I have been so impressed with the whole process and support so far. From the initial telephone consultation where you flagged possible issues Laurie may be dealing with that neither the paediatricians or school had picked up on, but on further investigation seem to fit his behaviour, ie possible auditory processing disorder.
Getting Laurie to do his daily Easyread hasn’t always been easy. His confidence is so low with regard to reading, and his concentration and short term memory is very limited but he is slowly, with lots of encouragement, seeing that when he tries he can do it. He loves the games, particularly the Shooting Range, and the type of games are so suited to him, as well as the brilliant prizes and encouraging messages from Easyread. The difference with what he can read when he is doing his favourite games is interesting.
He likes that he can change the size of text/colour etc as this puts him in control which is important to him.
We use the eyetracking games often and he loves these. He has been able to show some friends what he does on the computer and they thought it was ‘epic’ which gave him a real boost.
He is still really struggling blending words and without help I’m not sure he would be able to read the words. But at this stage I am working on building his confidence, making it fun and keeping it consistent, so we stick to doing it almost every day.
Laurie is only six at the moment and has subtle but complex learning needs (as well as being incredibly stong willed as David witnessed on the skype call!), so we are not expecting miracles, but strongly believe this is the right path to be taking and the easiest and most fun way for him start reading. The joy for me was that it gave us a structure to the long summer holidays, knowing he was doing some reading everyday, instead of getting a book out and try reading from that which ends up being incredibly stressful for both him and me.
David was brilliant on the skype call and gave me some really simple and helpful tips which made a big difference. I have been so grateful for all the support.
Thank you for all the help. I recommend you to everyone!
