See-N-Read® was originally
designed to help our youngest daughter, who did not
enjoy reading when she was in elementary school. Robin
had a hard time keeping up with the other children
in reading class. She struggled to focus and complete
reading assignments on time, which caused her to feel
dumb, lose confidence in herself and worst of all,
avoid reading at all costs. As a former teacher, I
knew that if my daughter lost confidence in her ability
to read at the age of seven, her chances of succeeding
in school would be severely limited. We all know that
when children believe that they can't succeed at something,
getting them to do it is nearly impossible! As I observed
Robin's struggles, I realized that she needed something
to build her reading speed while helping her focus
on what she was reading!
Robin was able to read individual words; that was
not a problem. The problem appeared when she had to
read words in sentences. She found herself reading
much more slowly than other children in her class,
which affected both her comprehension and her self-confidence.
As I listened to Robin read, I noticed that she would
lose her place on the page and often read the same
line twice. It appeared that her eyes had difficulty
moving left to right in a smooth action across the
page. They seemed to jump around the page, affecting
her reading fluency and causing her to read slowly.
I began to research different methods to help Robin's
eyes flow more smoothly across the page believing
that, if she didn't lose her place on the page, she
could see what she had just read and what was to come
without distraction and would read much faster and
focus longer.
With these objectives in mind, the original goal
of the tool that became the See-N-Read® was to help Robin improve her reading speed by keeping
her eyes on the line she was reading and filtering
out distractions on the page. Much to my relief, when
Robin used the See-N-Read®
she read more confidently, which helped her comprehension
as she became consumed with stories and characters
rather than worrying about reading slowly.
Many years have since gone by and Robin has achieved
numerous honor-roll placements, been a successful
student-athlete, graduated from a major university,
has been published in a professional journal and is
now a confident and successful young business woman.
She is now a person who loves to learn, in large part
because, as a child, she overcame the challenges that
reading presented to her. See-N-Read®
helped my daughter believe what I knew all along?
That she is a smart, talented person with all the
potential in the world.
Our eldest daughter, Jenna, is an elementary school
teacher and encounters students every year who face
the same reading challenges that Robin did. A few
years ago, she asked me if I would make some See-N-Read® tools for her students. At her request, I took the
idea out of the file cabinet and developed the new
and improved version that we now call See-N-Read.
After years of research, refinements and piloting,
See-N-Read® received its U.S. Patent (No. 7,954,444) and is now available
to you!
I hope See-N-Read® helps you, or someone you know, to experience more
fully the joy of reading and the love of learning.
