An Online Program for Your 2e Struggling Reader

“I’ll never get this! Forget it… I will never, ever be able to read as good as my brothers and sister can!” My seven year old burst into tears — again — and hid out in her calm down area to get away from the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad book I was trying to read with her.

It was heart-breaking.

I was given a trial of MindPlay Literacy and compensated forthe time it took to write this post, but remember… all thoughts are mine and I only take on projects to share things I think will help my family and those like us. You can count on me to share the best of the best.

My seven year old struggles. She’s twice-exceptional and battles sensory processing disorder, terrible anxiety, and likely dyslexia or some type of processing disorder — we’re still trying to puzzle through that diagnosis. Being in a family with gifted siblings who have all taught themselves to read very early on can be especially difficult for a kiddo like this who is already highly sensitive.

Most of the time, she handles her difficulties and celebrates her siblings’ strengths with amazing grace, but sometimes… well, sometimes she just breaks down. Especially when her four year old brother reads one of her books to her at bedtime.

Something needed to change.

What is MindPlay Literacy all about?

MindPlay Literacy is an online reading program that features a virtual reading coach to help your kiddo learn to read and overcome his or her challenges. In fact, MindPlay, Inc. asserts that if your child uses it for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, that you’ll notice a huge improvement in the first month. Some kiddos even see full grade levels of growth every few months.

I believe it.

The program starts with a universal screener to make sure that it places each student at exactly the right instructional level. No more endless placement tests and guessing as to the appropriate level for you. The screener does the work.

 

Throughout the program, kids are faced with nonsense words, words, sounds, and more. The patented Synthetic Intellignece software is like having a speech-language pathologist right in your homeschool room. It allows the program to adjust up or down as your child needs it. In fact, everytime I noticed Logan messing up in an area, the program would serve up more of that concept later on in the lesson.

I love that it teaches to mastery — helping kids feel like they’ve met a goal by showing them progress along a path and awarding them trophies and certificates. I also love that it presents similar concepts — in areas in which kiddos struggle — in varying ways, allowing them to revisit concepts again and again until they get it.

 

Twice-exceptional kids don’t want to get beaten over the head with concepts once they’ve gotten them. They want to move on. In fact, that’s probably our biggest area of difficulty with Logan and her reading issues. She WANTS to read all the things her siblings are reading, and so once she gets something, she wants to know the next thing. An the next thing. And the next thing…

What my Struggling Reader Thinks of MindPlay Literacy

I’m going to be honest… Logan doesn’t love this program. It’s hard for her and it’s really, really good for her. We don’t always love what’s good for us — especially if it’s hard.

My daughter loves being able to use the iPad or the computer to do her reading lessons. She loves making the virtual reading coach say words over and over again. She adores her funny little avatar. But, she’d much rather be playing reading and spelling games that let her earn money to buy little things for her avatar or her virtual pets.

But, even my seven year old struggling reader can tell it’s working for her. She reminds me on the days that we’re behind schedule, “But Mom, I didn’t do MindPlay yet.” She was worried when she found out I wasn’t having her do her MindPlay Literacy lessons while we traveled on a two week road trip this summer. She knows it’s working and is committed to completing 30 minutes every single day so that she can be an amazing reader.

She likes the program.

She loves the results.

What I Think About MiindPlay Literacy

It’s good.

MindPlay Literacy, the Synthetic Intelligence software, the virtual reading coach, all of it — it’s really, really well-done. I’m impressed.

My husband is a reading specialist (Yep, really… you know that old saying about the shoemaker’s kids going shoeless? It’s always tougher to help your own struggling kiddo than someone else’s.) and he was skeptical when I told him we were going to try this with Logan. He didn’t think a virtual program could be very effective.

He was wrong. And he’s also very impressed.

 

Still not sure if it would be a good fit for you? I totally get that… Head over to MindPlay, Inc. and sign up for a free 7-day trial. There’s nothing to lose. In fact, I think you’ll be pretty impressed too, if you follow their guidelines and your kids use it as directed.

I know that once the trial I’ve been given to try this out has expired, we’ll be renewing it and paying for Logan to keep it up. It’s less than $1 a day and the confidence we’ve seen in her is totally worth that.

In fact, just the other day Logan picked up one of her reading books and read her little brother a story. Such an amazing change fromt the meltdowns we were getting used to when it came to reading lessons.

And completely worth $25 a month.

Check them out, and let me know what you think. Twice-exceptional kiddos are puzzles, and we have to help each other find things that work. I want to know if this — or something else — worked for you. Let me know in the comments.

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