- Esther G. Friedman
Changing Smiles, Who's Next?
FAKE
OR
REAL

Rachel is the kind of girl who knows how to look good in public. Her fake smile says it all. However, she got to fifth grade without really reading, which of course meant that she couldn't look good in public unless she faked it. When the faking became overwhelming, her parents realized that all the tutoring until now wasn't going to work, and sent her to Visionary Reading for a life-changing summer. This is what happened as quoted by her mother.
"My 11 year old daughter refused to read anything. She worked with Mrs. Friedman from Visionary Reading fame through the summer, and gradually gained confidence in her ability to read. Now, a year later, she loves to read all the series and books that her classmates are enjoying. She can hardly hold all her books when leaving the library, and begs me to go. Her sister complains how she is ALWAYS reading, and never wants to do anything. Thank you for giving her the priceless gift of reading."

Yanky is a 5-year old who started Visionary Reading because of a 30 dollar screening offered to his school to predict whether he would continue to have difficulties, as he was not getting the letter sounds, although he was particularly bright in other areas. That original wistful"it's out of my grasp" smile said it all with him! The type of remeidation he received included both long-term cognitive training, and a specialized program, to help him succeed in life, not just reach grade level or do what the class was doing. By the end of the year, not only was he identifying all letter sounds, he was also reading with nekudos. However, what really struck his parents was when he began to remember letter names suddenly, not that he was taught it, but that it just suddenly decided to come back to him and stick the right way. This was a quote from his parent after doing summer homework in English with him one day.
"I did his summer review with him tonight, and he did an awesome job. He literally knew every letter sound, and for the "English" skills portion, he also did an amazing job, It was EASY for him. It was literally EASY for him!!! Like nothing."

Chana is a 7 year old who graduated Visionary Reading because she learned how to read hebrew, moving from 16 syllables per minute at 80% accuracy to 60 syllables per minute at 98% accuracy. She went through a whole year in a local school where the parents brought up their concerns to the school, and the school insisted that Chana was fine. They even told the parent that "THEY" are the professionals, and she should listen to them. The parent knew that her daughter's smile had been missing the shine for way too long! This was her parent's reaction when she realized about the jipped year.
"It is such an infuriating thought to think that schools can let students slip under like that. Very upsetting to me. I can't imagine how tough it must have been emotionally for her throughout first grade to feel so stupid, especially because she is really so smart."
Question - What do these 3 children have in common?
a.They all attended Visionary Reading
b.They don't need it anymore
c. They enjoy reading
d. They are successful in school
e. All of the above
Answer - e. All of the above
BTW: Their smiles are now REAL again, untainted, like from when they were babies!
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