See The RESULTS

In a note to the teacher at the beginning of the school year Emma's mother wrote, "Emma is behind academically. She has been tested twice. It appears she has 'central auditory processing disorder.' Emma has difficulty expressing herself as well as understanding instructions. The more detailed the instructions, the more difficult it is for her to understand.

"It would be helpful for her to be at the front of the class. If the "hum" of the classroom is up, she will not hear as much as usual. She will need instructions repeated."

The graphs below map Emma's progress in "Inital Sound Fluency" and "Letter Naming Fluency" from September to April. The graphs are representative of Emma's significant progress and the effectiveness of The ABCs and All of Me! approach to literacy.

The improvement in Emma's literacy skills over the course of the school year prompted her mother to write,

“Thank you for being Emma’s teacher this year. She learns best with music. I am so impressed with the way you implement music and body movements in your teaching. It has really helped Emma. I had really tried hard to teach Emma her ABCs and numbers prior to kindergarten. I am very happy about her success in your class. It is a triumph to me and especially to Emma . . . I have one more child to send through the public school system. It would be wonderful to have you teach this child.”

Giselle would look at the illustrations, mimic the other children as they moved, and follow along in our ‘singing books’ as we sang daily in preparation for the DIBELS assessment which would take place after our return from Christmas vacation. I took a book and CD (and a translator) to her home and showed her mother and aunt how to move and sing with her for the eight days of break that we had.

Upon returning to school in January a classroom aide was working with Gisselle and using magnetic letters. When Gisselle saw the letter “L” she immediately picked it up and licked it! The aide was initially horrified, but quickly realized Gisselle had made a multi-modal connection. Gisselle had recognized the L and it's accompanying action from The ABCs and All of Me! letter song (“He likes to lick lemon lollipops. (/l/ /l/ /l/”).

But he was happy in our class and the children loved him, so I suggested we give him until December to make adequate progress and then meet again for further discussion. The graphs below map Peter's significant progress.

Peter immediately took to The ABCs and All of Me! letter song, movements, and materials. As the year progressed Peter could pick out letters, attempt to trace them, and even name them. I gave his mother a copy of our book/CD and suggested they sing/read it together every night at bedtime. His progress was amazing.