1. What motivated you to book a place on the course? 

A few years ago, we had an educational psychological assessment done for our daughter and found out that she had dyslexia and potentially some ADHD too. They recommended Caroline Batemen and we had her name highlighted. Our daughter was in Year 3 and we were advised that she should become a laptop user and should learn to type. She was struggling in year 3 and we knew that she needed to use some more assistive technology but we didn’t know about technology for dyslexia.  It was like hitting our heads against a brick wall. 

2. Prior to the course, what specific difficulties, insecurities, anxieties, attitudes, communication issues was your child experiencing?

Before the course, just coming to terms with dyslexia was difficult but also our daughter felt as though she was alone.  She didn’t know anyone else who had dyslexia or ADHD.  She didn’t really like talking about it (I’m not sure if she even told her closest friends) and she didn’t want to broadcast it. She was struggling to copy stuff off the board.  She’s an intelligent girl but that’s how I first picked it up - she’s so smart but can’t seem to get written work on paper. She wasn’t failing in school but it was affecting her self esteem.  She was starting to think she was dumb.  So I thought right, we’re sorting this out. Self esteem was a huge problem. Also her reading; school was giving them so many books to read at home. Leading up to the course, I thought it was an intensive for typing and that at least she would be able to get her ideas down on paper but it was so, so much more.

3. How did the course help your child to overcome these difficulties?

Our daughter went from typing with two fingers to up to 40wpm at age 9! From that point of view, the course gave her a massive boost in her self esteem - she was able to go back to school and show people what she’d achieved during the summer holiday.  She was building her tool box to make things work for her and realising that there WAS a way around this.  Physically being able to type so she could get stuff down from the board but also, she found it amazing to meet all these different people with different issues of different ages and who all had dyslexia and ADHD came into it as well. This was real help we hadn’t expected.  Our daughter is almost the ambassador for this at school now, for neurodiversity.  She’s doing so well. Lots of parents have been asking questions and prior, people didn’t like talking about it.  Friends have been coming up to our daughter saying that they’ve just found out that they have dyslexia etc.  It’s not a hidden thing any more. The tech side of things was fantastic. I’d never seen it broken down before and didn’t know how to approach it. To be able to have someone who’s reviewed it all, who can say what works and doesn’t was fantastic. We now have the confidence to go to the school and help the school implement it.  Our daughter uses the text read and write programme every day. Her school is a google school (son uses microsoft and mom uses apple).

The flexibility of finding out some of the things that you can try out to see if they can help was wonderful as some things help and some don’t.  Our daughter is basically being more experimental. She’s working out how SHE would get things done successfully as she’s wired differently.  

The YouTube videos that Caroline did are really helpful.  She’s now taking Kindle Fire into school and lots of the students benefit from it at school.  She’s navigating that and now really making headway to getting her to her normal way of working. This is so important for secondary school and exams.

During the Summer, we all learned to type. Her brother did too. The irony is that her brother doesn’t have dyslexia but does have ADHD and was told he would be a laptop user too so now he’s taking the course this summer!
The competitiveness is really helpful.  I’m not sure whether Vivi would have kept up the practice and participation without those.

4. Were there other benefits that you hadn’t expected?

It’s a really comprehensive course. There’s so much information that I still regularly return to refresh my knowledge.  I was only expecting a touch typing course and the assistive technology side was so incredibly helpful.

5.  What were the benefits for you as a parent of your child taking the course?

I felt as though we were really making progress. Prior to finding this course, I had spent a lot of time floundering around, trying to navigate and see what would work. With the course, I felt as though there was a beginning point and an end point.  Yes it was during the summer holidays and was every day but once we got into a routine, it was great. Caroline was really flexible and you could watch on playback. In fact, we lugged a keyboard around Costa Rica!  There’s Wifi nearly everywhere and it worked. I was amazed at that.  By the time she went back and started year 5, she was in a really good place.  It felt as though we had ticked off and addressed something. Otherwise we would have been floundering around.  The intensive nature of it was really helpful.  It wasn’t half hearted, a few hours of a course here and there. You have a group of people around taking the course and you all need that supportive group in order to do it.  

6.  What advice would you give other parents considering booking onto the course?

You have to accept that you’re going to have to invest.  You have to put something into it, you have to get the routine down.  For us, if we did it in the morning, it would go well.  Doing the catchups was not as good as she was alone and watching a recording.  It’s good to have a competitive sibling or to be competitive with the others in the group.  It’s really good that Caroline has included competitive elements.  You can focus on the positive, the “carrots” of the quizzes and the prizes.  

It works so well remotely. You can take it anywhere. Actually, when you’re in a really hot place, it’s lovely to sit in an air conditioned room for a while.  Also it’s a bit of peace and quiet for a while as your children are learning.

I would advise parents to not miss out on the stuff for the parents, use all the resources.  The technology information was fabulous.  

This is the best resource we’ve found.  We had looked into so many things regarding dyslexia and neurodiversity and this is one of the best investments we’ve made.