Audiblox
A letter
to Susan du Plessis and Jan Strydom of South Africa,
authors of The Right to Read and the
developers of Audiblox
that Susan du Plessis has forwarded in E-mail to
AVKO.
Dear Susan du Plessis and Jan
Strydom:
We have just completed our 17th
week of Audiblox and have moved on Level 2 of the
program. Let me tell you what our life was like
before we started Audiblox, and the many successes
we are having since starting Audiblox.
Keenan is 8 years old, in the
3rd grade. When he began the first grade
he seemed to be a perfectly normal, happy boy.
Within weeks his teacher began to notice he was not
able to learn his numbers and letters along with his
classmates. I began to work very hard with him at
home, but it became apparent to me that something
was terribly wrong. No amount of teaching seemed to
help him learn. The school psychologist tested him
at the end of the year. The diagnosis was that he
was a slow learner, and because of his multiple
deficits, I was told "school will not be a good
place for him". I was shocked, yet I didn’t believe
it! He was bright in everything OUTSIDE of the
classroom, so I knew he intelligent, but why was he
having so much trouble inside the classroom?
He had not made any progress
by Christmas of grade 2, but no longer trusting the
schools, I had him re-tested by a private
psychologist. The test scores came out the same, but
this time the diagnosis was different. Severe
learning disabilities - very severe, in fact, he
fell into the category of the bottom 1% of children
with severe learning disabilities. They felt his IQ
was actually within the normal range, but his test
scores were depressed because of the severity of the
disability. He was not learning because of his
learning disability, not because he was slow. In
fact, I was told that unless we find a way to teach
Keenan, his IQ scores would continue to fall. Even
the specialized schools for dyslexia wouldn’t admit
him with his severe profile. They were telling me my
son had no future in school and everything would
always be too difficult for him. I was terrified for
my son!
I started very expensive
tutoring which required me to take two half days off
work and drive a great distance. It was a huge
hardship for us but I was desperate. Keenan was
still a complete non-reader and I had nowhere else
to turn. A year into the tutoring, his reading was
coming along so slowly with no progress in any other
academic area, so he was still falling further and
further behind in everything. We moved to a new
school in grade 3 and the new teacher said he needed
modifications in EVERY subject area. She even sent
home his art drawing to be re-done! Finally she had
him sitting in the corner colouring for much of the
day while his classmates received their academic
instruction. She felt he just couldn’t keep up in
any area and she didn’t know what else to do with
him.
Keenan hated school by this
time, he hated his teacher and he hated his life. He
cried each night at bedtime, and hid under the
covers refusing to get out of bed in the morning for
school. The school would phone me at least once a
month to have me come and pick him up, as he was
sick with a tummy ache. He was fine once he got in
the car. School was making him sick! He was only 8
years old and he would tell me "I’m the dumbest kid
in my class." We would both cry. I was terrified for
my beautiful boy. I am a single mother, so I
couldn’t quit work to homeschool him, but I couldn’t
keep sending him back to school to experience more
pain and humiliation every day. What kind of life is
that for such a young boy? I had run out of options
and I had never been so scared in my life.
Then at Christmas time in 3rd
grade I found Audiblox. Keenan was tired of all the
remediation he had been through, so he was angry at
having to start yet another program. I promised him
these little blocks would work but I really didn’t
know if they would deliver all that was promised. I
hoped I wasn’t wasting more precious time as his
self-esteem was so low by this point.
We began at the end of January
2001. We do the "blocks" for an hour, 4 times per
week. Within 3 weeks Keenan was doing his timed
multiplication drills and keeping up with his
classmates, even moving forward to the next level
before many of the others. This from a boy who had
trouble counting just a few weeks before! His
teacher told me he was cheating because she didn’t
think he was capable of such work! Another 4 weeks
later, Keenan moved from his modified weekly
spelling test of 10 words, which took us all week to
study for, and yet he would still get some wrong, to
doing the class’s spelling test, which consisted of
15 words plus 5 extras. He has had perfect on each
spelling test since then, even on the extras! His
teacher is no longer accusing him of cheating!
His tutor asked me if I
noticed that his brain just seems able to learn
right now because he picks up on things so quickly
now. I never told her about Audiblox, I just smiled
and said that I had noticed.
This program has been an
absolute godsend for us! Keenan even enjoys doing it
now that he sees his own progress. He has never
enjoyed any type of schoolwork or tutoring before.
Things were just so difficult for him always, and no
amount of tutoring ever helped where he could see
some benefit for the time he spent struggling. He
sure can with Audiblox! He is even LIKING school
now! Now he comes home from school and tells me all
about his day!
Keenan said to me the other
day "Mom you were right, I am smart!" A mother’s
instinct is always right. I knew my son was bright
and Audiblox has given me the way to prove it to
him. We still have a long way to go with Audiblox,
but terms like "learning disabilities" and
"depressed and falling IQ scores" are a thing of the
past for us. School is becoming a good place for
Keenan.
Thank you, Susan du Plessis
and Dr. Strydom, because of your work, for the first
time in two years, I have my happy, smiling boy
back.
Wendy
British Columbia, Canada
Editor's comment: We
have read their book The Right to Read.
It is well worth reading. We have not,
however, worked with Audiblox. We would like
to hear from people who have used Audiblox and have
their reactions to it as well as Wendy's. For
more about Audiblox go to
http://www.audiblox2000.com/
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