Dyslexia Gold

What’s Included in the Family License:

 Engaging Eyes – Vision Training

According to Dyslexia Gold, “98% of all struggling readers, including those with dyslexia, can’t focus both eyes on the same letter and track across the page.” Dyslexia Gold‘s vision training program uses fun games to gently exercise and strengthen those eye muscles so they can more clearly see the letters as they read. 

It includes two interactive games: Target Practice & Whack an Alien. For Target Practice, you wear the 3D glasses sent by the company and move the arrows to shoot the targets. 

For Whack an Alien, you keep your head straight while moving your eyes to various points on the screen where the aliens rapidly pop up. You click on the aliens and try to hit as many as possible.

Reading Unlocked

This is a phonics program for struggling readers with 5 levels of difficulty, assigned by color.

Each lesson focuses on a certain sound or blend of sounds. There are a number of activities, including:

• rhymes with
• say it with me
• read the sounds & then the word
• spell the word
• write the word including some special words (like saw)
• select the picture that matches the word
• turn one word into another by changing a letter
• record yourself reading
• read together (parent reads part of a passage and student reads the red highlighted words).

Spelling Tutor

For missed words, students will practice writing them, then get to write them out in the context of a sentence. This is a fun, interactive program to improve your child’s spelling. 

Fluency Builder

Times Table Tutor

This program helps students learn and master their times tables (12×12) in a relaxed and colorful way. They get a visual of how the numbers work as lots, adding, and as a typical multiplication problem.

Then, they get to drag and drop the answers, and end with flash cards where they click on the right answer and work to improve their speed and accuracy.

How We Used the Product in our Homeschool

Early Intervention

My six-year-old son used the Early Intervention program (Vision Training & Reading Unlocked) for 10-15 minutes each school day. He started with Target Practice, which involved wearing 3D glasses and shooting targets. He complained at times that his eyes hurt a bit or everything seemed blurry. 

The company forewarned us that their eyes would be a little sore–as with any muscle you’re working out. The longer we did the program, the less strain it seemed to cause them, and they never complained about their eyes hurting again once they finished with the daily activity. 

After Target Practice, our son moved on to Whack an Alien, which required him to keep his head still and move his eyes as aliens popped up in various places throughout the screen. This was probably the most frustrating part of the program for him initially. He had significant difficulty at first with catching any of the aliens fast enough. He would whine and complain about doing it. 

I appreciated that regardless of how many aliens he caught, he received some points and a gold star for the day. I was able to encourage him with that, and eventually, he went from 300 points (and very few aliens) to over 5500 points and many more aliens. 

After Engaging Eyes each day, Jordan completed a lesson in Reading Unlocked. He started at the beginning level (red). You can choose American, Scottish, or British accents for the program.

I would log in to the program for him, then Jordan would move through the various activities independently until he got to the final activity, which involved us reading a passage aloud together. 

Between both programs, Jordan didn’t spend more than 15 minutes each day utilizing Dyslexia Gold. However, even in just six weeks, he has already demonstrated improvement in reading. 

Catch Up Intervention

My nine-year-old daughter utilized Engaging Eyes & Reading Unlocked daily. She tested out the other programs (Spelling Tutor, Fluency Builder, and Times Table Tutor) several times throughout the review period as well. Kendra took a quick assessment to get her to the right level and began on the green level. 

Again, she was able to work independently until she reached the passage for us to read together. This was actually her favorite activity. She also enjoyed doing the Spelling Tutor, Fluency Builder, and Times Table Tutor just for fun. She started using my iPad mini to do most of it. 

Moving forward, we plan to continue to utilize Dyslexia Gold in our homeschool routine. Jordan will continue with the early intervention daily and Kendra will do the catch up intervention daily while also incorporating spelling 2-3 times a week and using the fluency and times tables 1-2 times a week. 

What I Loved

As a parent with struggling readers, I loved this product! It can feel overwhelming to teach your child to learn to read, and Dyslexia Gold takes the stress out of the whole process.

It was easy to get started and navigate through. The activities were quick and each aspect of the program made sense. I also appreciated the reports tab and ability to track and record each kid’s progress. This is especially helpful if you need to report progress to your state homeschool association. 

I can already see a difference in both kids’ reading abilities, and desire to read! My daughter now volunteers to read books without even being asked. My son is catching on quicker and making good progress.

I like that the lessons only take 10-15 minutes a day and much of it can be done independently.

I appreciated that the five levels of Reading Unlocked were assigned by color instead of age or grade level. And I really loved how the spelling program was laid out. It built fluency without losing the child’s interest because of the variety of activities. 

My daughter’s favorite parts were getting to record (audio only) herself reading and reading the passages together.

My son loved the Engaging Eyes games and beating his scores.

Final Thoughts

While I absolutely LOVED this program (and will continue using it), there were a few minor difficulties. For example, the “American” accent said to write “air” but the word was “are.” It sounded like, “We AIR carving pumpkins” instead of “We ARE carving pumpkins.” There was also a point where the k looked like R to my daughter, and “yes” sounded like “yeah,”which made spelling the word a challenge.

Also, every once in a while a word wouldn’t match the picture great, like high…or torch…and required a little support from me. Otherwise, we loved all the pictures and interactive activities throughout the program. 

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew. All opinions are my own. 

Be sure to visit the Homeschool Review Crew Website to read more reviews of Dyslexia Gold at https://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/reading-program-for-struggling-readers