Reading and learning are the two things that determine the success of a child during his school career. First he learns to read. Then he reads to learn. Reading is therefore of paramount importance in the educational process.
For children with dyslexia, going to school can be a nightmare. Behaviour problems often result from their negative experiences at school. The stress and frustration they have to endure as a result of their poor achievement cause them to be reluctant to go to school, to often have temper tantrums before school and sometimes even to play truant. Cheating, stealing and experimenting with drugs can also occur when children regard themselves as failures.
Dyslexia turned school into a nightmare for Werner Louw. Because his IQ was tested at 148 the Louw parents found it strange that their son Werner would battle at school. And battle he did. The written word remained a closed book to him. He attended Grade 3 in a remedial class for two years, after which he was placed in a school for learning-disabled children, repeating Grade 3 for the third time. His condition was diagnosed as “minimal brain dysfunction.”
Although his parents went from pillar to post to try and solve his reading problem, nothing seemed to help. As he grew older, a sense of inferiority took hold and he had to receive treatment for depression. “I didn’t know what to do, which way to turn. Nothing we did seemed to help his problem,” says his mother Nellie Louw. It was therefore with great scepticism that the Louw parents embarked on the Audiblox programme in March 1990.
Before Werner started with Audiblox — at the time he was in Grade 10 — his reading efficiency was assessed at the Technikon Pretoria by means of an ophthalmograph or eye-camera. It was found to be equal to that of a Grade 2 child. This meant that his reading ability was about ten years behind his chronological age. His eyes fixated 164 times and regressed 36 times with every one hundred words of reading. His reading speed was only 107 words per minute.
Five months later, after working faithfully according to a customised Audiblox programme for two half-hour sessions per day, five days per week, Werner’s reading efficiency was re-tested. It then equaled a Grade 9 level. The number of fixations had dropped to 87 and regressions to three. His reading speed was now 163 words per minute.
Six months after this second reading test, Werner’s reading efficiency was tested once again and found to be equal to a second-year college level. His eyes now fixated only 73 times in one hundred words. The number of regressions, already low, remained the same. He could now read 230 words per minute. This means that, in less than one year, Werner’s reading efficiency level improved by twelve years.
There is no doubt that Audiblox was the turning point in Werner’s life. After school he studied architecture on a full-time basis.
Werner’s life could not have been better. Besides being very successful in his career he is happily married. His son recently turned one.