One of our speech pathologists/editors of Start-to-Finish Books shared this story about a second grader, named Jason, and his first experience using our audio and computer Start-to-Finish books. Although Start-to-Finish books are written for a slightly older struggling reader, it didn’t stop this young boy from feeling successful!

I have a two o’clock appointment with a new dyslexic student, a second grader, let’s call him Jason. He’s late and I am wondering where he is.  At 2:10, I hear the sounds of a mother-child confrontation in the street. “I won’t come in. I won’t! Nothing has ever helped me and this isn’t going to help me either. Get in the car, Mom. Let’s go now!” A few minutes later, the doorbell rings. It’s the mother. Jason is standing on the sidewalk. “We’re going now, Mom. I’m not doing this. I don’t know why you brought me here.”

I suggest to Jason that perhaps he might come in to talk for a while, just to see what it’s like inside. “No. Come on, Mom. We’re leaving. Okay, I’m going to cross the street by myself.” He carries out this threat. He runs across the street and stands behind a parked car. Mom asks if I would give her a few minutes and she will ring the bell again. Ten minutes later, she has persuaded Jason to come inside my office.

I start asking Jason about his skateboarding and drumming passions. He starts to talk. He really wants to talk. He says he’s better at skateboarding than his friends. I ask why. He says he practices more than they do. So he knows the value of practice - that will come in handy! After a while we inch toward talking about reading.

I ask Jason if he’d like to see some of the software I use. He says okay. I put in the computer disk for Treasure Island, with great trepidation since I have no idea if he can read a single word. I explain what the program does. I ask him if he sees any words he knows up on the screen. He is surprised to find that he does. He reads six high frequency words. Then he clicks on the speaker button. He hears the narrator read the text and he’s HOOKED! He really gets into clicking on the words he doesn’t know. He immediately tries to sound things out and revising. He doesn’t want to stop. He is willing to read the pages twice. Laughs out loud at “Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!” The narrator sounds just like a pirate.