Effective Help for Reading and
Spelling Difficulties

Noah

Health problems caused Noah Ayres to lose a half-year's work in Grade 1 and a whole term's work in Grade 2. He started falling behind badly in reading and spelling.

"When reading, he had to sound every word, even those that he was supposed to know already," his mother said. "Every Friday he wrote a spelling test, and then misspelled almost all the words. He could not write in cursive at all, and would not do any homework. He said he could not do it.

"His Grade 2 teacher called us in and said we must consider keeping him back. I could not keep my child back who had given up all his sport, which he enjoyed so much, and decided to send him to Edublox."

It is only a few months later and Noah reads without sounding even a single word. "Every week he scores full marks for his spelling tests, as well as for maths. He has started writing in cursive and now does his homework without me having to tell him, as if he now enjoys it," said an excited Mrs Ayres. "We still have a long way to go, but I can't believe that he has made such fast and such drastic progress."

After only a few months, Mrs Oaks can also already see an improvement in her daughter's reading and spelling. "Before I enrolled her at Edublox, Ava could not read at all," she said. "She always mixed up b, d and p, and she saw only the first letter of a word and then guessed the rest. She read very slowly, and usually wrote mirror writing. She also had big problems with spelling.

"Ava does not write mirror writing at all any more and she also writes much more neatly. Her spelling has improved a lot. There are much fewer reversals, and although she still reads slowly, she now understands what she reads. She now enjoys taking books from the library and she now reads much more regularly."

Noah and Ava are only two of a long series of success stories of Edublox, where learners with reading and learning difficulties receive effective help. The learners attend one or two classes per week, where they do Audiblox, Compublox and PhonicsTonic. Some learners also do Compublox at home.

"Our methods work, because they address the causes of learning difficulties," said Susan du Plessis of Edublox.

"In order to understand what causes reading and spelling difficulties, it is necessary to keep in mind a fundamental characteristic of the human being, namely that the learning process does not occur on a single level, but on multiple levels," Susan explained. "One cannot teach a child to play ice hockey unless he has already been taught to skate. In the same way, there are certain foundational skills that a child needs to master first, and only then will he become able to learn to read, spell and learn.

"Concentration, perception, memory and logical thinking are the most important skills foundational to reading, and also to spelling. A person who has not thoroughly mastered these foundational skills, will be and will remain a poor reader until somebody has helped him to practise these skills until they have become automatisms. All other efforts to improve his reading will be in vain."

Names have been changed and a stock photo used.