Case Studaes

(For purposes of confidentiality, the names used in these case studies are not the real names of the children involved).

Rachel

Rachel’s mother contacted See-a-Sound in June 2006, concerned about her daughter’s reluctance to read and general lack of confidence in literacy. At that time, she was assessed by her school as reading at Band Level 6.

Rachel attended the 2-week See-a-Sound Summer Programme in the August, during which she learned to spell using colour, touch and musical notes, and to read using See-a-Sound’s own reading material. Over the course of the 2 weeks, Rachel’s mother could see changes in her attitude to reading and spelling, and noted that she was now beginning to want to read her books at home. Upon her return to school in September, Rachel was assessed to have jumped from Reading Band Level 6 to Level 8. Rachel’s mother was so impressed with her improvement that she enrolled Rachel on the weekly home tuition sessions held by Alison Yeung during term-time. By October, Rachel was reading books at Band Level 9.

Rachel now reads enthusiastically and with confidence, both at school and at home.  She has already enrolled on this year’s See-a-Sound programme, and is looking forward to having the same fun with literacy that she had last year.

Mark

Mark has been coming to the See-a-Sound Summer Programme for 3 years. His mother enrolled him initially out of her concern that he was struggling with literacy and having particular problems recognising and differentiating particular sounds. She knew her son to be bright and was concerned about his lack of confidence in his reading and spelling. She contacted See-a-Sound to see if we could help. By using See-a-Sound’s systematic approach to reading, in which new sounds are carefully introduced and practised in an imaginative and fun way, Mark gained considerable confidence in his ability to recognise letter and letter blend sounds.

His mother was so pleased with Mark’s improvement in general confidence and his reading and spelling ability after the initial programme, that she has enrolled him on the summer programme every year since. Last year, at the age of 8 years 10 months, Mark left See-a-Sound with an assessed reading age of 13 years, and spelling age of 11 years 6 months. He is excelling at school, is generally confident, and has recently won a school chess competition.

Emily

Last year, Mark’s little sister, Emily, joined See-a-Sound for the first time. Like Mark, Emily was struggling to grasp basic English sounds, and found letter recognition difficult. As Mark had benefited so much from the See-a-Sound programme, Emily’s mother decided to try See-a-Sound for her daughter as well.

Emily started the 2-week programme with no reading or spelling age. By playing the dynamic games which help children to associate words with colour, touch and musical notes, Emily’s reading and spelling skills began to improve. Relaxation and visualisation exercises helped Emily to feel relaxed in the classroom, and encouraged her to generate positive feelings about reading, writing and spelling. Emily finished the 2-week programme with a reading age of 5 years and a spelling age of 5 years, 2 months.

At Easter, Emily’s mother contacted See-a-Sound again because she was concerned at the lack of progress Emily was making at school with her reading and spelling skills. She was particularly concerned about her daughter’s reluctance to read and spell. Private sessions with Alison Yeung were arranged over the Easter holidays. Through a variety of exercises designed to reinforce positive associations with reading and writing, Emily began to show signs of increased confidence in her ability to read. After only three sessions, Emily’s mother reported that she could see improvements in Emily’s reading. The weekly sessions continue, and Emily now has her own set of coloured spelling discs and musical keyboard, so that she can learn her school spellings the See-a-Sound way.