Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Learn to Read

Homeschool Review Crew

Dyslexia Gold

Do you have a child who struggles with reading?  Have they been diagnosed with Dyslexia?  Help them learn to read without tears with Dyslexia Gold.  We received a subscription to Dyslexia Gold and my children have been using it to work on reading for a bit now. 

I have a few children who have struggled to learn to read and a few who just weren’t interested in reading for a while.  It’s sometimes hard to tell if they don’t understand or if they just don’t want to put in the effort.  After several years of homeschooling, I’ve discovered that a few of my children have dyslexia.  

It’s those two children who actually have dyslexia plus a struggling reader and a beginning reader that I have put into the program.  We received two pairs of special glasses to go with the program as well as the online program for a total of 12 months. 

About the Program

Let’s chat about the actual program now.  When your child logs in for the first time they will be given an assessment of sorts to figure out where they are academic wise.  This will help the program decide where to start your child.  All children have their own login and password as well as the parent.  So, it’s easy so for the parent and child to log in and also so that they don’t have to get to their account through the parent account. 

Dyslexia Gold is more than just helping with dyslexia and learning to read.  It can also help any child ages 4-16 struggling with reading or spelling to improve on their skills as well. In my opinion, if you have a child older than 16 who needs help this program can work for them as well. 

Within Dyslexia Gold there are several different programs that your child can do.  The first such program is Engaging Eyes. 

Engaging Eyes

Engaging Eyes works with your child to focus their eyes.  This is one of the leading causes of reading poorly.  The program works by having your child “shoot” at moving targets on the screen.  They have to wear special glasses for this program.  It is best used for 10-15 minutes per day. 

My kids really enjoyed this program but did get frustrated at the beginning with the number of times that they missed the target.  With practice, they improved greatly.  I was glad that we got two sets of glasses though as one pair is smaller than the other and worked better for my younger children while the larger pair fit better on the older children. 

Our only concern or thing we did not like is that the glasses are hard to put over real glasses needed for sight. 

Fluency Builder

Fluency builder works on building up the reading skills through three areas.  It primarily wants to work on hearing all of the sounds that make up words because it is through that that they can learn to sound out words and know what letter or groups of letters make that sound. 

The three areas you work in are phonics, phonological awareness, and a reading passage.  My kids struggled the most with reading passages but they also struggle with comprehension so I’m not sure if it was from struggling with reading or comprehending what they read. 

Spelling Tutor 

Spelling tutor was a huge hit with my older daughter.  She loved levelling up in the program and knowing that she was getting better.  Her confidence has soared since using this program. 

The program has 1000 words to work through and has a smart system inside of it that builds lists off of the words that your child misses to help them learn. 

Times Table Tutor

This is exactly as it sounds and helps your child learn their times table all the way up in the 12s.  Both of my older kids still struggle with multiplication so this was a good spot for them to work in.  

Times table tutor is not timed.  This is a work at your own pace way of learning the multiplication tables.  It also goes through them one family at a time.  It works on memorization. 

More on the Program

When you sign into the program you can do this as a parent or as a student.  Everyone has their own sign in.  When I sign in as a parent I can see what each of them has been doing and how they are progressing.  

I can also schedule tests or assessments.  Some tests include Dyslexia Screener, Reading Age Test, Spelling Test, Reading Speed Test, Word Finding Vocabulary Test, Auditory Discrimination, and a Vision Test. 

You can access all of their different courses and see their results.  I really like this part because it lets me see how they’re moving and growing and if I should review things with them or change things that I’m doing with them outside of the program. 

One part where this is really useful is knowing what words they are studying or working on in spelling tutor.  By knowing this I can ask them to use those words in our normal spelling work or even when we’re working on vocabulary, etc.  

The student accounts are easy to navigate and regulate so your child can’t spend too much time in one area.  It caps them out at the recommended time per day.  My kids like that they have their own login and that they are in charge of choosing what they want to do first or if they don’t want to do something that day.  I find it interesting to see what they gravitate towards and what they avoid. 

Reading Unlocked

This is really a separate area to me.  It helps your child to learn to read and can be used as young as four years old.  I placed my daughter who is learning to read into this program and she soared!  

It is phonics-based like the rest of their program and uses that to create a base work for your child to help them learn to read.  It moves forward at their pace so they never feel discouraged and adapt to what they know and how they are learning. 

I think this is a very unique program in how it approaches teaching and have enjoyed watching my daughter use the program.  I feel that I will use this with my just turned five year old.  It is unique and I really like the way it works and is teaching.  

It starts with teaching a sound and then moves into simple words.  My child immediately felt like she was successful because she could read a word!  It is designed to be used for ten minutes a day and then be done. It does time the session for you so that you only get to work that long.  My daughter was upset a few times because she wanted to do more but I could tell her attention span would not have handled more. 

Our Thoughts

I have three children who have great difficulty reading.  While we have never had them diagnosed I do think they all have dyslexia.  With this in mind, I have tried new things by teaching them how to read.  One in particular still really struggles with knowing her letters on a day by day basis.  I know from teaching her two older siblings that it just takes time and a whole lot of patience on my end. 

For my child still struggling with letters, I did not see huge improvements.  She had a hard time using the program on her own and even with my help still really struggled and I had a hard time making myself not help her or do it for her. 

The other two children who used the program are struggling readers.  Both are well below their grade level but made big leaps and bounds while using the program.  I would say the area they most improved was confidence.  They were willing to just pick up a book and read to younger siblings without prompting. 

For me, that alone would make me want to buy this program. 

Another area that I saw them gaining ground in was spelling.  They really enjoyed the program and would do it on their own without me asking.  If you have a child that you suspect may need help, this program will help them learn to read.

I thought going into the program that they would want to do the “games” aspect the most and wear the special glasses but that actually wasn’t the case.  My son initially really liked the glasses and “games” but then he got discouraged because he was having a hard time hitting the targets.  My daughter never actually enjoyed them though she did do them on a more regular basis. 

They both really enjoyed mastering things and getting to move up.  That feeling of accomplishment just resonated off of them and it made me so proud for them.  

As a family, we can highly recommend this program to help your child learn to read.  

Learn More

You can learn more about Dyslexia Gold and its program as well as how other people have used the program by reading all of the Crew reviews.  The Crew reviews can be found on the Main Blog Post on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.  Lots of different ages and stages of reading reviewed the program so make sure to check out how they used the program to help their child learn to read.

Dyslexia Gold can also be found on Facebook.