As first grade was progressing, it was clear to us that something was off. By the end of the year, she was regressing and not progressing at all. Her attitude started to reflect it at home as well. She was starting to realize that she wasn’t keeping up in reading.  She still loved school and her friends and teacher but was starting to feel less than.  She started saying things like “I hate reading”.  As this progressed, we felt it was important to investigate further into why she wasn’t keeping up with reading.  We reached out to the school, and I was told not to worry about it, and she wasn’t too far behind. There was no mention about testing for LD, or what to do other than wait and see.  Again, they felt it was too early to be concerned and she would likely grow out of it.

At our annual well-child check up I mentioned my concern to our pediatrician. She felt that Anna was likely ADHD and potentially dyslexic, but didn’t want to start a path of medicine for the ADHD yet.  She suggested seeing a child psychologist that could and would be able to identify if she had any learning difficulties. So, I made an appointment for the first available slot. It was a 6 month wait for the appointment, but our pediatrician recommended and gave us some resources of tutors to start with in the meantime. We also had her eyes tested and our optometrist suggested we start vision therapy, so we did.  We started tutoring and vision therapy the summer after 1st grade in the hopes of catching her up in time to mitigate the damage to her self esteem as well as her ability to keep up with learning at school.

Anna was tested in October of 2nd Grade and it showed she has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD.

Now we had an answer!  Yay! And to me, a clear path on how to help our daughter learn to read. I set up a meeting with the school right away and let them know we would be seeking an IEP. We had already started with a tutor that specialized in Orton Gillingham (which I thought was the GOLD standard to help dyslexic children learn better). After another YEAR, a few very tough meetings at school, a TON of research, a lot of tears from all of us and our unwillingness to settle for anything other than an IEP, Anna got her IEP! She was making small gains with the private tutor, vision therapy and by that time we had added functional neurology.  It was 2-3 times/week tutoring and once for the vision therapy and functional neurology. It felt like a full-time job, and that wasn’t including the extra “homework” to hopefully strengthen the skills she was learning. In addition, she was getting more time at school with Special Education. By this time, we were through 2nd grade, and she was still at a Kindergarten reading level.

Emotionally by this time we regularly heard things like: “I’m the dumbest kid in school” and “I can’t read”, or “I hate reading”. It was so difficult to keep her spirits up and her belief in herself up. We continuously talked about attitude, effort and all the things we could think of to help keep her engaged and trying. We talked about what a blessing Dyslexia is, and how many smart, innovative, amazing and famous people are/were dyslexic. But she knew she was in the lowest level for reading. She knew she wasn’t reading what her friends were. And she also was picking up strategies to compensate for it. Luckily, she wasn’t really acting out at school.

In 3rd grade we stayed on the path of tutoring and school, but then COVID hit, and school was canceled.  Tutoring in person was cancelled. Everything went online. We continued tutoring 3 times per week over zoom and from that March-August Anna dropped down to a low Kindergarten reading level and was plummeting! It was terrible to witness as a parent and we felt hopeless to help.

We stopped tutoring. We felt like paying $95/hour for something that wasn’t helping was silly, and only making it worse at this point.  It was one more thing to try to get her to engage in. One more thing for her to complain about and feel less than in. Online school was not going well at all either and we felt completely hopeless! Anna was depressed and not making any progress. We both work full time and trying to figure out a way to teach our children, keep up with work and deal with life was a bit overwhelming for us all. We tried our best but felt like we were failing.

Then, Polly and I reconnected. I mentioned how frustrated and overwhelmed and completely defeated I felt, and she assured me she could teach Anna to read. After 3+ years of fighting the system and paying 10’s of thousands of dollars per year for testing, tutoring, vision therapy, functional neurology, psychiatry, etc. I didn’t have a lot of faith. It felt like a losing battle and something we would be fighting and working for, for the rest of her life.

Even though I have felt from the beginning that Anna’s dyslexia is a blessing for her, after the first 3 years, I truly believed it would be a struggle for her whole life in some ways. I didn’t realize that a dyslexic brain could learn to read without it being a struggle! How wrong I was. Polly explained how almost every brain can learn to read with automaticity and high recall.

So, we started with Polly in November of Anna’s 4th Grade year. She was about a K-1st grade reading level at that time. Her self-esteem was in the dumps, and she was now falling farther and farther behind in all areas of school because of her lack of reading.

As I write this, we are almost through with 5th grade and Anna is almost complete with phase 2 with Polly.   And at not even 1 year with her, Anna had caught up to read at 4th grade reading level! She is almost to a 5th grade level now!  She doesn’t complain about it hurting her brain or eyes anymore, and her confidence is night and day different. I haven’t heard her say “I’m the dumbest kid in school” for at least 9 months. She LOVES her time with Polly and looks forward to her sessions with her! When we have been on vacation, she has asked when she gets to go see Polly!

Not only has Polly taught Anna to read without hardship, but she has also brought her spirit back to life. She has given our family more peace and comfort. She has ensured that Anna will have access to learning, reading, society as well as healing her heart and self-esteem. Anna will not be a statistic failing because of the system.

That! That is the why for starting Elevate Reading Center.

Early on (like 2 months into Anna’s time with Polly) I knew I needed to try to find a way to get Polly and the way she teaches the SpellRead program to others.  How could I not? How could I sleep at night knowing I got the help we needed but SO MANY more weren’t?  How many families are out there struggling to find hope? How many families are out there struggling to keep their kid from being beaten down emotionally all day? How many families are fighting the system that doesn’t work? Parents feeling helpless, like they are failing their children. Children feeling like failures for something that is special and wonderful. School curriculum and teachers are not set up or taught how to teach EVERY child. How many families and kids are still tutoring 2-3 days per week in high school and STILL struggling after years and years of tutoring?

I felt compelled to start this business with Polly! I know how hard the struggle is. I know that our education systems are not set up to teach dyslexic children. In fact, they way we teach reading in the US only works for about 50% of kids; dyslexic or not. 1 in 5-6 kids is dyslexic. The ONLY way they learn to read is the same way that all kids learn to read. And further, teaching this way will create stronger, more proficient, automatic, and higher compressive readers. By 4th grade 50% (these test statistics were from pre-COVID) of kids will be failing and looking for ways to act out and escape their shame for not reading.  They won’t be able to keep up with the rest of school subjects because learning changes from learning to read to read to learn.  The correlation between kids that can’t read in 4th grade and being incarcerated as an adult is like 60-70%! We are failing our children! We are creating hardship for kids and families unnecessarily!  We are perpetuating a system where our kids feel shame, and in turn act out.

Our schools in Bend La-Pine recognize the problem and are working toward a solution, but that will take years. Teachers need to be trained to teach this way.  New curriculum needs to be adopted, and then it all needs to be implemented into our schools. I’m hopeful that this will happen, but know we need a solution now!

As we have started Elevate Reading Center, we have learned and know we needed a non-profit to help provide scholarships and financial aid for all those kids out there like Anna that need this resource! We want ALL kids to learn how to read, not just the ones that have the financial resources to get this help.

And so, Anna’s Spark is born! Our sweet daughter has sparked a movement for change. A movement to help all our gifted, amazing kids know their worth. A movement to help ALL kids/people read without hardship. When we give these kids the gift of reading, their world and all our world opens up and becomes a better place. They have access to society and to learning.

I firmly believe that if we can create 100% readers, then all those readers are able to be educated. All those readers can avoid the shame felt by not knowing how to read. They can focus on learning and not act out because of their shame.

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Ellie Anderson
Founder