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