Dr. Sylvia R. Smith
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See-N-Read® Reading Tools were originally designed to help our youngest daughter who did not enjoy reading when she was in elementary school. Robin had a hard time keeping up with the other children in reading class. She struggled to focus and complete reading assignments on time, which caused her to feel “dumb” (her word), lose confidence in herself and worst of all, avoid reading at all costs. As a former teacher, I knew that if my daughter lost confidence in her ability to read at the age of seven, her chances of succeeding in school would be severely limited. We all know that when children believe that they can’t succeed at something, getting them to do it is nearly impossible! As I observed Robin’s struggles, I realized that she needed something to build her reading speed while helping her focus on what she was reading!

Robin was able to read individual words; that was not a problem. The problem appeared when she had to read words in sentences. She found herself reading much more slowly than other children in her class, which affected both her comprehension and her self-confidence. As I listened to Robin read, I noticed that she would lose her place on the page and often read the same line twice. It appeared that her eyes had difficulty moving left to right in a smooth action across the page. They seemed to jump around the page, affecting her reading fluency and causing her to read slowly. I began to research different methods to help Robin’s eyes flow more smoothly across the page believing that, if she didn’t lose her place on the page, she could see what she had just read and what was to come without distraction and would read much faster and focus longer.

With these objectives in mind, the original goal of the tool that became the See-N-Read® was to help Robin improve her reading speed by keeping her eyes on the line she was reading and filtering out distractions on the page. Much to my relief, when Robin used the See-N-Read® she read more confidently, which helped her comprehension as she became consumed with stories and characters rather than worrying about reading slowly.

Many years have since gone by and Robin has achieved numerous honor-roll placements, been a successful student-athlete, graduated from a major university, has been published in a professional journal and is now a confident and successful young business woman. She is now a person who loves to learn, in large part because, as a child, she overcame the challenges that reading presented to her. See-N-Read® helped my daughter believe what I knew all along! That she is a smart, talented person with all the potential in the world.

Our eldest daughter, Jenna, was an elementary school teacher (she now teaches at the university level) and encountered students every year who faced the same reading and learning challenges that Robin did. A few years ago, she asked me if I would make some See-N-Read® Reading Tools for her students. At her request, I took the idea out of the file cabinet and developed the new and improved version that we now call See-N-Read® Reading Tools. After years of research, refinements and piloting, See-N-Read® Reading Tools received its U.S. Patent (No. 7,954,444) and is now available to you!

The success of See-N-Read® Reading Tools in helping readers with tracking, visual processing, fluency and comprehension led to research on methods to address other common thinking and learning barriers. This research and testing led to the development of our other practical and easy to use learning tools for issues such as on-line reading, spelling and study skills.

I hope See-N-Read® Learning Tools helps you, or someone you know, to experience more fully the joy of reading and the love of learning.