My son Stevan is now 10 years old and we cannot believe that he is the same child. With this I imply academically, because on all other levels he is a wonderful child, with a beautiful personality.
I’ll start my story at the time when Stevan entered nursery school, at the age of 4 years. Socially, he adjusted very well, but not scholastically. Very soon after enrolling him, his teacher contacted me and complained that his fine motor co-ordination, balance, ability to discriminate between left and right, and his spatial orientations were far below the required level. She referred us to an occupational therapist, who evaluated Stevan and came to the same conclusions as the teacher. So, this is how our long journey of occupational therapy started. Stevan progressed well and his therapist was very satisfied. However, he still experienced the same problems, but we all worked together and tried to help him overcome them.
In 1998 Stevan entered grade 1 and, according to his teacher, was progressing well. I did not feel the same way. He made a lot of reversals and battled to read. Halfway through the year we moved to Standerton and for Stevan it was not an easy adjustment. He battled with maths and reading, and writing sentences was a nightmare. Apart from that, he was also a dreamer! He worked very slowly. At home in the afternoons, I tried to help him by letting him do extra work.
In grade 2, his teacher recommended that he attend Audiblox classes at school. He started with the classes immediately. His test results still showed no improvement. He should have scored 100% for most of his maths tests, but due to reversals, all the answers were wrong. He would, for instance, calculate that 34–10=24, but then would write down the answer as 42. He reversed b and d and often copied words back to front. His Audiblox teacher contacted me after 3 months and told me that Stevan was not making any progress. She advised us to take him to Dr Jan Strydom in Pretoria for an evaluation and help. She recognised that he needed specialized help. By now, we were getting desperate!!
We went to Pretoria to see Dr Jan, who tested Stevan and had a long interview with us as parents. Stevan was dyslexic. His reading was extremely poor, he couldn’t even manage to read one line from the book fluently. Dr Jan made so many markings on the page when he did the reading test with Stevan!
Dr Jan recommended that Stevan and I attend intensive training on the Audiblox program during the October holidays. During the week of training, Stevan made such good progress that I went home, enthusiastic about the hour of work we would have to do on a daily basis.
It was worth all our efforts. After only 8 weeks, we went back to Dr Jan for our first follow-up visit. He was so impressed with Stevan’s progress. His reading had improved, in Dr Jan’s own words “with 500%.” Everything improved, even his concentration, the reversals in maths, his sentence construction. As his teacher called it, it was a miracle. Imagine if this was the progress after 3 months, what happened after 6 months!! Our biggest present was his school report.
After every visit to Dr Jan we left, filled with enthusiasm and renewed hope. This kept us encouraged to put in the effort we needed to do the sessions every day, from Monday to Saturday, and even during the holidays. Even Stevan started to notice his own progress and he was very encouraged by it.
In 2001, our biggest fear was grade 4, since this is the year when the children start with formal evaluations and written examinations. Even though Stevan still now and then reverses b and d, his reading is excellent. On his first report, he had an average of 76%, with 78% for maths. In the June examination, he scored 98% for two of his subjects, and 85% and 78% for two others. His teacher said she cannot believe I am so worried about Stevan and she cannot believe he is dyslexic, since he is a top achiever.
Were it not for the months and months of Audiblox, my son would never have been able to do so well at school. Since he has started to perform so well at school, his confidence has boomed, he wants to achieve and he really tries to do his work to the best of his ability. We never imagined that our son, who battled as much at nursery school, would ever be able to achieve marks of 70 and 80%.
If, after you have read this and you are still wondering if Audiblox is the answer, I would like to assure you, after Audiblox we now have a son that we can be proud of and most important, he is proud of himself. We would like to thank Dr Jan and the Lord for helping us with Stevan.
Anna-Marie and Stevan Muller
(LETTER TRANSLATED)
Anna-Marie and Stevan Muller Mother and son
