Students' Success Stories | Bridges Multisensory Learning

Success Stories

Boy Overcomes Reading Frustrations

A nine-year-old boy from Queensland had many previous interventions which his mum had exhausted herself to help her son. The boy was extremely frustrated by learning because he couldn’t read or spell words easily. He often would have angry outbursts of frustration. Originally, we developed a program of two sessions per week via online meetings, then later increased to three sessions per week. As we persisted, his behaviour improved and by ten months he went from a year 3 level in reading to year 4. Within ten months, his mum reported he was doing very well in geography and history. In 13 months, he achieved a “C” in English, and his spelling had improved dramatically. We increased to three sessions per week, and by two years he received an “A” in English. He has now received all “A’s” on his report card for over a year. We are now learning French and Latin words of origin, and this is having a big impact on his knowledge of language.

Young Boy Starts to Read Road Signs

A 6-year-old boy was not reading at all. He was suspected of having dyslexia He could not learn the alphabet in terms of order sounds, and letters. This prevented him from reading like his peers. His mother was an English tutor who knew there was something wrong and contacted Bridges. We conducted a diagnostic language assessment which revealed specific problem areas and inefficiencies of processing language. Within the first three sessions, he was reading predictable words, and by three months he was able to read grade level texts with assistance. His mother was reporting he was reading highway signs. This rapid improvement occurred with two sessions per week.

Year 5 Girl is Reading Novels

An 11-year-old girl’s parents were aware of their daughter’s learning difficulties before she began formal schooling. They were concerned she was not making the progress they expected despite many interventions. She had short-term working memory difficulties, directionality challenges, slow processing speeds and auditory processing difficulties. By 1 1/2 years of Bridges intervention, she was voluntarily reading novels and had a voracious appetite for reading such texts as “Skullduggery Pleasant” and “The Last 13.” The parents were extremely pleased she’d progressed to reading texts similar to her peers and making progress in other subject areas such as maths

Bright Boy is Reading Newspapers

A 12-year-old boy was having a lot of difficulty with language. He was reading at a year 5 level even though he was receiving lots of help from a special education teacher. His dad had dyslexia, and his parents were aware that he was a very bright boy operating at a high cognitive level. He disliked reading, his writing was scribbly and his spelling was phonetic. He required constant help with writing such as note-taking, so he found subjects like history extremely difficult. After coming to Bridges, he completed an assessment where we identified his challenges and strengths to pinpoint areas we could remediate. After 40 sessions, twice a week, he now enjoys reading the newspaper, his handwriting has improved, and his parents are very satisfied with the improvements he’s made. The boy’s school invited us to work with other students to match the same progress this boy made.

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Year 5 Girl Now has Confidence in her Maths Ability

A year five girl attending a prestigious private girl’s school was reported as having difficulties with attention, learning and remembering information. She was not enthusiastic about learning, and had a lot of anxiety about maths. She was hesitant about completing maths tasks she may be marked as incorrect. We began with highly supportive individualized plans which focused on her gaps of skip counting, double-digit multiplication and multiple-digit subtraction. By three months, she’d mastered skip counting from 2’s to 10’s. During her term report, she received a C+ for the first time instead of D’s and E’s. We began to teach her more complex problems leading up to pre-algebra, and she quickly learned these concepts. She became much less hesitant, and her mum was extremely delighted that her daughter was much more confident about maths.

Boy Masters Times Tables

A boy in year 4 was struggling with his basic facts and place value. He could not easily remember his time tables, and found division difficult. We performed a diagnostic assessment which showed he needed help to form his numbers correctly, he was counting using his fingers and needed help with multiplication and division. We started at the base level to address his foundational needs. Within two months, he showed mastery of skip counting by 10’s, 2’s, 5’s, 9’s, 4’s, 3’s and 25’s. By six months, he’d mastered single digit addition and subtraction., and his confidence in maths had increased substantially. By nine months, he’d mastered his double digits addition and subtraction. He said he could play maths games in class and compete with the top maths students.

Girl on Autism Spectrum Benefits from Tailored Instruction

An 11-year-old girl what on the autism spectrum was struggling with basic maths. She was having difficulties connecting to concepts she was learning at school such as basic facts. After completing a thorough diagnostic assessment, we started the sessions by filling in her specific gaps such as skip counting to help her progress. She benefited immensely by being taught explicitly, so she could begin to see patterns in numbers confidently. Her knowledge of place value to 1 million was very solidified. Her automaticity to complete basic facts such as adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing progressed very well. Her parents were very happy to have found in us somebody who could teach their child in a way she could confidently understand maths.