I am a big fan of the Early Words programme and have found it to be very successful in our school.
Samantha Pelham, Ouruhia School

We have started running Early Words with our Year 1 remedial children and some of our Year 0’s as a kick start daily with a teacher aide. We are loving the programme and are seeing big gains in both their recognition of words and confidence in learning.
Ngaio Dalton, Year 0/1 Team Leader, Parkvale School

I am a teacher of children with delayed language, and have found the Early Words system invaluable. It provides a systematic, straight-forward method of learning essential words with lots of repetition in different forms. My pupils who participate in the programme love the feeling of success in reading they get. Their smiles say it all!
I don't see my children on a daily basis, so progress is perhaps slower than it could be, however they are all making progress and I can go as fast or as slowly as necessary, spending a lot of time doing repeat lessons with some, skipping through with others. I am able to use the system to suit the individual needs of each student.
I highly recommend the Early Words course to all teachers of early literacy....in fact have said so to many teachers since doing the course!
Susan Skarsholt, Resource Teacher of Deaf Children, Auckland

Just to let you know that I am seeing some amazing results using the Early Words programme. When I suggested to one boy that he could go to reading group, his little mouth dropped and he said that he wanted to keep doing this.
His Early Words programme is done out of school time, with me. Not only have I seen the results with his reading, but his attitude in the classroom has changed. I believe that the 5 minutes per day one to one with him has built a relationship of trust and therefore has had great impact on all his learning.

Robyn Sibtsen, St Mary's School

Thanks so much Yolanda. Once again another fantastic course run by you. I am using Early Words with a little boy in my room who I have struggled with all year and now both him and I are seeing success in just two weeks. Wow! It really does work! Looking forward to getting the rest of my team onboard next year.

Jane Scotland, Deputy Principal, Mt Pleasant School

This is a fantastic programme Yolanda. Children I have taken for the programme have made excellent gains in both their reading and storywriting. And they enjoy it!

Sharon Chisnall, Teacher Aide, St Albans School

I am a NE teacher and attended the phonics training last year. It has been invaluable and am now seeing the fruits through particularly story writing. It was at this course that Yolanda informed us of an early words programme that had been devised. I had been waiting patiently and recently bought this myself to implement it. With no training in this as yet, I have the programme up and running successfully thanks to the fantastic easy to use manual and dvd. I am completely astounded how quickly our new additions to the room are picking up those ever so important early words. It is fun to teach as well as fun for the children to learn and complete at home as well. Parents are even seeing how beneficial it is and giving feedback as to how quickly their children are learning these words and retaining them. Thumbs up Yolanda. I love it.
Carmen Murray, NE teacher, Woodhill School

The great advantage of Early Words for me is that it got my pupils looking at words. It taught them to look properly at the black squiggly lines and this made teaching them to read much faster. I loved the way they felt so successful because within five minutes of the programme, they can read a page of text which is very exciting if you have never been able to do that before. And, the lessons are fun!

Linda Grant, NE teacher, New Lynn School

I have put three of my kids onto the Early Words programme- they all love it and it is working well. I taught one mum to do it with her little girl - she is flying.

Angela Bowers, NE teacher, Tikipunga Primary

I have used the Early Words Programme from New Entrant students to Year 4 for a few years now & swear on it !!! It is an incredibly well thought out programme.
It is short, fun and full of impact with outstanding results for students. With 1-1 pointing, reading, sweeping to the left, writing the target word clearly AND reading the sentence from day 1… how many of us can truly say we’ve ever achieved that in five minutes ??? At a glance, students are able to make meaning from cues. Due to simplicity and repetition, students are able to re-read and continue writing at home.
MY MOST PRECIOUS MEMORY is of an 8 year old boy, whom couldn’t retain information in reading or writing.

After 3 days of using this programme, he was hooked !!!

After 8 days, his family were commenting on his growth.
After 1 week he chose to sit at the front of the mat - hungry to learn.
After 3 weeks he was sourcing words from memory and writing basic sentences.
After 5 weeks he recognized his first word on the whiteboard with no prompting at all.

What does that tell you? Try it !

Jayne Bowen, Y0/5 Teacher / Maori Resource Provider - Te Ao Maori, Christchurch

more testimonials coming soon..........