Testimonials
Here is what some parents had to say who, after watching their child struggle to succeed within the mainstream school system, decided to commit to two hours a week of intervention using the Barton Reading and Spelling System.
“Our psychologist specifically recommended Jenna and the Barton Reading and Spelling System she uses with her students. My son liked her immediately and so did we : ) She has a gentle and kind approach and my son thrived with her intervention. In January 2017, my son was reading at a level 3 and by early May 2017 he was reassessed by his teacher as reading at a level 18!!!!! He had jumped 15 reading levels in four months!!! His teacher emailed me the good news and said that “his reading level improved tremendously”!!!! We are beyond happy with our son’s progress and we would highly recommend Jenna for kids struggling with reading!”
– Parent of a 7 year-old student
“We noticed that Ryder was having difficulties in school in Grade 1. The school gave him a resource teacher 3 times a week, a speech therapist and an occupational therapist. Ryder worked really hard and performed well when he had the one on one attention. Ryder was a the quiet kid that did not participate very much. He enjoyed observing the class activities.
After a meeting with the resource teacher, the grade teacher and the occupational therapist, I asked them a question: “Simply looking at this child with no behavior issues, with as much help he is receiving, and NO improvement in his academic learning, there must be an underlying cause. In your 30 years combined experience, you must recognize this as something?” When the reply was that some kids just “take time”….our family sought out help from an educational assessment. We also spoke to other parents who pointed us in the direction of Susan Barton and Dyslexia.
Once we had the diagnosis of a Language Based Learning Disability, the report indicated some of the ways that Ryder would learn best. A phonetic approach like the Orton Gillingham System would help him. Since much of the learning these days in the school system is through “sight words,” we searched online and this is when we found Jenna through dyslexic solutions. Ryder bonded with her immediately. She was very easy to like, and gave Ryder much encouragement. Ryder’s confidence started to flourish. I started to get calls from the teacher to tell me to keep doing what we were doing….
When Ryder started with Jenna, the school measured Ryder’s reading abilities at a 1.5….(maybe we could squeeze it as a 2, the teacher would say). In 8 months Ryder went from a 1.5 to an 18!!!! He had caught up to the kids in his class. The improvement he made amazed the teachers and everyone around him.
We are unbelievably thankful that Jenna was able to help Ryder. If it was not for Jenna, Ryder would have fallen further and further behind in school. She is our savoir because she has literally given Ryder a fighting chance with the regular school system. We owe her more than we could ever give.”
— Proud Parents of Ryder – Billy and Crystal
“After years of struggling with conventional learning methodologies and despite concerted and significant effort on the part of her school, teachers and tutor, my 9-year old daughter was still reading below a grade 1 level and showing no capacity for improvement. She had an IEP, a supportive team and an educational staff that wanted her to succeed. What she didn’t have was a methodology that was specifically geared to the challenges she faces as a dyslexic.
Upon researching the Orton-Gillingham method it became clear that we needed to try something new. She has now been following the Barton program and the change in her confidence and her reading abilities is significant. Sight words are finally becoming recognizable to her, she has stopped the ‘guessing’ that plagued her reading, and she is increasingly able to tackle the sounding out of new words – a decoding skill that was simply impossible for her before.
The change is not an overnight miracle cure – it’s hard work on the part of my daughter and her tutor, and the result of a gated process that ensures the foundational skills are mastered prior to moving on – something that simply cannot be managed in a traditional academic environment. Her confidence is much improved and she’s more relaxed and happy both at school and at home!
Working with Jenna has been a pleasure. Her professionalism, thoughtfulness and knowledge have been a huge support to us as we’ve navigated our daughter’s learning disorder. My daughter is happy to attend her sessions and feels good about her progress, which has tremendously benefitted her self-confidence. Jenna’s open communication with us has kept us informed as to the stage our daughter is at in her learning and alerted us to her difficulties and successes. This has enabled us to better support her than we were able to previously, which has provided us all with renewed confidence that we can help our daughter succeed!”
– Parents of a nine year old dyslexic student