The case study below was published in the Women’s Value in 1993:
Ruaan Verryn, who once struggled to read a sentence in even the simplest book, is now one of the Centre for Dyslexia’s greatest advertisements.
After consulting countless speech therapists, occupational therapists and having his eyes tested, his parents could still not pinpoint the nature of young Ruaan’s problem. And a problem it was — he was seemingly dyslexic, reversing words when he read, reading very slowly and not comprehending the material. When he had a spelling test every Friday, said his mother Annatjie, he would study all week and still score only about 30%. With Ruaan being in Grade 3 in a school that was in the top five in the country, the Verryns were convinced that he would have to be taken out and sent to a specialist school.
As an interim measure, they decided to try the Audiblox program. After just five months, there was a remarkable improvement in Ruaan’s reading and comprehension. To his delight, he was passing even unprepared spelling tests. Not only did his reading improve dramatically, but so did his mathematics. So much so that he was awarded the school’s mathematics prize.
Now, after 18 months on the program, Ruaan’s problem is non-existent. He is far from an underachiever for his report card now displays only A’s and B’s. He has done himself and Dr. Strydom’s program proud. In fact, he often participates in presentations, demonstrating to large audiences his remarkable auditory skills by memorising 40 coloured block combinations called out only once by the audience. And, reports Dr. Strydom, he never makes more than three mistakes. Dyslexia aside, that says a lot more than for the rest of us.
Clare O'Donoghue Journalist, Women's Value
