Immediate and dramatic improvement

London-based boy experiences “dramatic” change to reading and maths ability following Davis Dyslexia Programme.

When Shimon first started school at age 5, his headteacher commented to Shimon’s mother Jeannie that he thought he might be dyslexic. However, at age 6 Shimon was tested by an educational psychologist, who concluded that he was not dyslexic and that he would gradually find his way at school.

Must try harder...

But Shimon’s difficulties persisted – and without a diagnosis of dyslexia, he came under increasing pressure from well-meaning teachers and family who had concluded that his problems must be the result of laziness.

"I don't want to read"

Then, at age 8, Shimon was working on a school project on the Beatles. Shimon’s mother Jeannie asked Shimon to read out loud a paragraph of bullet point instructions for the project from his teacher. “Shimon kept making excuses – that he needed to go to the toilet, that he had one hundred and one other things that he needed to do – and this carried on for some forty minutes,” commented Jeannie. “Then, finally, Shimon burst into tears and told me “he just didn’t want to read it”.

Dyslexia confirmed

Jeannie knew there was something wrong, realised that swift action was needed, and commissioned a second report from another Educational Psychologist – this time, a definitive diagnosis of dyslexia was given.

Special school support

Jeannie enrolled Shimon into a special school for two mornings a week, which required him to miss mainstream school on those mornings. “Shimon absolutely hated this,” comments Jeannie, “he really did not want to be singled out and made to feel unusual in this way.”

"The Davis programme prooduces amazing results"

Then one day Jeannie was discussing Shimon’s problems with her cousin while waiting for an appointment to see her cousin’s landlord. The landlord overheard the conversation and told Jeannie that both his sons had undertaken a Davis Dyslexia Programme with London-based Davis Facilitator Axel Gudmundsson, and that the programme had “changed the lives” of both his sons. He commented that he wouldn’t have believed possible the extent and speed of the changes that occurred in his sons if he had not seen them with his own eyes.

Reading becoomes easy

Jeannie promptly enrolled Shimon on a Davis Programme with Axel. “The results of the programme were dramatic,” comments Jeannie. “Within one week, Shimon went from reading like a 5-year-old to reading Roald Dahl.”

Maths also becomes easy

Shimon also had maths difficulties; so Jeannie subsequently enrolled him on a Davis Maths Mastery Programme with Wimbledon-based Davis Facilitator Sara Kramer. Again, the results of the programme were so dramatic that Shimon’s teacher asked Jeannie if she could suggest to the parents of other children with maths difficulties that they speak to Jeannie about Shimon’s Davis Programme.

“What impressed me most about the maths programme was how it addresses maths in a conceptual way. Up until then, Shimon had only been offered rote-learning techniques for the times tables. After his programme, his newly-found conceptual understanding of maths enabled him to work out the answers to multiplication sums logically, in his head.”