Dear Susan,
We have just completed our 17th week of Audiblox and have moved on Level 2 of the program. Let me tell you what our life was like before we started Audiblox, and the many successes we are having since starting Audiblox.
Keenan is 8 years old, in the 3rd grade. When he began the first grade he seemed to be a perfectly normal, happy boy. Within weeks his teacher began to notice he was not able to learn his numbers and letters along with his classmates. I began to work very hard with him at home, but it became apparent to me that something was terribly wrong. No amount of teaching seemed to help him learn. The school psychologist tested him at the end of the year. The diagnosis was that he was a slow learner, and because of his multiple deficits, I was told “school will not be a good place for him”. I was shocked, yet I didn’t believe it! He was bright in everything OUTSIDE of the classroom, so I knew he intelligent, but why was he having so much trouble inside the classroom?
He had not made any progress by Christmas of grade 2, but no longer trusting the schools, I had him re-tested by a private psychologist. The test scores came out the same, but this time the diagnosis was different. Severe learning disabilities – very severe, in fact, he fell into the category of the bottom 1% of children with severe learning disabilities. They felt his IQ was actually within the normal range, but his test scores were depressed because of the severity of the disability. He was not learning because of his learning disability, not because he was slow. In fact, I was told that unless we find a way to teach Keenan, his IQ scores would continue to fall. Even the specialized schools for dyslexia wouldn’t admit him with his severe profile. They were telling me my son had no future in school and everything would always be too difficult for him. I was terrified for my son!
I started very expensive tutoring which required me to take two half days off work each week and drive a great distance. It was a huge hardship for us but I was desperate. Keenan was still a complete non-reader and I had nowhere else to turn. A year into the tutoring, his reading was coming along so slowly, with no progress in any other academic area, so he was still falling further and further behind in everything despite our efforts.
We moved to a new school in grade 3 and the new teacher said he needed modifications in EVERY subject area. She even sent home his art drawings to be re-done! Finally she had him sitting in the corner colouring for much of the day while his classmates received their academic instruction. She felt he just couldn’t keep up in any area and she didn’t know what else to do with him.
Keenan hated school by this time, he hated his teacher and he hated his life. He cried each night at bedtime, and hid under the covers refusing to get out of bed in the morning for school. The school would phone me at least once a month to have me come and pick him up, as he was sick with a tummy ache. He was fine once he got in the car. School was making him sick! He was only 8 years old and he would tell me “I’m the dumbest kid in my class.” We would both cry. I was terrified for my beautiful boy. I am a single mother, so I couldn’t quit work to homeschool him, but I couldn’t keep sending him back to school to experience more pain and humiliation every day. What kind of life is that for such a young boy? I had run out of options and I had never been so scared in my life.
Then at Christmas time in 3rd grade I found Audiblox. Keenan was tired of all the remediation he had been through, so he was angry at having to start yet another program. I promised him these little blocks would work but I really didn’t know if they would deliver all that was promised. I hoped I wasn’t wasting more precious time as his self-esteem was so low by this point.
We began at the end of January 2001. We do the “blocks” for an hour, 4 times per week. Within 3 weeks Keenan was doing his timed multiplication drills and keeping up with his classmates, even moving forward to the next level before many of the others. This from a boy who had trouble counting just a few weeks before! His teacher told me he was cheating because she didn’t think he was capable of such work! Another 4 weeks later, Keenan moved from his modified weekly spelling test of 10 words, which took us all week to study for, and yet he would still get some wrong, to doing the class’s spelling test, which consisted of 15 words plus 5 extras. He has had perfect on each spelling test since then, even on the extras! His teacher is no longer accusing him of cheating!
His tutor asked me if I noticed that his brain just seems able to learn right now because he picks up on things so quickly now. I never told her about Audiblox, I just smiled and said that I had noticed.
This program has been an absolute godsend for us! Keenan even enjoys doing it now that he sees his own progress. He has never enjoyed any type of schoolwork or tutoring before. Things were just so difficult for him always, and no amount of tutoring ever helped where he could see some benefit for the time he spent struggling. He sure can with Audiblox! He is even LIKING school now! Now he comes home from school and tells me all about his day!
Keenan said to me the other day “Mom you were right, I am smart!” A mother’s instinct is always right. I knew my son was bright and Audiblox has given me the way to prove it to him. We still have a long way to go with Audiblox, but terms like “learning disabilities” and “depressed and falling IQ scores” are a thing of the past for us. School is becoming a good place for Keenan.
Thank you, Susan du Plessis and Dr. Strydom, because of your work, for the first time in over two years, I have my happy, smiling boy back.
Wendy
British Columbia
Canada
Wendy, BC, Canada Keenan's mother
