We’re handing over the blogging reins this week to a former Read Right student, who is now a parent:
From Kate N., July 21, 2020
THANK YOU, Dr. Dee!! Years ago, you helped me fix my reading problem. Reading was so hard for me until your tutors helped me in high school. That’s why it was an easy decision for my family to use your methods to teach our children to read.
From the day my first son, Ray, was born, my family followed your book Read Right! Coaching Your Child to Excellence in Reading (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005). Just as you direct, we read to him often beginning when he was just a baby and had fun learning the alphabet and the sounds the letters make from simple alphabet books and refrigerator magnets. Before he was 3, Ray started trying to spell real words with the refrigerator magnets. He always got some of the letters right and we’d have fun helping him fix the spellings. It was a game to him — and he loved to do it.
Eventually, as we read stories together, we asked him to use the “letter clues” on the page to find individual words (like “berry” in a book about berry picking). He easily found them! We did this and other things you suggested until the summer before 5-year-old Ray started Kindergarten. Shockingly, that’s when he started reading on his own! One year later Ray reads second grade stories so smoothly, it sounds like he’s the author. It’s amazing when you consider we NEVER, EVER asked Ray to sound out a single word, which is how most of us learn to read. Because of you, Ray reads differently. He never struggled like I did and I’m so relieved.
We’re repeating the process with our second son (age 3) and he’s catching on. It’s amazing and we’re so grateful! Thank you again!
