Toe by Toe: A Highly Structured Multi-sensory Reading Manual for Teachers and Parents

I've read some of the bad reviews about this book and one of them complains that it is boring, that too much repetition is required and not enough variety. Another complains about the lack of pictures. I spent a whole year with my then 8 year old daughter doing the exercises every day. Repetition - I believe - is the only way to learn something properly even for non dyslexics (although they may do it faster and in a less organized, hence 'invisible' manner). My daughter can now read quite well - from being 6 months behind (as measured by SATS) she is now 6 months ahead with her reading. If judged by her reading ability only, one could tell no difference between her and a 'normal' bright child. Yet, her still atrocious spelling gives away dyslexia so now I'm tackling it in the same repetitive way we've tackled the reading (this book will teach reading only, a dyslexic child needs to learn reading and writing separately - and reading first). I find this book very good, a life saviour. It does however, require very good discipline, a helper who will do the exercises with the child and a lot of persistence. If you are too busy or can't commit for any other reason then it's not going to work, so buying it will be a waste of money. Yet, so far as I've observed there is no magic 'cure' for dyslexia and the only way to tackle it is through working. And this book gives an excellent basis for working on the reading. Still, two of my friends have found the routine too challenging and gave up (their children are still behind with the reading as they found no 'easier' alternative). If you want to help your child and are prepared to spend 10 - 15 minutes a day with them going through the exercises then this is for you. It took us more or less a full calendar year to complete the book. She has not only learned good reading skills but the daily routine gave her a good basis for learning how to be disciplined. It also gave her confidence that she can tackle other problems in the same methodical way (ie. we're exercising spelling on a daily basis now, a few sentences at a time, little by little). She knows that it may take her longer than it takes a 'normal' child but the result is the same, and this is what counts.

I started Toe by Toe with my profoundly dyslexic son on the recommendation of a friend when he was 6. We have been working on this over the last 19 months and are now 3/4 of the way through. We spend 20 minutes 4-5 times a week. The book is very structured with straight forward instructions. This means that I can coach him having no personal teaching experience . There are no distractions which works well for a child with significant literacy and attention issues. The mix of real and made up words using syllable division and over-learning really works. There is no doubt that it requires motivation to stick at this but the improvement is real and has been sustained. His reading age has increased from 5 years 5 months at the start to 8 years 1 month in 17 months. This has been truly amazing and the progress has far outstripped that expected by his teachers. He is now keen to read and this improvement has been significant for his learning in all subjects. His twin without literacy issues has benefited from the syllable division technique and his reading has also improved dramatically. We have also used Stareway to spelling with great success for my dyslexic son and Stride Ahead with my 9 year old in order to improve fluency and hence comprehension. Keda Cowling has produced a truly fantastic resource that I would really recommend. It has been a bit of a labour of love but worth every minute to now see the results which are truly amazing! This is a work book so buy new Edit It has taken 2 years and we have now finished! Reading age has increased from 5 years 5 months at the start, to 10 years 7 months at the end, with an actual age of 8 years 0 months. The single intervention of using Toe by Toe has without a doubt changed his life. Thank you Keda Cowling.

I found this book when I was desperately trying to find something to help my 7 year old son learn to read. He is bright, very articulate but struggled with reading and didn't want to try anymore. He loved being read to, but didn't want to read to us. Because he couldn't read very well it also meant that he couldn't read the questions on his maths worksheets very accurately, so his confidence was plummeting. Most of the time he didn't want to try because it was hard and he didn't believe that he could do it. His school was unsupportive and his teacher just regarded him as a problem. We have since found out he is dyslexic but we didn't know that then, because it was difficult to tell if he couldn't do it because he so often refused to do it and we had no experience of dyslexia so we didn't recognise the signs. So I was doggedly searching through Amazon looking for ideas, and after a false start which a different book I found Toe by Toe. It starts with the individual letter sounds, my son though it was a bit babyish and beneath him, it builds and builds to an astonishing level of complexity. When I got the book I read the last exercise and hoped but wondered how on earth we could get to that standard. We started on Jan 2nd and finished in December, we missed very few days. Even when he could see the progress he was making my son still didn't always want to sit down and do it. But it was non-negotiable. On some days we had fun with it. I explained the meanings of advanced words, which helped him to remember them. We both made up silly definitions for the nonsense words. He started to tell all sorts of people about Toe by Toe. So from being a year behind in his chronological reading age he is now 2 years and 2 months ahead and he reads for pleasure - which is huge change.....new worlds are opening up for him. Yesterday I heard that he has been moved up a maths group. What this book has enabled us to achieve feels nothing short of a miracle. I can see my son's confidence growing little by little. It has been a hard grind, but very rewarding. As long as you are prepared to stick with it progress will be made. What this book has enabled us to achieve feels wonderfully miraculous. Keda Cowling is a genius. May 2023 update It’s 10 years since I wrote my original review, I feel so strongly about the ability of this book to transform lives I felt compelled to update my review, just in case it helps to persuade someone to invest in this book - the money to buy it and the time needed to work through it with your child/ student/ friend. Without doubt as a result of completing this book the trajectory of my son’s life changed massively for the better. As he went through school he achieved a reading age of 18 by the time he was 13 year’s old. He is confident, he can read anything with ease and he is happy. He gained strong GCSE results, the only subject that was “a bridge too far” was French, so with the school’s agreement that was dropped from his timetable. He is currently doing his A levels and expects to go to University in the autumn. In addition to Toe by Toe I recommend audio books from Audible. He loved them and still does, most are space fantasy stories, but there are also factual ones like the Etymologicon which explains the origins of words. My son’s vocabulary developed faster and further than most of his classmates’ did. This meant that while his reading ability was still embryonic, he had an English skills he excelled at. He is still Dyslexic, he would score 1 and 0 in the weekly spelling tests in Year 3 despite lots of practice at home, the words were just to difficult for him. We agreed with the school that he would have his own more basic lists of words to learn each week so that he could make progress. Over the years his spelling has improved (it would still be judged as being behind his chronological age, but it is functional, and using a laptop at school from Y3 has helped with this. In most instances he can now see when a spelling doesn’t look right (I’m sure his reading ability has contributed to this). This is a massive step, because before he would spell the word “said” incorrectly in 4 different ways, all within the same paragraph. He now writes A’ level essays for History of the standard required to get a decent grade. I am so thankful that I found Toe by Toe, sometimes doing it was a slog because my son just didn’t want to sit at the table and focus, other days it was a complete joy to do together. We both had an immense feeling of achievement when we finished the book. As a Mum it is the thing I am most proud of. His life chances and opportunities have expanded a thousand fold as a result of being able to read, is happy and confident in his academic ability. I can’t wait to see what did does next!

You need to be patient and work every day but ... it Woks!

We are half way through the book, but I wanted to write a review here and update again when we have finished. So far, we have committed to doing 20 minutes or more (there has been the odd day we have done 15) every single day. Weekdays, weekend, event on, going off to a sleep over - whatever it is, we do Toe by Toe every. single day. My twins are almost 12 and I did they Toe By Toe reading age test (I found this test you can do before and after you start through the facebook group, and then emailed Frank Cowling who kindly replied and sent the test document to print) my boys are at reading age 6.5 and 7 years old. We have a long way to go. I am very hopeful Toe by Toe will work for us, and can not wait to see how they test at the end of the book, I also plan to continue on with Stride ahead, once we have finished. What we have noticed so far, half way through. - No longer 'b' and 'd' reversal (or at least very very little) - self confidence and determination "I just read this word" points to 'consume' and 'content' and 'sympathetic' - Confidence to read things around them in the real world than ask others to read for them, more of a 'have a go' attitude - A feeling of accomplishment through strategic systems placed in the book, such as a rubber banned on what has been completed, and having the child draw a line across the page when it is done and saying "you never have to do that page again" they can see their progress. - wanting me to take a photo of a page they have read without any mistake and send it to their school teacher, feeling proud of themselves and seeing themselves as someone who can read. I will note, I do read over the 'coach' box before I do the lesson with them, and I watch the 'how to' guides on youtube as I am a parent and have no teaching skill what so ever, and we have always struggled with homework, but with the Youtube 'how to's' and the facebook group it helped and now I understand and feel confident. I also had my sons watch a video on the Youtube Toe by Toe account of a young boy describing his experience with the book, so my children did not feel alone when beginning and seeing the success of someone else before them. What else: So for my gamer boys, we have incentives/bribes they are Fortnite players and they get the battle bass bought for them on their nintendos (every 10 weeks) if they commit each night, it has become such a routine each day, and they want to be able to read so badly, that they do it without fuss. If I see them becoming a bit flat and bored as it is very dry, I write a little treat a few pages away and they know it's coming - for example at the half way mark a treat is written, and later in the book a treat for myself with them, I have written on one of the pages we are going out to our favourite place for dinner, so they are looking forward to completing lessons to get to that reward. It helps them to commit every single day. I will update once we have completed the book, but I read these reviews over and over myself, and if this review helps another parent, I figured I might as well share our experience with others who are facing the same struggles.

My daughter learned alot

This book will be help my child's knowledge grow in English.

Fantastic for my son with a reading disability. He improved drastically and felt really good about his progress! Highly recommend.