Following an incredible month of breakthroughs for our secret agents in February, we had EVEN MORE reading breakthroughs around lesson 90 for our star readers of March.
Without further ado, here are the names of our Breakthrough Readers of March, and the story of their journey from reading struggles, to reading success.
Erin
9 year-old Erin has had to overcome a lot of eye-tracking difficulties to get her to the point of a breakthrough, but continued exercises to help the eyes team together really are worth it when you start to see changes in reading, both inside and outside the programme.
“Just wanted to share that we have noticed a big improvement in the last week in Erin’s reading. So encouraging for us both.
This program is remarkable. I have been bragging about it to many people since starting. Whilst I knew it was working it is comforting when you see these leaps.” – Erin’s mum at lesson 90
Way to go, Erin!
Hugo
When 7 year-old Hugo joined the programme, his reading appeared to be progressing and on target for his age, but his mum had noticed that he largely relied on sigh vocabulary rather than decoding skills. This meant that he struggled with multi-syllabic words, and his spelling was affected as a result.
At an incredible lesson 60, Hugo’s decoding skills are already transferring to his reading outside the programme, and he’s even reading some of his own books now. Amazing!
Owen
11 year-old Owen had received an official dyslexia diagnosis before joining the programme. He had trouble decoding; guessed many words; experienced difficulties with knowing what sounds the letter make alone and together; he sometimes skipped complete words. As a result of weak decoding skills, his fluency was affected and he therefore had trouble with comprehension because all his energy was going into reading each word.
At lesson 90, Owen’s mum said his fluency is improving, and we can’t wait to see what effect this has on his comprehension. Congratulations Owen!
Isaac
Before beginning Easyread, 10 year-old Isaac was known to guess some easy words. He regularly mirrored similarly formed letters, like “b/d” and “m/w”.
Now, Isaac is reading so well, and showed us just how amazingly he could read some of the more difficult books in the programme during a Skype lesson. A huge well done, Isaac!
Darragh
6 year-old Darragh’s reading was progressing before Easyread, but it seems it was not at the same pace as his peers. This was beginning to play on Darragh’s mind, and the idea of reading had become a negative activity in Darragh’s mind. With a history of reading difficulties in the family, Darragh’s mum had decided to do something to change things for him, whilst he was still young.
Now at lesson 90, they are seeing improvements with Darragh’s reading outside the programme, and Darragh is even reading some of our more difficult books in the library. The guessing is becoming rare, but as there is still some guessing going on, they continue to work on our eye-tracking exercises whilst keeping the text size comfortable.
Lydia
8 year-old Lydia joined the programme as a very proficient reader, who had been tested as reading at a level of someone 2 years above her age. Her reading comprehension was also good. However, her mum noticed that she was still substituting words when reading out loud.
Spelling was a different story for Lydia. She had trouble spelling small words, and vowel graphemes were particularly challenging.
Lydia has now completed our reading assessor at a very early lesson 70, which is incredible! Now that the reading is feeling much easier, we can’t wait to hear about the spelling transformation.
Tristan
10 year-old Tristan had received an official dyslexia diagnosis prior to beginning the programme. His reading age had been assessed as being several years below the expected level.
At lesson 90, Tristan’s dad says “Tristan is decoding with speed and we’re seeing an improvement in his reading.”
Amazing the difference 3 months of the programme can make. A big well done to you, Tristan!
Ian
7 year-old Ian was not getting along well with the reading strategies used in schools, as they encouraged the sight memorisation technique of words rather than decoding. Ian would get frustrated trying to pick the words from his brain, and he would always start yawning and saying he was tired when it came to reading practise – an stress reaction we see time and time again. Ian is also a bit of a hyperactive child, with a relatively short attention span.
During a Skype lesson with Ian at around lesson 70, I was so impressed with his new decoding skills, and he was super great at the games.
And just today, Ian’s mum sent us this message:
“Yesterday, when I picked up Ian from school, his teacher came to the car to tell me that Ian had read G, H and I level books for her that day. He will be working on the I level again today and may move to J. J level is where the school wants grade one students at the end of year. Ian told me he was so proud of himself and I told him he should be!
Just amazing news! Keep up all the great work, Ian!
If you feel like your child has reached the point of reading take-off and we haven’t included them this month, then do let us know, so we can send their badge out to them for this month. And of course, we want to wish all our secret agents who completed the course and received their hard-earned helicopter a very well done.
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Whenever a child enrols on the Easyread programme, we are always very moved by the stories of school and homework struggles, bedtime reading meltdowns and despair. We want things to turn around for your child as quickly as possible, as we know it’s often been many years of heartache and trials that have brought you to our programme.
This month, we’ve chosen 11 year-old Annabell as our Breakthrough of the Month.
Annabell
When 11 year-old Annabell began Easyread, her reading seemed to be OK, although it had been quite a battle to get her to the level she was at, at that stage. Her mum knew that she has so much more potential than she was graded on as Annabell is a very intelligent girl.
She would get 10 out of 10 on a spelling test, yet all would be forgotten again very quickly.
Her mum believed the Easyread programme would be the perfect solution for her daughter, as her story was so similar to 10 year-old Ann’s.
And she was right.
At lesson 70, we received the following message from Annabell’s dad:
“Just to let you know, today was parent teacher day at Annabell’s school. In November (her last one) we were despairing, it was so bad. Not with her attitude or work ethic, but how far she was falling behind the other students. Her confidence was very low.
Today, we are quite tipsy from celebrating. She has jumped up two years in spelling and reading since November. Also all other subjects show a vast improvement. I think this is due to better comprehension and confidence.
Many thanks to the team.”
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What an inspiring story to end the week on. Our biggest congratulations, Annabell!
I already can’t wait to share the successes of our star readers of April.
Wishing you and your secret agents a lovely weekend.
Maddie