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Programs
Stop the struggle and let your child reach their true potential.
The Davis programs are highly effective for solving problems with reading, writing, math, attention focus (ADD), hyperactivity (ADHD), coordination and speech. Ron Davis has developed specific procedures and exercises for all these areas. |
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At dyslexia answered, each student's program is custom tailored to address the person's unique needs.
***A Davis program is suitable for adults and children.***
For the Davis Program to be effective, a person must be personally motivated and willing to improve some aspect of learning or school performance. We also require that our clients disclose all medications.
Initial Consultation and Perceptual Ability Screening
Davis Dyslexia Correction® begins with an assessment to determine whether the program is appropriate for the client, and if it is, how it should be structured. The specific characteristics of dyslexic learning disabilities are nearly as varied as the individuals who experience them. For this reason correction is not a one-size-fits-all process; each program must be designed to meet the needs of the individual client. Assessment helps determine that design. When the client is a child, parents participate in part of the assessment process.
The Assessment consultation takes approximately three hours. Our assessments don’t “feel” like tests – they are relaxing and most clients find them fun!
Davis Dyslexia Correction® Program
The individualised Davis Dyslexia Correction® Program is a one-to-one program with a qualified Davis facilitator that gives you the tools to conquer the problem once and for all. You first learn to focus effortlessly. Next, you master the alphabet and punctuation in clay.
You learn the three steps to easier reading, and then we move on to mastering what we call “trigger words”. Even though there are only 217 of these words in the English language, they still make up about half of all we read. They cause reading difficulties, as they don’t translate easily into picture thinking. Once you have truly mastered their meaning, they no longer cause dyslexia symptoms. |
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Duration: Approximately 30 hours, over five days.
Following the 30 hour program, follow-up sessions are required to complete Davis Symbol MasterySM on trigger words. We recommend weekly sessions over a twelve month period. Trigger words are all the abstract words that trigger confusion as they have no picture when we read or write them. Symbol Mastery is when a meaning of the trigger word is modeled in clay using the definition in the dictionary. In this way, the three parts of a word –what it looks like, what it sounds like and what it means become united and the confusing ‘blank’ images are resolved. There are over 200 words that have no picture, or have multiple meanings.
On the last day of the program, we can train a support person in their role, and in the use of the Davis tools, or the client can return to “clay club” to complete the Symbol Mastery with a facilitator.
The follow-up work is imperative to the success of program, as the learning difficulty has not been permanently conquered until this work is done. If this work is not done there is a risk that the benefits already experienced may fade away within a year or two.
After the 30-hour facilitation clients can return at no additional charge for a short refresher if needed, and they are also entitled to unlimited telephone consultations with their facilitator. There is never a charge for a telephone consultation.
The Basic Program involves five consecutive days, Monday through Friday, of one-on-one facilitation.
The Davis Dyslexia Correction Program includes:
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Five consecutive days of one-to-one facilitation. |
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Support training for clients' families, tutors or teachers on the afternoon of the fifth day to ensure post-program follow-up and success. |
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All necessary take-home materials for program follow-up. |
Davis Math Mastery ProgramSM
The Davis Math Mastery Program is a one-to-one program with a qualified Davis facilitator gives you the tools to master the foundation concepts underlying all math and math function exercises.
You will master basic language symbols as needed, complete Davis math function exercises, practice reading story problems, and learn to master key glossary words of math text book.
Duration: Approximately 30 hours, over five days.
Davis Concept Mastery Program for ADD/ADHD
The Davis Concept Mastery Program is a drug-free approach that provides individuals with effective tools to correct problems with hyperactivity, hypoactivity, inability to focus, difficulty staying on task, and inappropriate social behaviours.
The Davis approach goes to the root causes of why some people have problems controlling their attention, energy level, and social interaction, and resolves them.
Duration: Approximately 30 hours, over five days.
Davis Program for Young Learners
The Best Start: Young learners deserve the best start we can give them. Strong research evidence suggests that children who are exposed to Davis methods at K-3 age benefit in the following ways:
Modeling words
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They are highly unlikely to develop a learning difficulty. |
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They are significantly more likely to qualify for gifted program referrals. |
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Their basic word recognition will be among the highest levels expected for their age group. |
The Davis™ Reading Program for Young Learners is an individualized learning enhancement program with a licensed and trained Davis Facilitator. Its mission is to give children aged 5-8 the best possible start at the outset of their learning career. Its aims are:
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to provide lifelong learning skills to younger children through a partnership between Facilitator, child and parent(s) |
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to give one or both of the child's parents, or a support person, sufficient confidence and skill to continue working with the Davis Young Learner's Kit after the program |
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to provide children with the conceptual skills needed to develop reading fluency and comprehension |
The Davis™ Reading Program for Young Learners provides important tools to beginning readers. Through the unique partnership philosophy of the program, parents or other family members gain the skills needed to provide the child with ongoing quality support. Typically, the Facilitator will schedule 25-30 hours of time with the student; the program time will also include the parent or support person participating in helping the child with the new skills and techniques.
The Young Learners Program is a learning enhancement program based on the Davis Method and can be applied to anyone 5 – 8 years old. The programs main focus is to teach the parent/helper the system which includes Davis Focusing Strategies, Davis Symbol Mastery and Davis Reading Exercises. As part of the program, students will always receive the Davis Young Learner Kit for Home Use, to be used at home to follow up with the program.
Payment may be made by cheque, credit card, eftpos or cash.
The Clay Club
The Clay Club is a weekly gathering, where kids get together and create their ‘trigger words’ in clay under the supervision of a facilitator. The club is designed for symbol mastery in a fun environment with their peers.
The Clay Club meets Thursdays, between 4pm and 6pm, and Saturdays, between 2pm and 5pm. |
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Supplies
Included in each program, the client will receive a Davis Dyslexia Association kit with the following materials necessary for the program and completion of the post-program work.
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Student Manual – containing written information about all the strategies (tools) taught during the program. |
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Websters New World Children’s Dictionary |
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Two pounds of Klean Clay |
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Two Koosh balls |
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Symbol Mastery™ Poster |
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Punctuation Mastery Poster |
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Checking Your Grammar (grammar guide from Scholastic) |
Additional or replacement materials can be ordered from dyslexia answered as required.
The program is based on the book,
The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D Davis.
Copies are available from dyslexia answered
How much improvement?
Contrary to what they often heard from teachers, it’s not that dyslexics never paid attention in school or simply refused to concentrate. Every bit as eager to learn as anyone else, they often paid very close attention in class and strove harder than most. But they were unable to gain the benefit of instruction that didn’t take their perceptual gifts or learning style into account. During the week-long program, many clients experience dramatic improvement in reading, because through correction they discover how to access and make use of their prior learning. ALL clients will see improvement in the course of the week, but the amount varies with the individual. It is common to see an improvement of one or more grade levels in reading by the end of the 30-hour program. However, client follow-through will make a lasting difference, leading to continued progress even after the program.
By the end of the 30 hour program, the client has normally already experienced a significant change in self-esteem and the areas that he/she decided to focus on, whether it is reading or spelling.
The follow-up work is imperative to the success of program, as the learning difficulty has not been permanently conquered until this work is done.
If this work is not done there is a risk of the benefits already experienced may fade away within a year or two.
You can also decide to join the Clay Club to do your clay work under the supervision of a qualified Davis facilitator.
An important difference
The Davis program does not rely on any of the following:
Instructional interventions, like phonics training, worksheets, repetition, or drill.
Chemical interventions, like herbal remedies, over-the-counter or prescription medications*
Mechanical interventions, like color overlays, large print
*If you are taking any medication when you undergo assessment for a Davis Dyslexia Correction program, make certain you inform the facilitator! Certain kinds of medication can alter your perceptions and affect the efficacy of your program.
Research
 Davis learning strategiesSM
Iceland
UK
Davis learning strategiesSM
The Davis Learning Strategies have been extensively researched and published, with very encouraging results. Seven schools in California piloted a trial run of Davis Learning Strategies for seven years. None of the seven schools had a single special needs referral during the trial period. Furthermore, gifted referrals in the seven schools were ranging from 100% to 800% higher than the US national average of 5% (10-40% of the classrooms were referred to accelerated programs).
See DLS website
DLS research article
25-Nov-2004
download now
An article published in the peer-reviewed American journal Reading Improvement in 2001.
DLS research paper
25-Nov-2004
download now
The first pilot study into the effects of Davis Learning strategies, done in Californian schools 1993-1997.
Axel Gudmundsson is a Davis facilitator who has successfully implemented the programs in Icelend and the UK. He is the founder director of (hyperlink)Lesblind.com in Iceland and (hyperlink)Gifted Dyslexic in the UK. Axel shares with us some of his findings about the Iceland and UK projects.
Iceland
The Icelandic project is already a roaring success as Axel Gudmundsson, Davis facilitator and founder director of Lesblind.com in Iceland and Gifted Dyslexic in the UK, describes:
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My initial talk in Feb. 2003 had a surprise audience of 700 instead of the 30-40 anticipated. A couple of hundred people had to be turned away because the location was overcrowded. The total number of people trying to attend amounts to 0,3% of the Icelandic population. Another way to put this into context, is to realise that when sir Richard Attenborough gave an open lecture before Christmas 2003 to promote his bestseller book in Iceland, he had the same attendance |
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At the talk we conducted a survey in order to see what the audience wanted and the results were overwhelming |
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The survey showed that about 90 people out of the 170 that got a copy of the survey - we didn't expect this size audience - confirmed that they wanted a correction program ASAP. This is 50% and if we presume that the survey reflected the whole group of 900 people that tried to attend, I was faced with a waiting list of over 400 people. Considering that I was the only trained Davis facilitator in the whole of Scandinavia, coupled with the fact that I actually live in London and didn't intend to work much in my native Iceland, - and my annual capacity of clients is limited to around 25 - I was faced with a 20 year waiting list |
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I realised that I had to put in place resources to deal with this demand, so I got the parents of another successful client in Iceland to start a company with me - Lesblind.com - to manage the Icelandic Project |
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I had already set up a website which now is called www.lesblind.com, and is now the biggest and most popular learning difficulty website in Iceland |
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I organised an immediate translation and publishing of the book “The Gift of Dyslexia” which was published within 6 months - on Ron Davis' birthday August 8 |
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To celebrate the launch of the book in Icelandic we arranged a talk by Ron Davis with an audience of 650 people |
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We donated the book free of charge to every single primary school in Iceland |
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We produced a globally unique video to supplement the book when used in DIY dyslexia correction |
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We sent out a SOS to the global Davis Facilitator community and over the first year we shipped in foreign facilitators from all over the world - some from as far as Australia - in order to offer some relief to the immediate need. In the first year of operation we provided correction programs to about 100 Icelandic dyslexics by foreign facilitators with a very satisfying success rate |
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Training of 20 Icelandic Davis facilitators to offer dyslexia correction in Iceland |
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Setting up a centre - Lesblind.com - where Icelandic Davis facilitators can work together under one roof |
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Training of 120 primary school teachers, representing 20% of Icelandic primary schools which means we are on target for introducing the Davis methods in every primary school in Iceland within 5 years from now. This could mean a dramatic drop in numbers of learning disabled in the Icelandic education system. Included In this is a primary school with over 600 pupils, where all 45 members of staff (teaching and administration) had Davis training. This particular school is preparing a three-year study comparing their own performance with another local school which has for years been parallel in performance |
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Successful “Festival of Dyslexia” with participation from a selection of the leading artists in Iceland – gifted with dyslexia of course |
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Piloting schemes where trade unions subsidise dyslexia correction programs |
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Piloting a successful workshop called “Back to Work” where unemployed dyslexics are corrected, and subsequently given basic computer training in order to prepare them for the workplace |
After this success in Iceland, Axel decided to focus his energy in London with the dream of creating the same success here in the UK, and eventually globally.
UK
There are just under 3.5m students in 17,700 primary schools and just under 3.5m in 3,400 secondary schools in UK.
This is a total of almost 7m students in primary and secondary education, and the costs are as follows:
According to the Department for Education, expenditure on education services by central and local government in the UK in 2002-03 was £30.5 billion on primary and secondary schools, or about £4,500 expenditure for each student in primary and secondary education every year.
If we assume that 10% of the £30.5 billion primary and secondary education budget is spent on special needs, we can estimate the special needs budget to be about £3 billion every year.
This is very interesting, given that an initial seven year study after introducing Davis Learning Strategies (DLS) in seven Californian schools showed that referrals for special needs were eliminated. There was not a single special needs referral in any of the schools for seven years. The average cost of introducing Davis Learning Strategies in a primary school is less than £5,000.
This amounts to a total cost of less than £100 million - once only - to introduce DLS in each and every primary school in the UK.
Total expenditure on education services by central and local government in the UK in 2002-03 was £53.8 billion for education up to and including higher education. This amount was split into £35.2 billion spent by local education authorities and £18.6 billion spent by central government.
If DLS is introduced at a primary level, we can expect that in 15 years these children will have filtered up the whole education system, right through to higher education. At that time we can hope to be saving up to 10% of the £53.8 billion for education up to and including higher education. This amounts to a saving £5 billion every year in our education budget.
This is very exciting, but we haven't even begun to look at a figure which The Dyslexia Institute estimates to be around £1 billion, and I think is a very conservative estimate. This is the cost to society when young people drop out of education and sign up for unemployment benefits or get tempted by a life of crime which can offer instant short-term gratification for a person with broken self-esteem and a poor sense of consequence. A recent study commissioned by the British Dyslexia Association showed the percentage of dyslexics among young offenders to be almost 60%. This study mentioned a larger study - also commissioned by the BDA - where the early indications are considerably higher, or close to 80% dyslexics among offenders.
The Davis methods have been shown to successfully address the issue which often is at the root of anti-social behaviour - a diminished sense and understanding of consequence. This issue is at the root of denial, which again is a key component in addictive behaviour and crime - not realising how we are affecting our own prospects and other people´s lives.
These are the potential savings as a result of introducing DLS, but that is just one side of the coin. The previously mentioned studyin the seven schools in California showed that the average for gifted students rose by 100%-800%. This is probably an indication that the picture thinkers manage to harness their gift when the teaching methods cater for their needs, but this probably also indicates that Davis Learning Strategies enhance learning for every single student in the classroom. As a result of a nationwide introduction of DLS we expect to see a significant rise in innovation, productivity and growth, which could well amount to a lot more value than the savings of £5bn earlier mentioned.
Our opinion is that DLS is an experiment that no school, local education authority, local or central government can afford not to explore.
FAQs
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What can I or my child expect to gain? |
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The basic tools of literacy, including:
- The ability to recognize and correct perceptual distortions at will.
- The ability to focus attention.
- The knowledge and skills for how to eliminate confusions in words and symbols.
- Increased self-confidence and ability in reading, writing, math or physical skills.
- A successful and effective method of learning and studying that can be used throughout a lifetime.
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How does the Davis Program differ from other programs for learning difficulties? |
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The Davis methods address the root cause of learning disabilities. The student learns how to control disorientation at will. This program corrects the learning disability using the natural strengths and talents of the individual's personal thinking and learning style. It is fun. Many other programs address only the symptoms and involve a lot of repetition (which dyslexics often find boring and tedious).
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What happens during the Davis program? |
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These are the basic procedures:
- Davis Perceptual Ability Assessment. A screening to determine the ability to perceive multi-dimensionally and tailor the program to the student.
- Davis Orientation CounselingSM. The client learns to perceive accurately and correct perceptions at will. This is done through the perceptual and kinesthetic exercises described in The Gift of Dyslexia. For an online article that describes disorientation, click here.
- Davis Symbol MasterySM. Picture thinkers learn best through a visual/spatial approach. Our clients learn the basic symbols of reading and writing by creating the alphabet and other symbols as clay models. Abstract words are mastered by creating the concept of each meaning in clay along with the word. You will see some examples used as illustrations on this web site.
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Can Davis Dyslexia Correction® help solve other learning problems? |
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Yes. Here are a few examples:
- Dysgraphia (handwriting difficulties)
- Dyscalculia (math difficulties)
- ADD (attention deficit disorder)
- Auditory perception deficits
- Motor coordination difficulties
- Problems with time and order.
These stem from the same cause as dyslexia, so they too can be corrected. |
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Why do you say correct instead of cure? |
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Cure implies a malady or ill health (mental or physical). Correct means to remove errors and mistakes, to make right. |
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How does the program affect a person's self-esteem? |
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Improvement in self-esteem is usually seen in the first few days of the program as the person begins to experience success with learning for the first time. |
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Who can benefit from the Davis Program? |
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Adults and children seven years and older who are gifted with dyslexia. Each client must be willing and motivated to pursue the program for self-improvement, not because someone else insists. |
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How much improvement can be expected at the end of the 5-day Program? |
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Typically, at least a one to two year grade level of improvement can be expected in reading or some other basic skill. The age of the client and initial motivation are factors in how much improvement occurs. Future progress is determined by the individual's motivation, and continued use of Symbol Mastery after the program. |
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Can someone lose their natural abilities after your program? |
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No. The Davis approach emphasises and utilises the natural strengths and talents of the dyslexic thinking and learning style. It unleashes and validates the ability of visual-spatial- kinestethic learners. In fact, any natural abilities are usually enhanced. |
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What happens after the program? |
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The client must master a list of 217 trigger words which limit reading comprehension and skill. This can be completed in short tutoring sessions over several months after the basic program. At the rate of five words per week, this can be accomplished within one year. Follow-up support is also included as part of the program. This consists of:
- Student Symbol Mastery Kit (includes manual, dictionary, grammar book, clay and other study aids)
- Training for a tutor, teacher, and family members
- Telephone consultations
- Up to three return visits to review the basic Davis tools, if needed.
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Are there alternatives to the program? |
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Yes. We suggest you:
- read The Gift of Dyslexia and follow the steps
- use instructional videos that will assist you in applying these methods
- attend a workshop and learn how to use the Davis methods with your child or student. For workshop information, or if you want to find a provider in another part of the world, visit the Davis Dyslexia Association International web site.
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Can I speak with others who have been through your program? |
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Certainly. We can fax or mail you a list of people who have said they would be happy to share their experiences with others. |
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How can you know whether or not to discontinue phonics instruction with a dyslexic child? |
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The most significant sign that phonics instruction is not working is frustration. If the child regularly shows sign of frustration with any method - such as anger, tears, or unwillingness to proceed -- the attempts to teach by that approach should cease, and another approach should be tried. The biggest mistake is to pursue a course relying on repetition and drill with an unwilling child. Most dyslexic children are very quick to grasp concepts that they easily understand; if a child is slow to learn pre-reading or reading skills, it is a sure sign that the approach is not working. Intensifying the instruction will not help.
Some dyslexic children find it easy to learn to work with phonics and enjoy word puzzles and games involving phonics. If the child is relaxed and enjoying the activity, then it will not do any harm and the child is probably learning.
However, a common pattern seen in these types of children is that they will seem to do well in early primary years, but will get "stuck" and not be able to transition from decoding of words to reading fluency. At this point, these children do not need more phonics, but rather they need to learn the visual whole word recognition skills that will bridge the gap between sounding-out words and recognizing and comprehending words by sight. Children like this often make extremely rapid progress with Davis methods, as they already have good foundational skills for reading, and the Davis tools provide the missing link they need to become strong and competent readers. |
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After the Davis program, should you continue with phonics instruction, as this will probably be taught in school? |
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Learning phonics and phonetic decoding skills is a primary level reading or pre-reading skill. A child over the age of 8 or 9 should not need more instruction in phonics after the Davis program; emphasis on phonics may cause the child to regress or become confused, and in any event will tend to slow down reading.
Children from ages 5-7 should probably be exposed to both phonetic sounding-out strategies, and to the visual methods taught with Davis Learning StrategiesSM. The teacher or parent should explain that these are different tools to help learn to read, and through observation, help guide the child to use the combination of strategies that work best for him. |
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