Success Stories - Home

"My 13 year old twins did The Sound Way program just over a year ago. They were about to go to high school and my struggling son was starting high school in a remedial literacy class. After completing The Sound Way program he went from being a struggling student, to being a capable student in a main-stream class with the rest of his friends. His confidence has literally gone through the roof, and he is now happy and thoroughly enjoys reading. His sister, who didn't really need to do the programm, now finds herself able to apply the things she learned from the programme to spell new words she doesn't even know.

"Dear Sir,

We cannot thank you enough for your efforts in creating a learning tool that has helped our daughter, Louise, learn to read. The Sound Way program has allowed Louise to move from a withdrawn defensive position when it came to reading, to a happy, self-motivated girl who is now meeting many challenges head on.

We have not felt the need to do the lessons again, although we may repeat 31 - 53 later this year. Louise has made very steady progress and is now reading "The Hobbit" and "Deltora Quest" and relishing every word.

Your Sound Way program has not only allowed our daughter to learn to spell, read and write. We found that our seven year old son, Damien, who has Cerebral Palsy, has also benefited greatly. Damien's learning process had effectively stalled when he left a special school using another phonics program to mainstream school. Despite being in a special class, the system being used, like in Louise's case, was just not working. Damien has watched the series of videos since just after Louise began the program. Damien has made huge progress in his spelling and reading. It is difficult to put into words how well your product has helped our family."

"Dear Mr. Henderson,

My daughters, Joella and Rebekah, aged 11 and 9, completed the program for their first time earlier this year as part of their home-schooling program. I am very pleased with the outcome on completion of the program.

Before commencing the program, Rebekah, aged 8 at the time, had refused to learn to read. Joella on the other hand, could read very well, at a very fast speed, with good comprehension, but was an extremely poor speller. I tried many other programs and workbooks with both of them but with no success in rectifying their problems. The Sound Way addressed both their reading and spelling difficulties with great success and now they are both continuing to improve constantly.

The Sound Way was the answer to my frustration in home-schooling!"

"April 2010

I'm writing this letter to you to give you an update of Larissa's progress since completing The Sound Way program in 2004. If you remember, Larissa's schooling was drastically impeded by the fact that she had entered her high school years with well below average reading, writing and spelling skills. Your programme gave Larissa skills and confidence that exceeded our wildest expectations.

She began to read novels for pleasure, and was able to comprehend what she'd read; she was even able to assist her younger sisters with spelling. During Larissa's senior years of high school she gained her Certificate 3 in childcare and obtained her Senior First Aid Certificate; not bad for a girl who could hardly read!

Larissa has now completed her schooling and is working part time in an early childcare centre; she is even giving assistance to her friends who are working towards their Certificate 3 in childcare.

Once again I would like to thank you for a wonderful program and the difference you've made to Larissa's future. I can confidently say that without your program Larissas future would have been very grim. My only regret is that I didn't find your program earlier."

Yours faithfully,
Kathy Jones - (Kathy's original testimony below)

I have a 12 year-old daughter, Larissa, who started her secondary education this year. My daughter has learning difficulties and has been diagnosed with Dyspraxia. Although she has been well behind her peers since commencing her schooling, we have never been given the option of repeating her, or given any guidance as to how we could improve her situation. I personally believe she was put in the 'too hard basket'.

I then sought further help for my daughter, which involved travelling to Sydney once a week for seven weeks, then a two-week intensive treatment in the school holidays. We are situated 500km from Sydney. Including travel, accommodation and the treatment itself, we spent close to $10,000. Although I would never begrudge this for my daughter, we found this to be a great physical and financial strain. We were told Larissa would need further intensive treatment, and then would be ready to receive remedial teaching. We would then again have to travel to Sydney weekly. At this point we were unable to meet the monetary demands required of us, therefore we had to postpone further treatment. Larissa started her high school education with a reading ability of 8.3 years, a comprehension ability of 7.11, her spelling 8.4 years and was placed at the end of kindergarten in relation to auditory processing and phonetic awareness skills. She was given a teacher's aide for two lessons per week, one being English and the other mathematics, and although I appreciated the efforts made by the high school, I felt the help was inadequate for Larissa to make any substantial improvements. I was also told that Larissa would be given the opportunity to undertake 'life skills' when high school proved too hard for her, and thus enabling her to cope with the simple things in life.

Purchasing The Sound Way Home Program has turned out to be the best decision I could have made. Your program has provided Larissa not only with new reading and spelling abilities, but is the reason for her new found confidence and self-esteem. I am a mother of four girls, Larissa being my second eldest. I have worried endlessly in regards to her prospects later in her life, and honestly could see no real future for her in terms of employment. I felt that I had failed as a parent and it was literally breaking my heart. Due to The Sound Way program this has all changed. Although she will still have to work hard to reach her goals, it will be achievable. This has opened a whole new world for Larissa, I now feel she will have choices in life. Thank you Craig Henderson, for a wonderful program, for Larissa's new direction in life, for your desire to help others, and most importantly, for a mother's peace-of-mind.

"My name is Peter Woodward and I'm 47 years old. I left school at the age of 14 with virtually no education at all. I started working in the north west of Western Australia labouring on construction sites, moving from job to job, which wasn't too bad as there was plenty of work around at that time. Twenty plus years later still in the same line of work, I had an accident and damaged my back and as a result, became unable to work in that type of industry anymore. It was really devastating for me, as I loved construction work.

Over the next few years I tried many different types of jobs that wouldn't be a burden on my back, and one of them was running a lunch bar. I quite liked the job but it was there that I knew I had to so something about my spelling. I was selling hamburgers, and the recipe was my father-in-law's, Brian, so I called them 'Brian Burgers', the only problem was I didn't know how to spell and I had them on display as 'Brain Burgers'. I was laughed at quite a lot and was very embarrassed.

It was then that I decided to do Craig's course, and what a difference - absolutely unbelievable - it actually changed my life. Three and a half years down the road I'm at the Joondalup Campus of TAFE WA , studying to be an enrolled Nurse, learning all about human biology, microbiology, physics, maths and calculations, chemistry and heaps more. I mean I didn't even know how to spell these names let alone learn about them. I love with a passion what I am doing now and I know without doing this course (The Sound Way) I wouldn't be where I am today. I've even had fellow students at TAFE ask me how to spell a word for them! Can you believe it, asking me?? After telling them I just look up with a smile.

I truly recommend this course to anyone that has difficulty in spelling, writing or reading; it really will change your life."

"It is with great pleasure that I am able to share my experiences with The Sound Way program. My 6-year-old son Daniel entered Grade 1 this year with many problems, so I was told. He was not reading or attempting to try to read, and his confidence was very low. For this reason he was not enjoying school and did not want to go stating it was 'too hard'. Words such as 'dyslexic' and 'blank' were the words being used to describe my boy. My son's school had him assessed and they ascertained that he needed a speech therapist due to a lack of phonological awareness.

Daniel is the youngest of 5 children who are all doing very well at school. For me as a mother I was absolutely devastated and gutted when told Daniel had this 'problem'. I felt I had failed him somehow. I knew my son could talk, and a speech therapist did not make sense to me. So I looked into the area of phonics and came across The Sound Way programme.

After much discussion with the creator, Mr. Craig Henderson, I decided to purchase the program and my son has never looked back. On entering Grade 1, Daniel was at Reading Level 1, which is the 'I can't read' level. I started The Sound Way program with Daniel at the end of Term 1 and carried it through the school holidays; both Daniel and I found the program easy and enjoyable.

On Daniels return to school for Term 2, I asked his teacher to benchmark his reading level. To my delight, and her amazement, he had advanced to level 8. All Grade 1 children must benchmark to level 15 by the end of the year, so to know Daniel was half way there was a relief.

We continued with the program, Daniel continued to climb the reading ladder. We are now at the end of term 2 and ready for our next school holidays but this time we enter them confident and relaxed because Daniel has already surpassed his year 1 benchmark level and is reading at level 16. All this accomplished in one term.

We have a great school, but I was offered nothing in regards to Daniel's "problems", and the feeling of helplessness was overwhelming. I would encourage any parent whose child is having difficulties to look outside the square because what you will find is nothing short of amazing

Through Daniel's tenacity to prove them wrong and The Sound Way program, which enabled him to do this, I am eternally grateful and I recommend this program to every parent."

"Dear Craig,

My daughter, Alyssa is aged 5 and at the time of starting the program had only just started Grade 1.

My husband and I did not want to 'take a gamble' that she may or may not become a competent reader, writer and speller through our current school system as the numbers of illiterate graduates are ever increasing. We had seen your program featured a few times over the past couple of years on 'A Current Affair' and each time were very impressed with what we saw. Alyssa has always been quite a bright child but she is also the youngest in her class and we thought if we could give her a helping hand with her reading, writing and spelling then she would develop more confidence in handling other tasks and social skills.

We are currently one third of the way through the course and already we are thoroughly impressed with what Alyssa has learned. I think sometimes we underestimate a five year old's capacity for understanding and learning and we have been amazed at what she has learnt so far.

It is such a joy to watch 'the light go on' in a little girl's world and see her reading everything she can get her hands on.

We believe we made the best investment in our child's future by purchasing The Sound Way program.

We cannot speak more highly about this invaluable tool."