Dr. Yvonne Oswald guides Will through reading strategies, identifying his kinesthetic learning style and demonstrating the visual recall pathway that helped him read and spell the word "success" forwards and backwards. Will describes lifelong illiteracy and the emotional impact of suddenly being able to read, with family members crying at his progress.
So it's going brilliantly because I am thrilled at what we've done for you. Yeah. When you came to the class, you were a little scared to come to the class. Why?
Because I couldn't read.
What? By I couldn't read, what do you mean?
I was completely illiterate. I could not see words in front of me to, um, to, uh, You couldn't say them? I couldn't say them, yeah. I, they were just, I could see the words, it just made no sense to me.
And how long has this been going on?
For my whole life.
Right. And you're 32 now. That's a long time, right?
Yeah.
What did the teachers tell you about?
They told me that I was useless. I would never be, I would never do it. So I just didn't want to do it or something.
Right. And we were talking about learning to read and the different strategies the different language styles, and it turned out that you were kinesthetic. And so when you were actually reading, what I noticed was you were looking down and to the right whenever you were reading, which is not where the answers are because the answers are up and to the left. This is actually called the pathway to reading. So it's actually up and left is visual recall, which is where all the answers are if you want to remember those words, right?
Yep.
And we had a spectacular thing happen, right? What happened when—
Well, I put it up to, up and to the left and I could read the page. I could see the words better than I could ever before. Yeah. They made sense when I fell into the sensitive sense. I don't even— They made a pattern and it made more sense.
Okay. Okay. And we started with the word success. Remember that?
Yeah, success.
And you read the word success forwards and backwards and then spells it forwards and backwards. Did you ever think you could do that?
No.
Exactly. So we're going to absolutely show people what a difference your reading is now. How about, okay, let's just read any part of that. Everybody's talking to the left.
Now taking the old picture and bringing it up on the screen and making sure that you are looking through your eyes. Good, good. As you have an old picture, as you have the old picture on the screen, can you see the new picture in the lower left-hand corner, small and dark? Make sure you see your body in the picture.
Awesome. Yeah, so that's—
woo!
You were absolutely amazed by the difference it made. And what's this done for your life?
It made me feel like I've got control over something that I've never had control over.
Yeah, and your wife said she cried when she saw you do it.
My wife cried and my mother-in-law cried and then my sister that's not really my sister cried that I've been friends with for a long time.
Yeah, because it's not fun that it's not that you were learning disabled, you were teaching disabled.
That's amazing.
Isn't that amazing? So aren't you looking forward to your new life?
I am.
Thank you, Joe. It's amazing. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Will. I keep mixing you up. Thank you, Will. That's amazing. Fantastic. Well done.
