Online Reading Programs

Software and service to make reading automatic

We provide online reading programs with individualized coaching and support that address the underlying impediments to reading, aiming for:

1. Reading automaticity
2. Reading comprehension

If reading is automatic and easier…

your child will be more willing to read aloud and will read more on her own. And her mind will be free to focus on comprehension and thinking — making connections, making inferences, thinking critically, reading comprehension with metacognition.

With comprehension comes interest and a reading habit. This is the path to being a great reader, reading practice, effortless comprehension and a love of reading.

Who Our Reading Programs Help

Do any of these describe your child or teenager?

• Is a struggling reader
• Hates to read
• Can’t read for long periods
• Isn’t understanding what he is reading
• Is a slow reader
• Has been diagnosed with dyslexia, ADHD or a language-based learning disability

We help with all of these concerns.

We address the most common issue

A ten-year NIH study found that 88% of struggling readers share a common difficulty, weak phonemic awareness.

Struggling readers have difficulty sounding out words, which impedes reading automaticity later on. This is most often caused by language processing delays — often not severe enough to show up in delay speech, but sufficient to impact the processing of sounds inside words, phonemic awareness.

Most children build language processing skills through listening. However, an estimated 35-40% of readers do not develop language processing and phonological awareness naturally. Our program fills this gap.

Our self-paced exercises are the equivalent to hearing tens of thousands of words in just a few weeks. From there, the reading software works on the other reading skill gaps needed for reading comprehension, such as language syntax, spelling.

Because language processing is the most common cause of reading problems, we have a high success rate with students averaging 2+ years of reading fluency and comprehension gains in about 6 months.

Steps To Reading Proficiency

We start at the bottom of the reading pyramid, in two phases:

Phase 1: Address impediments

We start by working on cognitive skills, the language and learning foundations of reading, using game-like exercises.

For most struggling readers, the text they see on a page does not always match the language they hear because their oral language word memory is muddy, unclear.  The text they see on a page does not clearly match up with any words they hear without effort.

We speed up language processing, adding “pixels,” added clarity that makes the phonemes easier to hear. This starts to happen in the first 4-5 weeks and overtime can become automatic.

Cognitive skills are integrated – weakness in one area impacts others. And so our software works on all the fundamental skills required for reading automaticity:

• Cognitive — language processing, working memory, attention
• Text — decoding, eye tracking, phonics
• Language —  vocabulary, spelling, grammar, literal reading comprehension

The exercises are adaptive and self-paced — your child works on the skills that need help.

Phase 2:  Reading comprehension

Our goal is reading comprehension with metacognition, defined as understanding, thinking while reading, making connections, putting the text in context, self-correcting while reading.

We have a series of reading programs escalating in difficulty with these strands:

• Spelling – conventions, rules, exceptions
• Grammar and language structure
• Vocabulary
• Sight word growth
• Reading accuracy
• Reading comprehension
• Thinking while reading

Reading comprehension for elementary age children is the ability to connect to prior knowledge or personal experience while reading, step three on the pyramid. Our ultimate goal is the 8th grade reading standard, reading comprehension exercises that align with most state standards.

How Our Online Reading Software Works

Process and Time To Complete

The software is online with remote professional oversight.  We try to individualize to each student.  Our general process is to start with a baseline reading test, a behavioral survey and a welcome interview just to make sure we fully understand the student. Once the sessions start we are in touch regularly, monitoring daily, reporting weekly. Your child will be enrolled in our online rewards website and you will have access to our private parent support group.  It’s a comprehensive, wraparound service.

Our clients spend 4-6 months with us, working 30 minutes a day. 

Some students spend most of their time in phase 1, and for many parents, “making reading easy” is a great outcome. Other students need only a modest push in 1-2 skills to get onto a dramatically better reading track. These children, and most teenagers and adults, spend more time in phase 2.

The Science

The exercises build processing skills in tiny, incremental steps, very similar to how physical skills are learned. They rely on neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to change, just like a muscle.  Our Fast ForWord software was developed by neuroscientists, and so the exercises have elements that promote cognitive improvement in a relatively short period.

Each exercise presents hundreds of sequencing and sound discrimination decisions in quick succession each day. It’s intense.  Furthermore, the exercises are adaptive. They add speed and complexity at your child’s own pace, gradually building the skills that lead to reading confidence.

Research studies, covering 30,000 students, find that our online reading programs make a positive impact on reading and language. It was rated “most effective” and one of the best online reading programs for children out of 24 programs tested in a comprehensive 2-year Nevada State study.

It has been used by 3+ million students in 42 countries, and has been the subject of 700+ white papers.

Disclaimer

Every person is different, and so every outcome is different. We do not claim to be 100% effective in every case.  That’s just not realistic.

We make every effort to only take students we expect to help. If we think your case is high risk, we’ll tell you so before you start. We are proud of our record. If there are no undetected learning difficulties going on, we normally make a significant difference in a few months.

However, sometimes there are other issues involved, which neutralize the impact of our software. And sometimes for unexplained reasons our program is not as effective as we’d like. We do offer a guarantee, but in the world of learning nothing is certain.  More about our claims here.

Online Reading Programs By Age

Younger children, 5 years and older, work mainly on processing, language and phonological awareness. All exercises in our online reading programs are adaptive, meaning students progress at their own pace, without frustration or fear of failure.

Our middle and high school reading programs initially review reading speed and fluency. And then they move to reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.

Start With A Free Consult

Online reading programs works for most parents because there is so much more flexibility online to fit the session into a busy day, compared to going into a center.

Our clients are not alone. Unlike most online reading programs, we provide constant oversight and guidance. It starts with a detailed consultation to make sure your child is a candidate for our program. Call today to find out if we can help.  If you are still not convinced, watch this video.