Dyslexia Gold: Help for Struggling & Dyslexic Readers

Our family was generously given a lifetime subscription to the Dyslexia Gold Full Bundle from Dyslexia Gold to review. The Full Bundle includes access to all four of its programs: Engaging Eyes, Fluency Builder, Spelling Tutor and Times Table Tutor.

Our daughter, Olivia, has not been diagnosed with dyslexia. However, I was interested in Dyslexia Gold’s program because she was struggling to read. She would frequently reverse letters and numbers or skip words. She was also having a hard time with blending and would mispronounce sounds.

My older children have all been advanced readers. Having never had a struggling reader before, it was difficult for me to recognize what was within the normal scope and what she may need extra help with.

After looking into Dyslexia Gold’s program, I realized that Olivia may benefit from it. Specifically, the part of the program that did vision training.

Engaging Eyes Vision Training

On their page for Engaging Eyes, they state:

“If your child:

• Reads Slowly
• Skips words or lines
• Reverses letters
• Says the text moves
• Says the text is double or blurry
• Gets eye strain or tired when reading

Then playing Engaging Eyes will help.”

Reading these I realized that Olivia had trouble with several of them. Vision training is not even something I would have thought to consider for her. We were, however, excited to get started.

Rockin’ the Special Glasses

Engaging Eyes comes with a pair of 3D glasses to use. The glasses are used for the Target Practice games.

For these games, your child wears the glasses and then spins the shooter using the arrow keys and space bar to bring the circles to the same depth as the shooter and blast them. It is recommended they work on it ten minutes a day for four days a week.

My daughter did complain of this giving her a headache, so we had to be careful and closely monitor her time on it. It was not a game she could sit down and play indefinitely.

The Other Vision Tracking Games

The other vision tracking games are played without the glasses. Whack An Alien was a fun game that she enjoyed. This game practices rapid eye movements.

Speed Fix is a game that helps to reduce the number of fixed points you look at while reading. It begins with several animals flashing on different points of the screen. Then you are asked to focus on a dot. A selection of 3 to 4 letters are then briefly shown and you are asked if the letter ‘a’ was one of them.

After ten flashes more animals appear and the cycles repeats, increasing in speed.

She thought this game was a little difficult, but she did improve as she continued to play it.

Eye Tracking is the last game. In the first Eye Tracking game, there is a series of dots and you press the space bar every time the letter ‘b’ shows up. In the second Eye Tracking game, there are sentences and you press the space bar if the highlighted word begins or ends with an ‘e.’ The highlighter starts at the beginning of the reading selection and does each word in order. This causes them to really pay attention and focus as they track the words.

Fluency Builder

Fluency builder is a program that works to teach phonological awareness by helping children to depict individual sounds in words. Since children with dyslexia often have trouble distinguishing individual sounds, this game is geared toward improving this necessary reading skill. For this, the children are shown two picture with the word for each picture underneath. A phoneme will be highlighted in each list. The child listens to each word. Then they drag the highlighted letter or word to the list that makes the same sound.

Spelling Tutor

Spelling Tutor is a repetitive program that implements the use of dictation to help improve spelling. The children are read a sentence, which they write down. They then correct their own work, and mark the errors. They are then given the sentence again minus the missed word(s).

You can also add in your own words and sentences for them to be tested on.

Times Table Tutor

Times Table Tutor is a stress-free way for kids to practice their times table. It is based of off Singapore Math, which means children are introduced to the concept through three stages: concrete, pictorial, and then abstract.

The questions are not timed, although there is an option to have them take a timed test. I set Olivia to start her ‘2’ times tables.

I was unsure whether my daughter would even be able to do this since we haven’t begun multiplication yet. However, because of the way it is set up, she was able to easily understand and answer the questions. She hasn’t progressed to abstract yet, but that’s okay.

Times Table Tutor will give her a good foundation for building on.

Noticed Improvement with Dyslexia Gold

When we started this review, my daughter was still really struggling to read. Even easy words she had a hard time remembering.

Now she participates with us in our nightly scripture reading and only needs a little help sounding out unfamiliar words. She still reads slowly, but she is improving. The vision training she did was most helpful. She doesn’t lose her place as often and she has gotten better at recognizing her ‘b’ from ‘d.’ The growth she has made is pretty impressive.

There are some basic reports you can reach from the dashboard to see progression.

For her second reading assessment, she was not paying attention when it started, so it looks like she did worse. I expect her next assessment on the 16th will show improvement.

Regardless of what the reports say, I can see the improvement she has made. I can also see the increased confidence as reading has become easier. She has taken to reading all the random things around her because she can.

I am grateful for Dyslexia Gold and the help and confidence their program gave my daughter.

If you have a struggling or dyslexic reader, look into Dyslexia Gold’s program. If you suspect your child may be dyslexic, Dyslexia Gold also has a Dyslexia Screening Test you can have your child take.

Other Crew members used this program with their dyslexic and older struggling readers. Click below to read their reviews.