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 Help Kids Read A to Z offers direct services and resources for support at home, in schools and in out of school time settings. 

• Our direct services provide reading intervention that directly teaches struggling readers how to improve their decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) skills. 
• Our support services include getting physical books into kids' hands (book fairs, monthly book clubs, book reporter program, etc.).
• Out of School Time Centers (School Aftercare, Daycare, Community Centers): The center/school provides the space and Help Kids Read A to Z staff does the rest. We provide all the needed technology and staff (in person facilitator to bring kids to and from the online EasyRead tutor and provide supervision, computers, prizes, etc.).

All of Help Kids Read A to Z's tutors are certified EasyRead interventionists. Tutors are typically teachers, speech/language or special education professionals (or bachelor's or master's degree students in those professional areas). All tutors are highly qualified and professional but fun with lots of "kid experience". 

Help Kids Read A to Z works with students K to 12 who are struggling with reading. The majority of our students are K-8th grade. However, for our high school students who have often been struggling with reading for years with little success, the graphics and game format, while silly, give them confidence that EasyRead will be easy and the program can adapt to their levels just as it does for younger students. 

 Children’s brains work at peak intensity for only about 15 minutes before losing focus, so a short burst session is actually most effective. Plus, scientific study has shown that a series of short-but-frequent repetitions is what creates neural change, especially with a period of sleep between sessions. And then, of course, there’s the practical element – finding 15 minutes everyday is much easier than a large chunk of time with busy family schedules.  

EasyRead focuses on building up letter-to-sound correlations in the subconscious brain through practice with our Trainertext visual phonics (characters associated with the sounds). After 3 months or so, we start to wean the learner off the characters, like training wheels on a bike. And just like learning to ride a bike, the brain retains the skill once the crutch has been removed. Those letter-to-sound matches apply to both reading (decoding) skill and spelling (encoding) skill. Additionally, our focus on spelling increases after first 3 months of the program, with more targeted activities.  

The short answer is: no. Trainer text functions much like training wheels on a bike. The visual phonics images are there to help the child learn the letter-to-sound patterns in the English language through repeated exposure to all our language’s lovely irregularities. And like riding a bike, once you remove the training wheels, the brain retains the skill without needing the crutch. That works for learning to read because reading is actually a skill-based process, not a rules-based process. Contrast reading to mathematics: once you know how to read, you can’t stop yourself from reading the next word in this sentence. It is automatic. But if I give you a math problem like (17+24) x 8 = ?, you will have to work it out based on the rules of arithmetic, using conscious effort and thought. You learn skills through practice. You learn processes like algebra, through rules. Reading is a skill.  

EasyRead employs a phonics-based approach, which is taught in the mainstream in most English-speaking countries. So, you will not see a conflict if that is the case. If it isn’t the case, then our help will be even more critical because phonics is the way to get the best results with reading.  

Absolutely proven and thoroughly researched. A published independent randomized control trial by the Open University found an average reading age gain of 2 years in 6 months of lessons. Those kinds of results are unmatched by other supported reading interventions. Additionally, the methodology of visual phonics we have developed rests on years of research into the neurology of literacy, and how a child’s brain learns best. Every activity in the lessons is there for a reason to address one of the neurological causes of difficulty, and has been tested over years of development. After 9 years of running the online program, 99.4% of children show clear improvement. (Check out our Prove It section above for more details.)