FAQ

If you suspect there may be a reading problem, chances are you’re right. My advice is to trust your intuition. Don’t panic! Many children just need a reading program which helps them fill in the gaps.

Signs of a Poor Reader

Does your child do any of the following?

  • Avoid reading tasks
  • Read slowly and hesitantly making lots of mistakes
  • Often mouth the words as they are reading
  • Pause frequently while reading
  • Had trouble in the early years of school learning the alphabet
  • Had trouble learning the sounds of the letters
  • Confuse the letter name and letter sound
  • Confuse sounds/words which may be similar
  • Have no idea or some difficulty blending letters together
  • Have poor visual and auditory memory (they fail to recognise the same word even though they have met that word several times)
  • Have poor sight word vocabulary
  • Hate reading aloud
  • Do not know how to work out an unknown word by breaking it up into syllables
  • Do not go back to the beginning of a sentence or read ahead to try to work out an unknown word (forward/backward referencing)
  • Have poor word attack skills

If you think your child is displaying some of these signs, please seek professional advice.

In most cases, the student is struggling because the visual and/or auditory processing channels are weak and need further development. These channels need specific training so that perception in these areas is improved.

Learn through Hearing, Seeing and Feeling

The Listen to Read Program is easy for parents and teachers to use. The program is designed to assist children and adults in developing basic reading skills through the use of auditory, visual and kinaesthetic (touch) strategies. It is therefore a Multi-sensory Program.

The program can be done at home or in a group tuition situation. Students simply listen to each lesson while following along with their finger in the Workbook. Lessons are of approximately 30 minutes duration.

Why is it so successful?

The program is highly effective and easy to use because:

  • The child can work at their own speed with no time pressure
  • There is no embarrassment, as in the classroom
  • Lessons progress very gradually with lots of repetition for practice
  • The Program can be done at home, at school or in a group tuition situation. Students simply listen to each lesson while following along with their finger in the Workbook. Lessons are of approximately 30 minutes duration.
  • Stimulation of the neural centres enhances memory
  • The child is guided by verbal instructions to follow along in the workbook, so minimal supervision is required
  • Active listening (following along with their finger to the sound and words in the Workbook) while listening to each lesson can be done for at least 30 minutes per day
  • Passive listening, (while going to sleep, travelling in the car, playing on the computer, etc) can also be done for another 30 minutes each day). This is an incredibly important part of the program. It should be noted that passive listening helps to move the student through the program at a faster pace as it re-enforces the ideas and concepts and helps to develop neural pathways in the brain. The ideal time to do this passive listening is when the student is going to sleep.

Listen to Read is a new advance in problem reading solutions. With minimal supervision, children and adults can make incredible progress in a relatively short time frame.

A focus on the sounds to build words

Each child learns differently and some need more intensive or slower paced instruction. English is a phonetic language. There are only 44 sounds as opposed to close to a million words in the English language. Therefore it is much more efficient to memorise 44 sounds and apply them to unknown words than memorising hundreds of thousands of words!

The Listen to Read Program combines two highly specialised methods of instruction which gives you the ultimate home- based reading program.

Break up words into syllables

A specialised reading curriculum designed by educator Catherine McLennan. This program teaches through a combination of:

  • Intensive phonics
  • Whole word approaches
  • Word attack skills

Most importantly it teaches the student to understand and quickly break up words into syllables.

Sound Therapy filtering

The audio lessons are recorded with the special Sound Therapy high frequency filtering to retrain the auditory pathways in the brain. This improves memory and concentration and enhances the development of reading skills through intensive auditory stimulation.

Just 30 minutes of practise, each day with the help of an adult reader, will usually see major gains in approximately 12 weeks.

Auditory processing – understanding what you hear

In order to read, good auditory processing is essential. This means being able to receive, combine, comprehend and express sounds efficiently. Sound Therapy is a very effective retraining tool to enhance auditory processing.

Brain plasticity – change and adapt your brain

This means the ability of the brain to change and adapt as a result of new information. The stimulating high frequency filtering of Sound Therapy helps to enhance brain plasticity.

Listening – learn how to take in what you hear

The root of many learning difficulties comes from poor listening ability. Sound Therapy enhances a child’s ability to listen so that the information they are hearing is effectively received by the brain.

Concentration and memory – learn how to remember what you hear

Poor auditory memory or poor concentration can make it very hard to learn to read. Both of these abilities are enhanced by Sound Therapy, stimulating the language centres in the brain.

Stress – learn how to concentrate

Stress makes learning difficult because it prevents the brain synapses from firing efficiently. Sound Therapy calms and integrates different brain processes, greatly reducing stress so that the child can concentrate easily.

Yes, Listen to Read offers a money back guarantee with much confidence. The program has shown a marked improvement in those clients with specific issues, succeeding where other programs have failed. Many of our clients have spent thousands of dollars over several years on other programs with varying degrees of success.

Our program can help with the following and other issues.

  • Reading difficulties
  • Fluency and comprehension problems
  • Dyslexia
  • General learning difficulties
  • Auditory processing problems
  • Memory/concentration problems
  • Improved learning ability

Sound Therapy provides the important boost to memory and the phonics based curriculum provides a structured way to piece the “reading jigsaw” back together.

So, if you want a straightforward solution that is proven to help problem readers leap ahead, this is available to you now.

Yes those clients with specific or complicated learning issues can take a lot longer to begin reading effectively. Most students show improvements in their reading age of up to two years in approximately 12 weeks.

We are committed to helping your child achieve their best.

To see if Listen to Read may benefit your child, feel free to contact our reading specialist Catherine McLennan to discuss your child. She will be happy to speak with you in detail.

Yes, you should notice a difference in about 6 weeks.

We suggest that you use your phone to record your child reading a book from home before starting the program. Do this again at the end of the program and see the difference for yourself!

You can use the McLennan Reading Age Guide to work out an approximate reading age for your child. Follow the suggestions in the Workbook about where to start. Follow the guide at the end of the 12 weeks to give you an idea about how much your child has improved.

If you are unsure or need help feel free to contact our reading specialist Catherine McLennan to discuss your child’s progress. She will be happy to speak with you in detail.

The good thing about Listen To Read is that once the student has improved their reading ability and confidence, they can listen to the revision lessons once or twice a week so their improvements are maintained. They should also be reading aloud every day to an adult (one page is better than nothing.) Reading is like riding a bike, if you don’t practise every day you can get a little wobbly when you try again!

Make reading easy and fun in 12 weeks

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