Since I was sure that he would want to run right out of my CAER machine, I spoke to him every few minutes while he worked on those feelings. Occasionally, in the CAER machine, he would kick his legs hard trying to get that feeling out of them. However, what worked better than kicking was focusing his attention on those feelings and all the situations he could remember them in. We had to work on this for almost an hour before the feeling went away in all the places he could remember such as sitting in school, doing homework, listening to adults talk, and riding in the back seat of the car. Working on all of this made him quite tired, and when the sense of agitation finally went away, he fell asleep for a few minutes. I let him sleep for a little while since he had worked very hard and I wanted him refreshed for another go at reading.

When I woke him to come out to read some more, he swore he had not fallen asleep.

He again tried to read. His style was much different this time. He seemed much more in contact with the book. When he would see a word that he did not know he would attempt to sound it out. When he took the time to do this, vs. guessing, he was actually quite good at phonetics. He was now engaged with reading and though at times frustrated by not knowing a word, he was also very pleased with himself when he would work out a hard word. We cycled through this process several more times. He continued to improve.

He had been disengaged from the process of learning so long that he had some clear reading vocabulary deficits. However, he was reading much better than when he began. He could now focus on the reading task without distraction and found it fun in a challenging way.

For the last 3 years, I have continued to be in email contact with Phillip’s family. He is now a strong reader who reads on his own for pleasure. His overall academic performance is also far better. He gets a mix of A’s and B’s. And, homework is no longer hell for anyone.