Easyread - from Oxford Learning Solutions

[Idohaveoneofthese]

Does anyone have any experience of this system?? My DD2 is supposedly a year behind in reading (which has just been properly identified as we have moved school). The website seems very good and she had a go on the trial lesson, however, I found the price list and it costs £770 for a year!! I wasn't expecting that - although it has lots of great testimonials from teachers and parents alike and has a full refund policy if you're not happy.

[maizieD]

You cannot learn to read without attaching some sort of 'sound' to a symbol, whether it be a phoneme to a letter, or group of letters, or a whole word to a written word. If a child has learned to talk without difficulty there is no reason why they cannot re-learn to discriminate the individual phonemes in a word. I say 're-learn' because learning to talk involves discriminating the individual phonemes in a word; if a child cannot do this they would never be able to distinguish between words which are different by only one phoneme, 'bit', 'but', bat', 'bet', 'bot'...

'Learning style' theory may seem to be intuitive but there is no sound research to back it.

I'm afraid that programme sellers who make up conditions, such as 'opilexia' do not convince me of their expertise, however sincere they may be.

[vincentvangogh]

I'd recommend //www.ReadingEggs.com Quite fun, phonics based and a tiny fraction of the price. And the first 4 weeks are free so you can see if she likes it over half term.

[Idohaveoneofthese]

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions - I have ordered the dancing bears books but will have a look at the other websites while I wait for them to arrive. I love mumsnet!!

[Sonriente]

We use easyread as my daughter was a reluctant reader and didn't get on with the jolly phonics they were using in school. I like the system, it is expensive, but it really builds up on decoding words and appears to work really well for us.
I took my daughter out of school in reception as she was finding it all a bit overwhelming, she started in year 1 this term. Easyread was the only reading system we used. I was worried about her being 'behind' in school literacy terms. But she went in on blue band reading books (which I think is about average for a 5 year old) and loves playing with words (spelling, rhyming, etc.) she is always writing letters and songs and has a really good understanding of word formation.
She has never learnt sight words because that is not the way the system works. So she might struggle with a simple word like, 'Mrs' but the teacher pointed out to me yesterday that she will attempt word's of any length, where as most children get put off with longer words at this age.

That said I'm not sure I'd use it with my son as he seems to get the jolly phonics way.

[BSOmum]

I've read through this thread today (late!) but wanted to add to it at this stage. Only to say that after a lot of deliberation, we started my middle daughter on Easy Read about six weeks ago. Like you, I'd read the website and identified with a lot of the 'symptoms' listed - but was put off by the price. Eventually we took the risk, given the money back guarantee.

It's still very early days, but I have to say that so far we're impressed. My husband who used to be a primary school teacher was very skeptical at first, but we can both see that she 'gets' the sounds of letters much better than before. Who knows - it may be just her age (nearly 8), and a developmental stage that she was going to take anyway - but so far we're really happy.

Reflecting on it now, the strongest benefit of the system in my opinion is the fact that you sit with your child and do these exercises every day for 15 minutes. Yes, we should be doing that anyway with daily reading, but your role as a parent is far clearer in these sessions than (my history of) frustration when your daughter can't read something she just read without hesitation two sentences back. I didn't feel I had the skills to effectively help her before, but now I can - a bit better anyway.

The other benefit I'd highlight is the blatant bribery within the system. Every few lessons they get a code word, which gets emailed off and then they get a present through the post a few days later. Small gifts, but unbelievably effective in getting my daughter on side ...

[betterwhenthesunshines]

Just another note for people reading this. My DD in Yr 2 has also struggled, and been assessed by EP. We had previously tried both Toe by Toe and the Dancing Bears / Apples & Pears systems but admittedly not really stuck to them. For my duaghter they just seemed daunting work books - she could see that Toe by Toe was an inch thick and that alone put her off. They are also boring and a real turn off!

We have signed up for EasyRead which she has been doing now for 3 weeks. Not a lot, but the image system seems to make sense to her. It has also forced her to slow down and make sure she is looking at the word in the right order as if you get it wrong you often have to go back to the beginning! But it is done with nive verbal encouragement and explanation - a real voice rather than distracting background music etc. She knows it's only about 12 minutes each morning with a fixed beginning and end, so there's no choosing the game involved, and she is always happy to do it. This morning she had to check if the word said out loud (coming) was the same as the word written (commanding) which would have thrown her into a fit of frustration a month ago. The games are varied enough to keep her attention, whether it will work in the long term we will wait and see. But at the moment it is enough of a confidence boost to engage her in books and reading and that alone is a huge improvement.

I also like the way they don't try to go through a system of phonic rules (They make MY head want to explode!) - the different ways to read the sounds are just introduced gently without too much fuss as the images just show you what sound to say.

There is also good telephone and email support that you have to engage in.

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello. The folks at EasyRead have contacted us after seeing this read and asked us to post up the following statement:

'Thank you to everyone who has posted comments. We're glad to see so many people have had good experiences with the Easyread System.
We'd also like to address a couple of the points raised.

'It's true, as IndigoBell says, the Easyread is right for some children and not for others. That's why we give an unconditional refund guarantee. We've found, over the past year, that about 3-5% of children drop out in the early stages and take the refund but we're proud to have had almost no failures with those children who have gone through the whole process.

'To those of you who are concerned about whether Easyread is value for money, we'd like to say that, while it is more expensive than plain software, it is far less expensive than the equivalent alternatives we know of. And we are also always trying to make it more affordable for people (with our Parents Network Discount, for example).

'If anyone has any other queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us by mailing [email protected]. We really are here to help, whether that involves Easyread or not.'

[jezza3895]

hi
Just letting you know that my daughter in on lesson 122 of easyread and I couldn't be any happier with her progress. I discovered the system while looking for a solution to my daughter's reading problems on google search. When I watch the video explaining about the system is was like they were talking about my daughter. At the time she was attending Explore Learning 3 times a week but hadn't made any real progress in the 18 months she had been going. We tried the free 10 day trial and my daughter loved it. They even extended my free trial for another month as I explained I had to give notice to explore learning. As I said she is now on lesson 122 and it has been a slow but steady process but as she is 8 years old she had formed a lot of bad habits which she had found hard to get rid of like guessing words(which she still sometimes tends to do when she is stressed). My daughter loves doing the lessons and as they only take at the most 15 minutes of her time does not stress her out. Before she started easyread we had tears every time I asked her to read ( and that wasn't just her). Now she will read with out the tears and tantrums at the moment we are reading a book with 8 chapters in it and each chapter has about 14 pages. Even though she did panic at the start we have decided to read 5 pages everyday. This would not of happen before easy read if I had introduced this book to her she would of had a complete melt down. I know this system may not suit everyone and is a little expensive but to me the money back guarantee gave me peace of mind I needed, and this system wasn't much dearer than what I was paying for at explore learning.

[natnee1]

Hi,
My first son did Easyread starting in year one after tantrums over reading and not having made any progress. The teachers were concerned that nothing was sticking. As an ex teacher I was still hitting my head against a brick wall about how to help too. Having looked at the research that showed that Children on Easyread made more progress than other programmes we signed up. From a child who was totally resistant to even looking at a book unless I read it we went to a child who was very motivated with the games and rewards. The chap that built it really was involved and my son was thrilled to talk to him on the phone too. My son didn’t have phonic awareness, couldn’t blend and found the beginning books of ORT at school inaccessible. The images on Easyread have given him the confidence and ability to decode and read with ease which helped to be more positive about reading. It meant that once he had finished the programme he was able to read basic books successfully and was able to enjoy it. That was 3 years ago now. My second son is now doing it. He has different problems in that he can decode, can blend and has better phonic awareness but the dyslexia means that he reverses letters etc and therefore two years behind in terms of reading age. We have decided to give it a try with the second son. He loves it and has been boring the TAs with how great it is over the last six weeks. The system has improved massively since we last did it in that the books that they read are very exciting and they get to choose. Today we were reading about super cars. I never knew that there are lorries that have jacuzzis, theatres in them as well as change into a boat and we got to see the pictures and associated videos! My youngest son is basking in the 1 to 1 attention and the confidence in achieving the games and reading activities. We have tried other systems but have gone back to this one as we know that it works.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

This thread is almost five years old. I’m guessing OPs child is now reading.

[natnee1]

Good point although my husband is 35 and can’t read. Despite his parents spending money on tutors and private education at points in his schooling to try to resolve the situation it never did. Apart from life limiting generally it certainly is crushing to have your children tell you they don’t want you to read the picture books to them because you can’t read them properly! 😬 since our eldest is a mini me of his dad we knew we had to do something different.

[theladywiththelamp]

Can I please ask what others may have tried if their child reads well, but just can't spell? The frustration is that he can read quite difficult words without issue, but to recall and spell even simple words seems nigh on impossible for him. For example, he can read 'chaotic' or 'philanthropy' but ends up spelling words like 'dere' for 'dear'. He is nearly 10 in year 5.
Any suggestions gratefully received...he is on the Easyread programme but I am still waiting to see any marked improvement...

[anna114young]

@natnee1 I can see this is quite an old thread but I am searching madly for anything that will help my DS. He is feeling so down about his reading and I am worried he is dyslexic. On another post I have had some suggestions of things I can try but I have not heard of Easyread.
LOVE the sound of the book about cars etc. I find most reading programs/books are so boring - I need something to grab his attention!

How are your children with their reading now - did it work?

[gagagogo]

What age?

Could try reading eggs. But get a discounted rate.

Squeebles.

You could also look at Outschool and find a reading writing or spelling programme or class that is age appropriate. It will be US spelling but they have some excellent teaching and the cost would probably not be more than 15 US a class.

[anna114young]

@gagagogo we are in the UK and I really want him to have British spellings.

I have heard of reading eggs but when I showed it to DS he told me it was boring and for babies! I am desperately trying to find something that suits his interest and age. He is 9 - turning 10 soon.

[anna114young]

A little update - I have started a free trial of Easyread and so far I am really impressed!! Ds loves the games and I love the fact it isn't a massive battle to do the lessons!! He has started to actually sound out words he doesnt know for the first time ever!!!!! Normally he will just guess or give up. Or throw a strop haha. Fingers crossed this continues. Don't want to get my hopes up too much but it's been so good so far!

[Prij]

I did Easyread with my son for 6 months, I've just canceled my subscription as he no longer needs it. I would recommend Easyread for anyone with a chid who is strugling to read. My son went to speech therapy for about 6 months and I can truly say that although the therapy really helped, I could see a much bigger and fast improvement with Easyread. The fact that the lessons are only 15 minutes are a big help and the games keeps it exciting.

[anna114young]

@Prij that's so encouraging to hear!!! I've enrolled into the full program now as I was so impressed with the trial and ds actually wants to do the lessons. He even asks me "when can I do my Easyread?"

I never thought id see the day that my ds asked me to read haha.

[Noonenoon]

I know this is a pretty old conversation but I wanted to add a comment in case anyone still finds it helpful. Easyread is very expensive but we found it useful and for us, it was worth the cost.

I don't think it's a scam at all. My daughter was definitely memorizing the words and had no idea how to spell them out. She is a very mathematical child and she was completely frustrated with phonics because she could find so many instances when the patterns didn't fit. The school had decided that she should stay back a year because of her inability to read.

During the pandemic, I took her out of school and we started working on the reading together. We were making some progress but she had so much to unlearn that it was very frustrating for us both. Easy read gave us a way to "start over". For my daughter, the visual representation of the phonic sounds was completely intuitive and within 2 months she was reading at grade level. More importantly, the program gave her confidence that will last her the rest of her life. She's in the other room reading right now. It was well worth the money to me.

[Mumonthegoldy]

Have just finished using the easyread system with my 5yr old. BEST thing we ever did.
When we started he was halfway through his first year of school and I could tell that even though they were being taught phonics, he simply found it easier to memorise words. He would memorise entire books and 'read' them and knew tons of sight words but get him to read a sentence and he would trip on the easy words.
We knew he was a visual learner, like my husband so we gave easyread a go. It was brilliant. The games and system, made him use the phonics and his reading improved out of sight until he ended up with a reading and spelling award.

He now reads anything fluently and I can't get his nose out of his books.

I would highly recommend the system, but you do need to do the work for it to work.

[BangingOn]

We are 35 lessons in and it’s already made such a difference. DS is also very mathematical and frustrated by phonics, guessing words and refusing to read. Now he’s enjoying reading Peter Rabbit with the system and loves his 15 minutes a day. The team at Easyread are so lovely and so supportive.

[Feenie]

Interesting first post, @momhmills

[Feenie]

Also mumonthegoldy and noonenoon appear to have joined purely to spam about Easyread……

[Feenie]

See also jezza3895 and Prij