From an early age, my son battled to learn. At first, his problems were attributed to the fact that I am a single mother. He was also sent for an eye evaluation and had to wear glasses for a period of a year, but his reading ability did not improve.
In 1997 I was transferred to Pretoria. Wynand was evaluated at a remedial school. At that stage, he was already far behind – he had to repeat Grade 3 – and was becoming increasingly more and more negative towards his schoolwork. He was very aggressive and lost his temper easily, and was put on Ritalin. The Ritalin did not help at all – his behaviour at home became worse.
In 1999 I heard of a program called Audiblox. At that stage, Wynand was in Grade 4 in a remedial school. His reading ability was still below par and he was at risk of failing once again.
Wynand and I started with Audiblox in April 1999. I also took him off the Ritalin and made one giant leap of faith – I enrolled him into mainstream education once again.
Already with his first report it became clear that he was making good progress. He achieved an average of 47%, but more important than that, he passed all his subjects! His reading ability started to improve and he became more confident.
At the end of Grade 5, Wynand passed with an average of 58%. My son is now a success, thanks to Audiblox.
Sarie Swanepoel
(LETTER TRANSLATED)
Sarie Swanepoel Wynand's mother
