What our users want to know.
QUESTION -- Can an adult use your program to learn to read?
ANSWER -- Thank you for your interest in our reading program. I am really happy to hear that an adult has discovered our phonics pages.
We do not have a different course, specifically geared toward an adult, but the one we do have will help anyone, at any age.
When I first started my tutor center, I invited a few young ladies from the local high school to help me. I taught them the reading program so they could teach children, but the most wonderful result was how their own reading improved! All three tutors commented on how many more words they could "read", even though they never noticed that they were having difficulties. Their comprehension improved, they enjoyed reading more, and their grades went up while the amount of time they devoted to schoolwork actually declined. So yes, the program will work for adults.
Although the readers are for children, they are historical and many adults find them both fascinating as a glimpse into the past, as well as a challenge due to the proper English used in the sentence structure.
You can look at it this way - you can teach yourself to read with phonics from our program, and when you are done, you can teach children how to read and end up with your own business if you like - after all, you will have all the materials you need right in the program! :)
I hope this information helps. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.
Karen Thomas
Valder Learning Systems
QUESTION -- I am looking for something to help my 4th grade son read better. He has trouble with retaining his sounds and phonics. He is home schooled now, but was in public school and fell at least a year behind.
ANSWER -- Thank you for your interest in our program. I understand how difficult it is to pull a child out of public school and try to get him caught up in his basic skills. I also understand, as a homeschool mom of 14+ years, how important this is to you!
I orignially designed the Valder Learning System's "Reading With Phonics" program for my own children when I first started homeschooling. Let's face it, 14 years ago there was precious little available for moms who wanted to teach at home. My focus was to create a simple, efficient and streamlined program that would leave us plenty of time for creative play. The result is our current program, which I have been using the past six years to teach reading at my tutor center. The simplicity and efficiency make it perfect for tutoring. The children can catch up quite quickly. Of course, no two children are alike; some take a few months, some a year (that's one hour per week, by the way). Many children go from non-readers to third grade level by the time they finish the program. I have used the course with children as young as two years old and even for teens and young adults.
The one thing that seems to make the most difference is how much practice a child has had in memorizing words and guessing (two skills which are, unfortunately, taught in many schools). The more a child is apt to memorize and/or guess, the more slowly that child will progress. That is okay, though, since it is better to move slowly and undo the improper reading techniques than to zoom ahead and allow them to blend with phonics. I have found many children who learn some phonics and then use "look at the picture" or "guess if you're not sure" tactics end up reading quickly but inaccurately, and their comprehension suffers.
Reading With Phonics, although designed for homeschooling, is now used more for tutoring! Several mom friends that have used the program for their own children now earn money as tutors with the program, so there is a wonderful side benefit as well.
I hope this information helps. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.
Karen Thomas
Valder Learning Systems
QUESTION -- Our youngest just turned 4last month, and really wants to read. The difficulty is that he doesn't want to learn the letters, but is playing with the sounds --- we will have to work with this. He rhymes, breaks down syllables and matches beginning letter sounds. I know he is ready for phonics, but does not recognize what the letters look like. It makes it really hard to read words/letters when you don't know what letter it is.
We'll need to find the way he is interested in recognizing letters. Incidentally I didn't notice hubby's method for teaching/reminding "ow". He pinched underarm, child said "Ow!" Daddy said "YES!!!!" Didn't take long to learn it. Then he would "forget" to play Daddy's game. Oh bother some would consider child abuse!!!!
We knew we would have to use phonics even if look-say seemed easier. I didn't learn to read until 10. I just could not "see" Dick and Jane and Spot (maybe I couldn't see through my tears of frustration). Because of my experience we worked with ds very intently with phonics. The younger is posing other challenges.
ANSWER -- It is very difficult to tell from small amounts of information why a particular child has difficulty with certain areas of reading.
Your 4 year old may not want to learn letter recognition simply because of his age. A child may learn the alphabet as young as a year old, or as old as nine; it is simply the nature of the child. From your email, it sounds as if your little one is enjoying developing his sense of auditory discrimination right now. This is a *very* important part of reading / communication skills, so I wouldn't stop it or get in the way.
There are two directions you can go. If your son is capable of learning and remembering the letters of the alphabet, then I would strongly recommend our reading program at this time. It is excellent for young children because of it's simple and efficient design. Little ones won't tire of the lessons; they can be as short as 10 minutes if you like, and he will still be able to learn at a remarkable pace.
If your son keeps forgetting what the letters look like, or gets them confused, then he is not ready to read. In this case, I recommend reading to him, playing sound / word games with him, perhaps introduce poetry ("Where the Sidewalk Ends", by Shel Silverstein, is a fabulous book).
Finally, if your child can remember the names and sounds of letters from one day to the next but still has problems with print, have his eyes checked. Assuming they are fine, give him a picture (preferably with a moderate amount of busy-ness in it) that would interest him and ask him what it is about. Look for his response level. Does he talk first about details, or does he take in the whole scene and talk about a general theme? Does he discuss what he sees or what is happening? Does he add to the scene from his own imagination or does he generalize, and miss some things in the picture? Finally, does he tell or ask about the picture?
This is to help you determine a possible learning style he may be developing.
The following are *ideas* that may come from his response style. I call them ideas, because there is absolutely no scientific explanation for this, just a lot of experience and, if you will forgive me, my opinion.
A child who goes to details first will prefer to learn letter sounds and build them into words. A child who sees the "big picture" but misses details may do better by learning words, then taking them apart and discovering phonics by finding the sounds within the words. You can still use our program, but you will need to start with the book, and learn the words, then read him the story, then go to the sounds, lesson by lesson. It will take a little longer, but it has worked with several visual-spatial learners that I have tutored.
Also, a child that focuses on what he sees in the picture, not what is happening, will tend to be visual-spatial, and benefit from a word-to-letter approach.
Adding to the scene is simply a neat kid with a great imagination. :) A child who generalizes and misses important details may simply be young, or may need help with focusing on details. I have actually used the Sunday Comics to help some children define and focus on detail. I use the picture challenge that shows two pictures, almost identical, with 5 or 6 things that are different. Helping a child learn to find the items that are different or missing is a wonderful way for them to develop an aptitude for detail.
Finally, if your son asks you about the picture rather than telling you, he may be strongly auditory focused in his learning style. There is nothing really wrong with this, except that our culture tends to be print centered, and he will need extra help improving his visual capacities. This just means looking at lots of busy pictures and pointing out details, coaching him through the process so he can learn to focus on individual little things (like letters in a word).
I hope this information helps. I am sure that you have already done many of the things I have suggested, but I wasn't sure so I just listed basic ideas. Please feel free to email us again if you have any more questions.
Karen Thomas
Valder Learning Systems
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