In 2020, before my book 'Teach Your Child to Read' was officially published, I decided to send a printed copy to a dear teacher friend of mine in Perth, Australia. Ms. Lena Loganathan had recently retired from full-time classroom teaching but was still actively tutoring senior high school students in Years 11 and 12. Knowing her passion for education, I was curious to hear her thoughts on the method. To my surprise and delight, Lena didn’t just read the book — she photocopied it and immediately put it into action. She encouraged her older tutoring students to use the lessons to teach younger children how to read. At that time, I had already been using the same structured approach successfully with dyslexic children in Grades 1 to 3, watching them gain confidence and make rapid progress.
Encouraged by the early feedback, Ms. Lena Loganathan decided to test the lessons herself with much younger learners — preschool and early primary children aged 5 to 6. The results exceeded all expectations. One particularly heartwarming case was a bright 4½-year-old Indian girl living in Perth. In a remarkably short time, she was not only keeping up but thriving with the material.
The video above captures this little champion reading Chapter 2 of the lessons. Watch as she confidently tackles the Dolch sight word “with” along with other early words — proof that with the right method, even very young children can develop strong reading skills.
This experience reinforced something I’ve long believed: age is not a barrier when a child is given a clear, logical, and engaging way to learn. Stories like this one from Perth continue to inspire me and remind me why I wrote the book in the first place.
Get a copy of my book at only $16. LINK
Those in Malaysia and India may get a copy from Notion Press. LINK
I applaud your post. Children have an early want to read and if the right tools are given at the right time, they will be successful. As a retired kindergarten/ grade 2 teacher, I often had 7-10 of my students start reading in kindergarten. Given the tools, they were ready. On the other end of the spectrum were the kids not yet showing an active interest in the reading process. Often, by the time I saw these kids again in grade two, several were still not reading. I learned that going back to the way I taught them in kindergarten was the way to get that interest going. Once they met with success rather than failure. They were willing to be risk takers in their education success. Your book is a useful tool to aide this process.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your thoughtful and encouraging comment! As a retired kindergarten and grade 2 teacher, your experience and insights are truly valuable. It's wonderful to hear how you successfully helped so many children start reading early when given the right tools and timing, and how you revisited those foundational approaches for those who needed more support later on. Your point about building success to encourage risk-taking in learning really resonates with me. I'm glad you find the book a useful tool in this process—stories like yours motivate me to keep sharing these methods. Thank you again for taking the time to read the post and share your perspective. It means a lot!
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