Toe by Toe

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Reviews

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  Maura Byrne

  Excellent reading program which I would highly recommend.

  29-05-2019
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  Mairead McCormick

  Toe by Toe has been an absolute saviour for thousands of children and adults who have struggled learning to read thanks to the devotion of Keda Cowling. I am a teacher of almost 30 years and for the past five, been SENCO and tutor of children with specific learning difficulties including Dyslexia. I became so interested I completed a 2nd Master’s degree in specific Literacy difficulties and remediation. I came across Toe by Toe the following year and was blown away by the quick success in teaching kids to read! It is structured, multi sensory and culminative. In small steps, beginning with basic phoneme grapheme correspondence and building on that in a structured way, it helps give struggling readers the deciding skills to succeed. By the end of this little red book, children are able to syllabilise and attack difficult words such as “psychological” and “physiotherapist” as well as read them in context. And all this in the space of just months rather than years! Thank you Keda Cowling. I wholly recommend this little red book named Toe by Toe to reflect the smallest steps it forces children to take which are necessary building blocks on this road of reading and Literature.

  29-05-2019
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  david woods

  We started TBT 10 weeks ago and for the first time in my son’s life he is able to read words and sentences, it actually teaches children to decode and encode words. And gives them rules to follow on how to deconstruct words. We would be lost without it..

  29-05-2019
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  Jackie Wake

  Wow! Toe by Toe gave us hope; It got my 7yr old with learning difficulties making progress from the start. Can't recommend this book enough. As a parent, with no teaching background, everything I needed was clearly laid out within the book.

  29-05-2019
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  Giddykipper Number 1

  As a retired teacher and Early Years Co-ordinator, I know from first hand experience, just how effective the Toe by Toe series of books really are. Numerous children I have taught, have gained in confidence and been able to access books for the first time in their lives. The results have been amazing to see, and it has been an absolute privilege to share this approach with a child, and see them “switched on” at last to words and reading. The absolute delight they show, when they first begin to recognise that words can be “de-coded” and that it’s not just words in books, but also in their general environment that they can now read, is wonderful. No longer do they need to be afraid. Anyone who has lots of patience and a positive “can do” attitude, can access this programme, and see a child blossom and thrive, turning from a “reluctant” reader, to a “confident” reader over time. I diagnosed my own grandson with dyslexia when he was quite small, even though his teachers did not see the problem initially. He loved to be read to, and share in the fun and magic of stories, but asking him to read himself, was like wading through thick mud!! He struggled with the simplest words, and would often forget words he had encountered a minute before. He was constantly frustrated, and avoided having to read at all costs. Reading aloud to his classmates was torture for him. He was a socially confident, intelligent, creative, loving little boy, with a real sense of humour, and to see him struggle with every word was so sad. Toe by Toe was his gateway to success. It is a programme that really does lead the child “toe by toe” through every page, with lots of reinforcement to build their skills. I made sure that we stuck absolutely to the instructions and recommendations in each book, never skipping over anything, because I had absolute confidence in the methods. I worked with him four or five days a week for about 20 mins at a time. He needed this input, as he was so far behind the other children, and was getting no EFFECTIVE input from school. The best thing is that THIS APPROACH WORKS....NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. Another positive, is that THE CHILD COMES TO REALISE THEMSELVES THAT IT WORKS, and becomes eager to learn more. Children with reading difficulties will often be very tired at the end of a school day, and as we progressed through all the books, and the work got a bit harder, I have to admit that you need to be sensitive to this. Sometimes we had a “come down time” after school, with time for light hearted chat and a snack before starting work. This usually seemed to work fine. There were only a couple of occasions that we abandoned his work, because he had experienced a really difficult day at school, but we didn’t worry about this, as we knew there was another day, and we could get “right back on it” after an early night, some TLC, and when he felt more rested. We used to find a quiet place in the local library to do the work before any swimming or climbing lessons etc, and we made the scheme fit around our othercommitments. As it was only for a limited focussed period, and always approached with a positive attitude, my grandson accepted it as just another thing that we did together. I have to say, that helping him with his reading helped us have a real understanding and empathy together, and it forged an even stronger bond between us; celebrating each success. He will always have some difficulties spelling words that are especially difficult to decode, but he can now read with confidence, most words he encounters, and he has a good stab at the spelling as he now has strategies to help him remember how to spell them. He is now at Secondary school, with all the new challenges that brings, but Toe by Toe gave him the confidence to help him cope in this new environment. I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending all the Toe byToe manuals. They really are a trusted pathway to confident reading and spelling. Christine Scholes.

  29-05-2019
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  Janette Mannix

  Love this program. Had such a positive experience with my 11yr daughter that I decided to buy another book for my 14 year old. Love it xo

  29-05-2019
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  Anna McGuinness

  Reading the examples of common spelling issues on "Stareway to Spelling" felt that I was reading my own child's work and that finally someone understood and might be able to help. I had been trying for years to access some sort of support for his spelling and was frequently told that all he had to do was read and the rest would follow. This was frustrating as my son could read he just couldn't spell and the spellings being sent home from school were of words that had no relevance and would never be used in everyday writing. The manual comes with a series of video clip tutorials and very good advice on how to approach the process. We have spent 10-20 mins every second to third day using this over the last 15 months and my son has went from being able to spell 99 of the 300 most used words to consistently spelling 259 correctly and of the remaining 41 will spell them correctly about 1/2 the time he uses them. His school work has went from being indecipherable at the start of year 5 to having spelling errors present but the sense of what he is trying to say is easily understood. The odd miss-spelt word can be easily understood within the wider context of the sentence now and he is recognising when he hasn't got the word correct and will check on what the correct spelling should be. It was a slow process to start with and we did have a couple of queries with regards to how to progress at some points especially with words like their/there and where/were but the team at Keda where amazing. They were so supportive and provided additional advice and encouragement when I contacted them which helped us keep going. The first 9 months required persistence on both our parts but after this point something seemed to click and the letters just seemed to start falling into place. More importantly is the confidence he has now developed in his ability to write, and, whilst he still does not enjoy this as an activity in itself he is more engaged with his school work. His teachers have been stunned at the results. From not being able to read his work but knowing from class that he is an articulate and intelligent child he is now able to communicate this on a page to them and as result he is now starting to expand on his written ideas rather than putting down the bare minimum (although this still requires encouragement). The school have admitted that whilst they do not have the time or resources to invest in undertaking this process with my son the fact that we have been able to do this at home with him has had a major impact. I cannot thank the Keda team enough for their support and encouragement and for taking the time to create this manual and giving my son permission to know and understand our new mantra: "Tricky words are tricky until you learn the trick" and giving him the confidence to know that he can learn and do well.

  29-05-2019
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  emma Mckenna

  Toe by Toe is a fantastic resource. We use it in school with pupils who still haven't grasped or secured the basics in phonics. They enjoy working through it and it's very easy to see the progress. Ten minutes a day; five days a week and pupils (and parents) are amazed at how quickly they can pick up a book and read with some enjoyment!

  29-05-2019
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  Cathie Timotheou

  I have been using tor by toe for some 12 years now and I cannot praise it enough! I have used it with one of my most dylslexic pupils ever and got him reading and accessing the school curriculum within 2 years. I dont thnk he could have done that ever without toe by toe. Along the line, I have used it wth struggling EFL children with hige success. Three years ago I began working in a private international school and have introduced it to our children whose reading is not as fluent as they would need to access the rest of the curriculum. I have trained our TAs and we have about 20 children each day who work on it daily. The only big disadvantage of Toe by Toe is that it doesneed 1:1 intervention - and in a busy school it is hard to timetable in the 15 minutes needed by both the TA and the child. I did manage to get round that yesterday by training a mum on Toeby toe- and she will do it with her son daily, popping in to see me if she needs clarity. I think my greatest celeberation is about the pages which have whole sentences on them: at first I thought 'Oh oh! This is going tobe exhausting for my pupil. S/he is going to get really irritated here!" Amazingly, I see an entirely opposite effect: the fact that they have become so confident decoding, they are delighted, OVER THE MOON to disocver they can actually read a whole page! I am always flabbergasted at their willingness, eagerness todo the whole sentence pages! Brilliant wokr Cowlings! And I am using it for all studnets who need a phonological awarenss nudge - so I don't even need to talk dyslexia. Just phonological awareness. Now I want to understand the spelling program...

  29-05-2019
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  S C

  Toe by toe is easy to use. 5 minutes 3 or 4 days will give results. It's slow. We have gotten to page 50 (of 250) after 6 months. Our sons confidence with reading has doubled. We also sent him to a two week dyslexia summer school which also really boosted his confidence. I feel by the time we get to page 100 he will have 80% of the benefits of toe by toe realised.

  29-05-2019