» Testimonials

Dear Dawn, Greetings from the Faroe Islands! I am now back in the Faroes after a lovely, though rather hectic holiday in Australia and India. I am so grateful that you found the time to test my son Peter. I am so happy that now I will be able to help Peter better, having understood his special learning style.Thank you Dawn! I read the wonderully positive report you´ve written and now I will use it to show his teachers so that they, and others ,can understand dyslexia better.You asked for any corrections. I did find some mistakes but only in the name and address.The rest of the report is perfect!
— Sharon, Faroe Islands

This assessment went very well. Discovered everything I was Concerned about. Very Thorough. Dawn did an awesome job assessing Jayson. Jayson said he is glad he came and hopes Dawn can help him learn better. thanks a lot.
— Kylie Mann

"I wish I had started here 1st as we have done so much and also wasted so much time previously. I really feel I now understand why my son is the way he is. Thank you so much. I can now see the light at the end of our tunnel 10/10"
— Snez

My son also has dyslexia and also auditory processing disorder, he goes to a good school but his self esteem is rock bottom, I would love to find a school that caters for it in SA as I would move house to get the best for him, his behaviour is now his mask because he finds things so difficult, I am at my wits end with problem after problem just wish he could have a lovely normal school life but its not going to happen and he is only 9 so we still have a long way to go.
— Sarah, Adelaide

Just a quick note to thank you for spending so much time with us yesterday. You were SO helpful and Liam feels so much better about everything and his self esteem has lifted! Just a couple of things FYI. I have spoken to the head of the learning centre at Liam's school (as suggested by you) and have an appointment with them on Wednesday. They are organising a laptop for his exclusive daily use commencing the beginning of term 2, is going to inform Liam's teachers, is going to organise locker checks to help Liam be organised, suggested the colour coding as you did, and are talking about scanning all Liam's worksheets into his computer for him (yay!) They were very encouraging, which was FANTASTIC, because I NEVER got this support through high school. I also went home and read your CD on dyspraxia straight away, and feel much more ready to face the world on Liam's behalf armed with all the information you gave us. So thank you, thank you, for helping us. You are very special and we are so thankful! So thanks again, Dawn. Liam says now that he's different, but special and smart! PS. He also thinks your dog is "cool"! Warm regards, Cathy.
— Catherine Maher

I feel I have come away with a much to help my son already. Fantastic to hear someone confirm my suspicions and give me some tolls to use.
— Tracey Narkle

On the way home yesterday Robert said “you know I think that lady understood how my brain works which is pretty good because I don’t think anyone else has really ever understood me” Many thanks I will give the report to Roberts teacher and the flyer about the seminar you run for teachers. Cheers Jannette
— Janette

"Dawn has made me understand dyslexia and my daughter's learning problems I feel like my own confidence has risen, as being a home educator we don't have help and feed back. we will be able to work on your program to help my daughter. Thanks so much Dawn 10/10"
— Heather

Just had to write a huge thankyou to Dawn for all the fantastic work she has done to help my daughter Maddie. Dawn is such a dedicated and passionate person and has always done her best to ensure that all her pupils get the individual teaching they need. I highly recommend all of Dawns books. You will find them invaluable in helping you and your childs teachers understand how these wonderful dyslexics think and learn…..and easy to read too! Dawns determination to change how schools treat and teach dyslexics and kids with learning differences can only benefit us all and see our kids really start to enjoy being at school and learning. Keep up the great work. Regards Gail
— Gail

Hi Dawn Rebecca Mackenzie here the home school family from Safety Bay. Just wanted to let you know how great things have been since we saw you had how much we have achieved, particulary Ruby, the program has made my life and the kids sooooo much easier and they are actually learning yay !!!!! Ive been meaning to let you know for ages but we have been on such a roll there has been no time to waste !!! The home school moderator was equally impressed. 'So thank you thank you thank you, you have changed our lives !! Regards Rebecca
— Rebecca MacKenzie

I am blown away after 10 min of reading Ur sight i feel a whole new undiscovered chapter of my life has opened up?i have struggled mentally frustrated and a father of 2 dealing with so many set backs all due to my own personal learning disabilities and knowing i can do better in life why aren't schools compulsory testing for such problems? i just completed the new TAE training and assessment it was not to bad as there was no maths involved,i cant comprehend anything over fractions,problem solving ,decimal points. i only remember certain times tables and i just end up with anxiety trying to calculate a maths problem always been that way ? but i calculate money in the hand OK but computer illiterate and stubble through life and now i understand why my 14 yr old boy struggles also i am 48 i want to teach and help others what course can i do to help kids so they wont struggle like i have?
— jon , elwood,victoria,australia

I have really enjoyed reading your book, now as a 37 yr old it is funny looking back on my education and seeing my learing tragedies laid out in front of me. I had no idea that people can actually see words before they write them down!! I really concur that it was terrible at reading aloud a school, one teacher told me to pull my socks up!!!. Even now, whilst reading to my children I am not the best, as not being able to read in front I get all the inflections wrong, as they are 3 and 5 they don’t know any better, but I do love reading to them anyway. However I really loved the number counting with the dots on the numbers, that’s what I did, I too found that seven was a hard one to figure where to place ‘seven’ dots when counting!!! When I tried to explain this to my beloved wife she didn’t understand at all. She looked at me strangely just like when I told her that I am unable to visualize the words before it write. I can still remember my yr 11 English teacher, saying with exasperation, “Stuart I don’t understand you, you read everything that is required and more, the your creative writing has far better potential than anyone else in class, but your spelling and grammar are terrible!. What is the matter with you?” I did laugh about trying to find words in the dictionary, and giving up and using another word instead, I did find the thesaurus quite handy for this, as I could work backwards and get the spelling of the word(s) same time. However, there is hope for people, like us, out there, I did finish year 12, however after a couple of years later I redid it, managed to get into uni, not UWA, not unsurprisingly due to not passing English. Although I tried my heart out. Went to ECU completed a BA in Sports Science, then a Dip. Ed in Phys Ed. and lately a BA In Bus, part time, and being asked to do honors!!! Not bad for a chap that can’t spell and has never worked out punctuation. Although I think I might try and work it out for myself. You are completely correct about maths text books and the wording, reading the text book was far harder than understanding the problem. All this time I thought it was me. Anyway, I could go on, luckily I haven’t turned out to be a medieval cleric!! Now both myself and my beloved will be very watchful of both our children, so we can proactively assist when and where required. Warm and best regards,
— Stuart

HI Dawn, I will leave my blog here about the amazing assessment that was done for my 12 year old daughter (Hannah) last month. Hannah had a Skype assessment done here in QLD, live from Perth. Once we semi darkened the room and moved the laptop about, Dawn was able to see most of what she wanted too via the laptop camera. Paying $200 for this service seems little in comparison to what I was quoted in Brisbane $600 for starters. It has been a relief to find out about Dyslexia and now Hannah and I can work together on it.’ She has just started high school here at James Nash, after being homeschooled and after a few discussions between the teachers, she has been able to stay in mainstream use a laptop and be placed in their new ‘digi’ class, class for mainstream kids to use computers etc….I have been really impressed at the willingness of the teachers to help her. I have made a special card for Hannah to show her teachers explaining how she learns best, i.e.) she needs hand outs etc. Keep up the great work to all the parents out there and thanks to Dawn for seeing her artistic ability and abilities. Will keep you posted as I feel like we are making new grounds into the school- educating the educated. I am encouraging my wonderful daughter to pave the way for other dyslexics and others who have a different way of learning. You will see me back as I have 7 other children, 4 of which could have some degree of dyslexia, but that will be another story, Encourage others about the new way of testing via Skype, you will be amazed and blessed!!!
— Withheld

We Now have the answer, it has been the best meeting and advice we have ever had. Thank you so much dawn, you have given us hope.
— Janice Whyte

Hi Dawn, I had parent and teacher interviews today. Hannah has an A – for science. Her teacher said she is looking at putting her into extension !!! canyou believe that. She has an A + for drama, a model student, For English, her teacher said she cannot believe how much she has improved, she is better than some in her class. Yesterday I read her writing and I cannot believe how much she has developed. This time last year she scribbled , now she writes using full stops, I reckeon it has been the use of the laptop- spell check and her determination to succeed. So thanks you for all you have done. I did not realise she could have improved so much. She is really an example to many of us , having the right attitude can bring success.
— Name Withheld

Fantastic, tangible helpful advice. Given me hope for my beautiful intelligent child who has been struggling for years thanks Dawn
— Catherine Maher

Hi Dawn I am having a little trouble logging in, so thought I would go this way. I can not say how greatful I am for your help. Although my 11 year old daughter was diagnosed with dyspraxia several years ago, I really didn’t understand how she saw the world or some of the funny little routines she has like being terrified of the dark. After reading your book, I now have a much better understanding. I read over some of the points in the book with my daughter and she said “That’s me, I’m not weird”. We are now using some of your strategies and things are running much smoother, particularly like giving her a little more time to do things ans say things. Hey the whole family is better organised, as we have just started a new daily routine.
— Withheld

Fantastic I have learnt so much. 100% on top of anything I have done before. without this in formation I have no idea how much worse things would have gotten, feeling very positive for my children's future.
— Rachel Harwwod

Hi Dawn I recently purchased your book and I just love it it is so user friendly and I just want to keep reading it. I am a teacher assistant at a secondary school and have been working with a year 8 girl who is dyslexic your book was mentioned to me in the holidays and after purchasing it can see that it is going to be very useful. So thank you. I would lke to know more about the course that is running at Tafe in WA, is it available on line what age or year level is it aimed at. Look forward to hearing from you, Marisa
— Marissa

Thanks for all your info Dawn & time. When you have a child that never gives up, you want to keep pushing on. Our daughter Sarah, is an anxious child, loves being at home with her family, home body, and loves the water, beach. Sarah has ADD/ADHD, expressive language difficulties, learning difficulties, however very visual, and learns visually, Sarah is 9yrs old. I did the Tick box assessment / for the 8-13yrs for Dyspraxia, Sarah’s score was 19. I also did the Dyslexia late infant or early primary screening sheet Sarah’s score was 12. I am a little dyslexic myself, so probably from my side of the family. Sarah has had expressive speech difficulties since she started to talk, Sarah did speech therapy for 6yrs. Sarah is reading well, Sarah is doing tennis lessons at the moment and has really improved, plus we bought a trampoline, as she takes a while to try new things, and the trampoline takes her out of her comfort zone which is good, Dawn suggests the wobble board which is brilliant for balance also. Sarah is learning to surf on a surfboard, we are seeing big improvements in all area’s of her gross motor skills, all these things help her confidence, In the past I have tried Sarah on Omega fish oil since little, taken her to occupational behavioural optometry, speech therapy, neuro psychologist, you name it. I would like to say Dawn has up to date research and provides practical resources for children like Sarah who don’t learn the mainstream way. I wished all states in Australia would adopt Dawn’s methods of teaching children that learn differently, our daughter is very visual and Dawn’s resources are fantastic. Thanks again [name withheld, Sydney Australia]
— dawn

I feel Dawn has made a lot more practical sense. I Look froward to be working with Dawn in the future. Thank you very much
— Kevin Gervasi

this assessment was relevant to my child. I can put these strategies into place straight away which is fantastic. Its nice to hear the positive things that my daughter can do.
— Leisa reid