SureReading is a holistic reading programme that addresses the cause(s) of many reading, writing and spelling problems and helps the brain to make the scaffold upon which further skills can be built. It then provides a step-by-step approach to reading, writing and spelling so that these skills can be learned easily and successfully by every child.

Over the last 6 decades many different reading methods came and went. Often the baby was thrown out with the bathwater and regardless of the method, there were always certain children who were not able to learn how to read. Was this the same group of children regardless of the method?

I was curious to find out why a child couldn’t learn how to read, despite a good method and/or a good teacher and I discovered that there were several skills that these children seem to lack. These were prerequisite skills that were required for reading, writing and spelling and when these skills are missing, the child cannot learn the higher order skills. The old saying: you need to be able to walk before you can run, holds true for these skills as well.

The question is, why were these prerequisite skills lacking in some children and not in others, as these skills were not taught at school. One explanation may be that these children had not followed all the developmental steps in the right order for some reason. This could also explain why some Primitive reflexes were not inhibited when they should have been. When developmental windows were either closed or bypassed at the time a skill should have been developed, this skill will not develop and the scaffold will not be made.

The main reason for this seemed to be, that the area in the brain that needed to complete the next step in development could not be accessed. Research has shown that children on the Autism spectrum have more connections than other children to areas that are close by and less to areas that are far away. It looks as if there is a black hole in the middle that cannot be crossed and therefore prevents those areas from connecting with each other.

Scans of dyslexic children have shown that their hemispheres tend to be more symmetrical than other brains and children with AD(H)D tend to have 10% less neuronal connections to the frontal lobes compared to other children.

That raises the question: Why do they have less access than other children? This could be for many reasons. It could be genetic, as many of these conditions run in families, but it could also be caused by other factors such as toxins or emotional stress.

Over the last 4 decades the amount of environmental toxins, round-up (or glyphosate), dietary additives, antibiotics, vaccinations and “junkfood” has increased dramatically. This has had a devastating effect on the gut flora and as a consequence on the brain.

When I initially started working with children with learning difficulties in the late 80s, I noticed most children who had reading problems were dyslexic. A decade later, children started to have trouble with paying attention and AD(H)D became more prevalent. Another decade later Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders became the new and increasingly more common childhood disorder.

Nowadays you can find children with at least one of these problems, alongside with asthma, eczema and food allergies in every classroom. Most of these children have a learning difficulty as well as a behaviour and/or attention problem and this usually affects some area of literacy.

The first priority is therefore to gain access to all areas in the brain that are involved with reading, writing and spelling. Often this requires the removal of toxins and the addition of nutrients that support brain growth and healing the brain, for which I use the RAD programme. The Brain Gym® exercises are easy and fun to do and can also be of great assistance in accessing new areas of the brain.

The next step is to make sure both hemispheres are connected as well as the senses by connecting the sensory integration areas. You can read more about this in the Integrative therapy section.

Once the scaffold is made and the toxins and other stressors have been dealt with, the brain can learn again. You can then teach these areas the missing prerequisite skills required for reading, writing and spelling.

The SureReading programme:

• Ensures the child can access an area of the brain before new learning is introduced
• Gives children the prerequisite skills required for reading, writing and spelling
• Develops sound awareness and Auditory discrimination skills (Central Auditory Problems – CAP)
• Develops Kinesthetic Discrimination skills
• Stimulates the process of Whole brain and Sensory integration
• Develops confidence in reading through a systematic and consistent approach to syllabification of multi-syllabic words
• Has proven to be very successful for children with Dyslexia, language problems, AD(H)D and ASD.

The SureReading programme consists of:

• a list of prerequisite skills
• a series of easy tests, that are used to determine which prerequisite skills are missing. This determines at what level of the method the child needs to start
• Brain Gym® activities that will switch on the brain before a new skill is learned
• a series of worksheets that can be used to develop the prerequisite skills for yourself, your child or your students
• a number of answering sheets that can be used to check whether you or the child develops the skills correctly
• a teacher edition to explain how to use the method in the classroom
• a parent edition to explain how to use the method at home with your child

To identify any missing prerequisite skills, I always start with an Educational assessment.

In my experience, the combination of first increasing access to all areas of the brain followed by teaching all the prerequisite skills before formal learning is introduced, has proven to be a successful way of dealing with and preventing learning difficulties for the last 30 years.

If you would like more information about the SureReading programme, you can download the Free information booklet.

Special offer: If you have any queries, please contact me for a free half hour introductory consultation by phone: 61-8-83794755, mobile: 0423763273 or email: akoelman@ozemail.com.au.