterday when she did her literacy homework, despite some considerable rebelling initially because at first glance there was a lot of reading, she did it!! The assignment was a reading comprehension test and she had to read a passage from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. This is the first time she has read a comprehension test all the way through, understood it and was able to go back to the text and correctly answer the questions!
I spoke to her teacher from last year, who now teaches her on a Wednesday afternoon and asked if she could see a difference. She said there was a huge difference since she has been doing Easyread. Yippee! Thank you.
– M
Now he is really reading…
Jake’s progress has been amazing. In fact he has progressed to such a point that in July he was marked as ‘above average’ in reading and now he is really reading at the same level as others in his class. His spelling could be better but it is slowly improving as well. I am very pleased.
I asked Jake what he wanted to go on to level 4 as you suggested, and can you believe he doesn’t want to move up because of how much he likes the games. He also says he doesn’t like the idea of the course ending in just ten days! So, we will just finish the course as normal.
– A
I am not sure how he would have progressed without the course…
I feel that the course has really helped to improve Dylan’s reading. I am not sure how he would have progressed without the course and I am very happy with the results achieved. Thanks Easyread!
– T
A lot more confident with his school reading books…
After 6 weeks on the course Sebbie does seem a lot more confident in his reading both on Easyread as well as his school reading books. He seems to like the Easyread format and he willingly goes on it on a daily basis without much prompting. So far the program seems to have been of benefit and we are happy to continue.
– R
I was so proud I cried…
I have some very exciting news to share…
I actually cried last night I was so proud of Izzy! Usually I read a bedtime story to her and because I’ve done this for near on 7 years now, I was utterly gob smacked when she told me that she was reading ME the bedtime story. She insisted that I didn’t butt in, or help her in any way. Izzy proceeded to read no less than three books to me: Little Miss Naughty, Little Miss Bossy and Dog Loves Books. She read with beautiful flow, fluency, and she read each book taking note of punctuation, and speech marks.
I could tell that none of this was reading from memory, she read each word and sounded out a handful of the bigger words.
I am so, so proud of her and so thankful to you guys. I just cannot believe what she did last night – I was in tears and hugging her telling her how proud I was-she was beaming from ear to ear!
Bookworm!
Hey Sarah – PS forgot to say that happily one of the main reasons for our drop off in logins is that Ailsa is usually curled up in her room reading a book!!! She has developed into a real bookworm and has read 28 books since starting primary 5. Currently Charlie and the Chocolate factory.
– K (Ailsa, age 9)
All thanks to Easyread…
Samuel read to us for 45 minutes the other evening. And after that he still wanted to keep going – it was amazing to see. He is so much more confident, and because of that really wants to do it. All thanks to Easyread!
– CH
Case Study: Perfectionist, reading refusal, 2 years behind
Izzy always loved being read to. Mum Sheryl remembers that when she turned 2 she was able to recite all her favourite books word-for-word. It seemed impossible that her daughter would be anything but a high flying reader once school began.
However when Izzy began full-time education at age 4 it was like she just wasn’t ready to board the train yet. The school day was more tiring for her than any of the other children and all she wanted was to be back at nursery playing with her dolls. Being a naturally care-free and bubbly child, she ploughed on with little complaint. For a while it worked; she seemed to be making good progress and was one of the most popular children in her class.
Within the space of 1 year the situation could not have been more different. Suddenly a reluctance to read raised its ugly head and permeated everything Izzy felt and did during her school day.
Even as a small child Izzy was a stubborn perfectionist. She was unwilling to learn anything new unless she could achieve it flawlessly by herself. But when it came to reading, Sheryl saw a whole new side to her daughter’s temperament. As soon as she heard the words “learn”, “read” or “let me show you this” she was off like a shot! If ever she did sit down to look at a book, every other word was a haphazard guess based on the pictures.
Izzy attended a high achieving school, so Sheryl and her partner Matt were aware that when the teacher flagged up Izzy as ‘underachieving’, it needed to be taken with a pinch of salt. Despite this there was no denying that their daughter’s reading difficulties were profoundly affecting her ability to perform even the simplest task.
Sheryl decided to sign her up with a literacy tutor twice a week. But Izzy was so tired when she got home from school that anything extra seemed impossible. As such she gained nothing from it.
Next, thinking that a variety of resources and stimulating material would be the way forward, Sheryl began compiling a collection of fun-filled books. They tried everything – books which were based on stories about loving books; books that were pink; books that had pop-up pictures; books that came with disks and songs – all to no avail. Izzy still wanted her mystified parents to read them all to her!
At around that time things began to spiral out of control at school. Izzy’s confidence was incredibly low, and Sheryl was informed that at age 6, her daughter was reading at the level of a 4 year old.
Feeling wearied but determined, she undertook some internet research and came across the Easyread System. Suddenly Sheryl was filled with fresh hope. She could relate to David Morgan’s take on reading difficulties. Moreover, when she read the details of the 7 main causes of reading difficulty the ‘Stress Spiral’ was a perfect explanation of her daughter!
Izzy trialled the free lesson and, for once, was actually enjoying doing something where she was learning. Her amazed parents instantly signed up.
The fabulous prizes and the shortness of each entertaining lesson was a godsend. Sheryl was also impressed that from day 1, the Support Team was on-hand to address concerns, provide advice and spot any problems that Izzy was facing. Instead of being at loggerheads; mother and daughter were now working together to learn something new every day!
Since then, they haven’t once looked back…
4 weeks into the course, Izzy’s reading had noticeably improved. Within 4 months she had gone from reading level 3 to level 6 books. Seven months into the course, she is now reading level 9 books fluently. Simply put; in the space of just 7 months Izzy has gone from being a non-reader, to a free reader.
Izzy is as feisty now as she ever was! But mum and dad can rest assured that she is constantly moving forward with her reading. What’s more, she has the confidence to feel that she is a valuable member of her class and loves going to school each day. For Sheryl this means the world: “I can now think back to that hopeless feeling I had last March and just smile. We’re so proud of Izzy and most importantly, she’s proud of herself too”.
—–
Laura O’Sullivan is a Program Coach for the Easyread System, an online phonics course specifically developed for children with dyslexia, auditory processing disorder and highly visual learning styles. Found out more about how Easyread provides support for spelling and reading problems at www.easyreadsystem.com
Really happy…
This is just a message to update on Oliver’s progress. We are still really happy with Easyread and it is now part of our daily routine. School have noticed the improvement in his pace and ability to decode words. He still struggles with pace though and can be hesitant. We are hoping that by the end of the academic year he will have grown further in confidence.
– TD
Amazing progress in last year…
We have seen him make amazing progress with his reading in the last 12 months and he is now a much more confident and fluent reader. The speed of his improvement is increasing and he is enjoying the success he has having and so his confidence is also growing.
Having been behind his age related expectations for reading he is at least in line with them and in some areas well ahead.
I would like to thank you for all of your help, guidance and support and for being a major factor in Callum’s reading development. I have and will continue to recommend the programme to anyone with children having difficulty with reading and writing in school.
Many thanks
— S (Callum, age 9)