Congratulations
Stride Academy, a charter school, won Innovation Of The Month from the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools for their amazing success with students who have dyslexia and bilingual students.
Two Dyslexia Specialists, who are also Certified Barton Tutors, run the school’s intervention program using the Barton Reading & Spelling System.
They educate parents and teachers about dyslexia, screen students who have 3 or more of the classic warning signs, provide tutoring, and ensure teachers provide classroom accommodations.
Students who struggled and failed at traditional schools are thriving at Stride Academy – academically and socially.
To learn more, watch this 4-minute video.
Brian Has Been Completely Remediated
This is why Susan Barton warns parents that if their child needs testing to prove dyslexia, do not wait until they have finished the Barton System.
I wanted to share some exciting news about my son, Brian, who is now 16.
He was diagnosed with severe dyslexia when he was 10.
He needed an updated educational evaluation for accommodations on the college entrance exams. He was evaluated by Dr. Varia, Ph.D. from Mindwell Psychology. She has a strong specialty in dyslexia.
After Dr. Varia tested him, she told me that she would not have known Brian has dyslexia had I not told her prior to the exam. Her testing did not pick it up. She said Brian has been completely remediated. I was stunned!
I knew your program was the best, but I had no idea that it could improve Brian’s reading and spelling skills to the point that his dyslexia became undetectable.
So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you so very much!
Amy Summers, parent
and Certified Barton Tutor at the Advanced Level
Oakton, VA
Parents and teachers call it a miracle
Susan Barton loves hearing from Barton tutors who monitor progress using normed standardized tests, as Karyl does:
I have been using the Barton Reading & Spelling System for 16 years. The growth in my students reading and spelling skills is amazing.
I use the Word Identification and Spelling Test (the WIST) to monitor progress.
Most of my students have scores in only the 1st to 5th percentile on their first day of tutoring.
I give the WIST again at the end of Level 4. Their reading and spelling scores then range from 45th to 55th percentile.
But I urge parents to continue the tutoring process because by the end of Level 8, their children’s reading and spelling scores jump to the 75th to 95th percentile — way above their peers.
Parents and teachers call it a miracle. But I know it is the Barton System that makes their success possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Karyl Rapport
Certified Barton Tutor at the Advanced Level
Los Angeles, CA
Report Card Day
Most parents dread report card day, as this parent shared:
Yesterday, report cards came out.
In the early years of elementary school, I would dread this day. My heart would sink, and I would end up in floods of tears when I opened my son’s report card. We would not talk to him about his report card. If he asked, we’d say he was doing “fine.”
Yesterday was different. I was excited as I opened his report card because I knew he was doing well in middle school. Sure enough, my hard-working son had made the high honor roll.
I immediately Facetimed him from work to let him know how proud I was of the hard work he put into this achievement.
I am also proud of the hundreds of hours he and I have worked together on the Barton System to get him to this point. We look forward to the day when we’ll finish Level 10, but that is still a couple of years away.
Tutoring him has not been easy because his dyslexia is very severe.
I am sharing this to encourage those who are just starting out tutoring their own children and finding it difficult. Hard work, persistence and dedication pay off !!!
I dread to think what our lives would be like if I had not found the Barton Reading & Spelling System.
A.M. O’Connor, parent
Westford, MA
I Love Tutoring My Granddaughter Remotely
Grandparents can play such an important role in helping a grandchild, as this grandmother shared:
I love tutoring my nine-year-old granddaughter remotely with the Barton System. She lives 1,000 miles away, yet I can still help her.
Before Barton, learning to read was a daily struggle for her, and she was often in tears. She was recently diagnosed with severe-to-profound dyslexia.
The Barton System has turned this around for her in just 2 ½ months.
Her parents share that she is now cheerful and looks forward to our online tutoring sessions. Those sessions have brought us closer together.
And her mother recently caught her reading signs at the gas station.
Thank you for developing the Barton System. It’s brilliant.
Joyce Ulshafer, grandmother
Brea, CA
Stunned At Her Reading Ability
Susan Barton loves hearing from parents who take action right away, as this parent did:
My daughter had neuropsych testing done 3 1/2 years ago. She was diagnosed with dyslexia.
I researched and found a Barton tutor a month later.
We have worked tirelessly year round for the last 3 1/2 years. She is now in the middle of Level 8.
My daughter was recently retested by that neuropsych. The doc was STUNNED at her reading ability. He said it is very rare to see a child jump that drastically in their reading skills — and whatever I’m doing, keep it up!
Thank you, Susan, for creating the Barton System.
Kimberly Christianson
Homeschool Parent
Hampton, IA
Time to celebrate
This was posted on a homeschool Facebook page. The parent gave me permission to share it here.
I am celebrating tonight.
I have a child who was diagnosed as profoundly dyslexic at 9 years old. We went through 7 levels of the Barton System while I homeschooled him.
He is now in a college-prep, private high school. At the recent parent-teacher conference, his teacher was shocked to find out he is dyslexic. I did not tell the teachers in advance because I wanted to get a true measure of his capabilities.
He has excellent grades. The teacher said he even volunteers to read Macbeth aloud in class.
I almost cried! This is the same kid who made me ask our youth pastor to not call on him to read out loud … ever.
So stick with it, homeschool parents. It is so worth the years of hard work.
Allison Gentala, homeschool parent
Gilbert, AZ
Barton tutoring made all the difference for my son
If the early levels of the Barton System are hard for your child, stick with it. This parent explains why.
Barton tutoring has made all the difference for my son. He had spent all of first grade working on 3 letter words, but he still could not consistently read them correctly.
He started Barton tutoring (three times per week) in second grade — very aware that he was just not able to learn reading and writing like the other children.
The beginning levels of Barton were very challenging for him. His tutor had to play lots of games mixed in with the lessons. He magically always seemed to win those games, which kept his self esteem high enough to keep working on the reading skills that were so difficult for him.
As he progressed, he realized this was a system of learning that made sense to him.
When he was in Level 5, he would finally read simple chapter books on his own. Somewhere between Levels 5 and 7, his fluency improved tremendously and he was reading at the speed of a typical student. Since then, his confidence has been growing steadily as he’s worked his way through the end of Level 10.
He is now 11 years old, and on his Stanford Achievement Test at the end of 5th grade, he tested as reading on a post high school level.
As a parent, I encourage other parents to make tutoring a priority, even when schedules are tight and there are other demands for our time and resources. I faced many days of my child complaining or having melt downs or stomach aches to avoid going to school or tutoring. In the end, I bribed him with screen time for every completed lesson and gifts for completing every level.
I also spent a lot of time educating teachers and advocating for accommodations to allow my son to do work orally, not read uncontrolled text in the early levels, not be taught to read and write in Spanish, and to be allowed to type when other kids were handwriting.
In the end, it was all worth it — and I would do it over again in a heartbeat.
My son is happy and confident. Handwriting and spelling are still challenges, but he manages with typing and spellcheck.
The biggest difference is he is no longer held back by his dyslexia. He can now read and write at the level of his intelligence.
Susan, thank you a thousand times for all your dedication to kids with dyslexia.
Michelle Cudzinovic, parent
Sunnyvale, CA
Alex won an essay contest
When students finish Level 10 of the Barton System, there’s no stopping them, as this mother shared.
While I was homeschooling, I took both of my sons through all 10 levels of the Barton System.
Asher, my older son, is finishing his first year in a traditional school as a Freshman, with straight A’s. His teachers often express amazement at how little his dyslexia is hindering him.
Alex, my younger son, found out he won an essay contest with a $150 cash prize the same day he finished Level 10.
From a boy who struggled to write more than a few sentences 3 years ago to an essay winner!
Many thanks to you and the Barton System.
Maureen Becker, parent
Redwood City, CA
His improvement has been so swift
It is amazing how quickly students improve once they get the right type of tutoring, as this parent shared:
As a toddler, Zach had delayed speech and trouble learning letters and words at a pace similar to his peers. After being screened by his public school in Kindergarten, he received reading intervention during his school day.
After school, he went through vision therapy and auditory therapy from first to third grade. At the end of those therapies, his eye doctor shared that Zach showed great improvements in all categories — except dyslexia.
At the time, we did not understand dyslexia and assumed Zach simply had difficulty transposing letters and numbers. Yet the school’s continuing reading intervention did not close the gap.
As a result, in fourth grade, Zach hit a wall and behavior issues emerged including frustration, anger — and avoidance of anything related to school or structured learning.
So we homeschooled Zach during fifth grade, but it did not help. He had the same behavior issues and the same academic challenges.
At our wit’s end, we finally got an IEE last October, which diagnosed Zach with dyslexia.
So Zach started working with Brook Euler, a local Certified Barton Tutor. Zach has almost finished Level 6, and he is now having great success in anything school related.
He started sixth grade in public school this past August. This first marking period, he received straight A’s and shows all the signs of having potential for great success in his future endeavors.
We don’t understand the Barton Reading & Spelling System, but it has been the key to unlocking Zach’s ability to accurately read and spell written words, and therefore, to comprehend what he reads.
For Zach, his improvement has been amazingly swift. He is now able to realize his full potential, and most importantly, he knows it.
Bob and Susan Kline, parents
Camp Hill, PA
Bright Solutions for Dyslexia 