Dyslexia Gold Review

Did you know that 98% of struggling readers, including dyslexics, have
a vision problem and poor phonological awareness? That is why I was so excited to team up with Dyslexia Gold to review their Dyslexia Gold Full Bundle.

While this is not a full reading program, it is designed to be used with students who have already been taught how to read, but are still struggling.

For our family, particularly our boys, they can decode words no issue, but convergence issues prevent them from reading as fluently as they would like.

Side note: All screen shots are taken from my personal account. My oldest son was not comfortable with me sharing his personal scores. So I have taken the screen shots from my personal account.

Engaging Eyes

Engaging Eyes was the program that sparked my interested in Dyslexia Gold. While none of my children suffer from Dyslexia, like I mentioned before both of my boys have convergence issues.

This is when both eyes have trouble working together. Convergence issues get worse as the person gets tired. So with my youngest for example, he will start to side eye what he is looking at, using only one eye to read. Of course this is more difficult and slows him down.

Engaging Eyes is a program that uses those old style blue and red 3D glasses. The student has to try and focus and shot the centre of several targets. As they progress the targets get more and more difficult to hit.

This game helped me realize that my oldest had worse convergence issues then I thought. So we have been using it regularly to help build up the strength in the connection between his brain and his eyes.

Fluency Builder

In the Fluency Builder portion of the program, first the student works on identifying the difference between two sounds.

After that they move on to spelling words using tiles.

Then the student selects pictures that beginning with the same sounds as the words they are told orally. For instance, the screenshot above the student is to select the picture of the nails, because it starts with the same first sound of the word given.

Once that is complete, the student has to listen to a word and select which letter needs to be changed to make a new word. For example if the word given is “cat” and they want the student to change it to “hat” they would select #1.

And finally on the hard setting, your student will read a passage and answer questions about what they read.

Spelling Tutor

Spelling Tutor asks the student to spell a series of words to determine their spelling level. Afterwards it tailors the program to the areas where your student is struggling.

What I really like about this portion of Dyslexia Gold, is the student is required to do some pen to paper writing, and correct their own work. This program is NOT teacher intensive at all.

One little hiccup with this program that frustrated my son was, sometimes the voice dictating the sentence would miss the first word. So we would have to press the button to hear the sentence twice to make sure we had the whole sentence.

Times Table Tutor

In order to be successful in math, a student needs to have their math facts at the tip of their tongue. If your anything like me, you remember sitting with a pile of flashcards practicing your times tables. Then being called to the teachers desk so s/he could test you and see how much you could remember.

It was so stressful. Thing is the brain does not learn best under stress. Even if you can remember what you learned for the test, if you learned it under stress you are less like to retain those facts long term.

Dyslexia Gold’s Times Table Tutor helps teach your child their times tables quickly in stress free. Based on Singapore Maths method, your child will learn their multiplications in just ten minutes a day.

My oldest son knows how to multiply, but needs work on doing the times table a little quicker. But the typical flashcard methods just didn’t work for him. Dyslexia Gold’s Times Table Tutor provided a way for him to practice without the pressure of Mom quizzing him. He can work independently, and notices already that the answers are starting to come quicker to him.

Sometimes the student is expected to type in the answer, other times 12 options are provided for the student to select from.

This program is based on three pillars.

• Concrete
• Pictorial &
• Abstract

Student Reports

Parents can easily keep tabs on their students progress using the reports tab. In the screen shot above you can see how it is all laid out for you.

I love how you can clearly see where your child is, how much they have done and how much progress they have made.

Overall What Did We Think?

Overall, I’m really impressed with this program. At first just watching my son work through it, I wasn’t sure what he was really getting from it. It looked pretty easy. But when I sat down myself and tried it out, I really could see what Dyslexia Gold is doing.

Through practice and repetition, the student is building confidences and learning in a non threatening way. The brain is a muscle, just like any other muscle in the body. The brain grows by use. I can see with my eldest, and while trying this program myself that it can help students with convergence issues. Studies have also shown this program is very beneficial to students with dyslexia as well.

In the end, I think this program could have positive affects on any student who is using it. However if the student has fine motor skills that prevent them from using a mouse, this program is not for them.

Even if a student doesn’t suffer from dyslexia or convergence issues, it can help them become more fluent, and quicker in the key subjects Dyslexia Gold works on.

Curious what other homeschool families have thought about Dyslexia Gold?

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