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"Do I really have to do my exercises AGAIN?"

If you've ever heard those words from your child, this episode is for you!

In this episode of Raising Confident Readers, Coach Kennessa sits down with Coach Cami to talk about something that can be one of the hardest parts of the Vision Reading Academy program: staying consistent with daily home activities.

And they're not just talking about it as coaches. Both have been through the program with their own daughters, so they know firsthand what it's like to juggle school, family life, busy schedules, and a child who doesn't always want to cooperate.

Cami shares how her family struggled with consistency in the beginning, what finally helped them establish a routine, and how something as simple as a $1.50 donut became a surprisingly effective motivator!

They also discuss why one family's perfect routine might be a disaster for another, how to encourage children without turning every exercise session into a battle, and why sometimes a little creativity makes all the difference.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why consistency matters and why progress can sometimes feel slow
• How to build daily exercises into an already busy family schedule
• The power of small incentives, sticker charts, and simple rewards
• Why alarms, routines, and habit stacking can make things easier
• What to do when your child absolutely refuses to cooperate
• Helping children take ownership of their progress
• Knowing when to involve siblings, Dad, or other family members
• Why understanding your child's personality is just as important as having a plan

One of our favorite takeaways from this conversation? What works for one child may not work for another, and that's okay!

Whether you're just getting started with VRA, struggling to find a rhythm, or simply looking for ideas to make daily practice a little easier, we hope this conversation gives you something new to try.

Learn more about Vision Reading Academy at www.visionreadingacademy.com.

Looking to learn more? Head to VisionReadingAcademy.com to learn more, sign up for a free assessment, or get your questions answered.

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What do you do when your child understands everything you teach them but still can't seem to figure out how to read?

Leah was asking herself that question for years. She tried different curriculums, went back to the basics over and over, and even had her son's eyes checked. Everything seemed fine, but he was still struggling.

In this episode of Raising Confident Readers, Leah sits down with Coach Kennessa to share what those years looked like, how she found Vision Reading Academy, and what finally started changing for her son.

She shares some pretty emotional moments, including the first time her son could read his own birthday cards, something she hadn't even realized mattered so much to him.

They also talk about the work it takes to stay consistent with exercises, creative ways to keep kids motivated, and something we don't talk about enough: how years of reading struggles can affect a child's confidence, even after their reading improves.

Leah's son is now in ninth grade, and his journey isn't completely finished. She's open about the progress he's made and the challenges he's still working through.

If you've ever wondered why your child is struggling to read when you know they're capable of so much more, this is a conversation worth listening to.

Looking to learn more? Head to VisionReadingAcademy.com to learn more, sign up for a free assessment, or get your questions answered.

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What happens when a mom knows something isn't quite right with her child, but isn't sure where to turn next?

In this episode of Raising Confident Readers, Coach Kennessa sits down with Kricket Hudson to share her journey as a mother who was determined to find answers for her daughter, long before reading struggles ever became an issue.

When Kricket's daughter was just two years old, she began noticing that one of her eyes would turn inward. Over the next several years, Kricket visited multiple eye doctors, explored different options, and spent countless hours researching what might be going on and what she could do to help.

She knew there had to be more to the story, and she wasn't ready to stop looking.

When she discovered Vision Reading Academy, her daughter had just turned five years old and hadn't even started formally learning to read. In fact, she was the youngest student VRA had considered working with at that time!

Her journey became something special, not only for her own family but for VRA as a whole. Working with her daughter helped inspire the development of our Reading Fundamentals program, which has since become a valuable part of how we support students of different ages and reading abilities.

Throughout this episode, Kricket shares the challenges, adjustments, little victories, and incredible growth she witnessed along the way.

Today, her daughter is thriving academically, reading above grade level, and genuinely LOVES reading!

But one of the most meaningful parts of her story isn't just her academic progress. It's the confidence she has developed along the way.

Rather than seeing herself as someone who is limited by her challenges, she has learned to recognize her own abilities, embrace what makes her unique, and approach new things knowing she can do hard things.

And while her journey isn't finished, Kricket shares why the foundation her daughter built through VRA has been so valuable as they continue exploring the next steps.

Join us for this heartfelt conversation about trusting your instincts as a parent, advocating for your child, and recognizing that every child's journey is different.

Because sometimes the greatest gift we can give our children isn't just the ability to succeed. It's the confidence to believe they can.

Looking to learn more? Head to VisionReadingAcademy.com to learn more, sign up for a free assessment, or get your questions answered.

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If our VRA coaches had just five minutes with every parent of a struggling reader, what would they want them to know?

That question led to one of our most honest Coach’s Corner conversations yet.

In this episode of Raising Confident Readers, our coaches sit down together to talk about the things we wish more parents knew while walking through reading struggles with their children.

We talk about the danger of comparison, the guilt parents often carry when their child isn’t progressing like they expected, trusting your instincts when you feel like there may be more to the story, and why constantly jumping from one program to another may not give your child the time they need to make meaningful progress.

We also talk about something that really hit home for us: protecting your child’s relationship with reading.

Success doesn’t look the same for every child. For one student, it might eventually mean devouring novels and talking with an author about their favorite characters. For another, it might mean being able to read the driver’s manual so they can earn their license. For another, it might mean finally having the confidence to read the Bible independently.

Those wins matter.

Your child has their own story, their own goals, and their own journey. And as parents, sometimes one of the most important things we can do is stop comparing that journey to everyone else’s and start paying attention to the child right in front of us.

This is an episode for every parent who has ever wondered:

Am I doing enough? Why isn’t this working? What am I missing?

Grab a tissue for this one. A few of us definitely needed one. ❤️

Looking to learn more? Head to VisionReadingAcademy.com to learn more, sign up for a free assessment, or get your questions answered.

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What in the world do primitive reflexes have to do with reading?

That’s the question we’re digging into in this episode.

Over the last three episodes, you’ve heard Christine share her daughter’s story, from years of struggling with reading to finally becoming a confident reader. Then, in Part 3, we talked about what happened when her daughter came back to work on retained primitive reflexes, or RPR, and Christine began noticing changes in areas that had continued to be difficult even after her daughter could read.

Now we’re taking a deeper look at RPR itself.

What are primitive reflexes? Why does the body have them in the first place? What does it mean when a reflex is retained? And what could the nervous system, movement, balance, body awareness, attention, and development possibly have to do with a child who is struggling to read, write, or spell?

In this episode, Christine and I talk through the basics of primitive reflexes and some of the things we’ve learned as we’ve incorporated RPR into Vision Reading Academy. We talk about the “dimmer switch” analogy I use with our students, the connection between the nervous system and the rest of the body, and why we believe it’s important to look beyond one isolated symptom when a child is struggling.

We also talk about something I think parents need to hear: a child doesn’t necessarily have to have an obvious history of missed developmental milestones for there to be more to explore. Christine shares what she noticed with her own children, and I share some of my own family’s experience as we talk about how differently children can respond to the things they experience.

Most importantly, this episode is about asking a bigger question.

Instead of only asking, “Why is this child struggling to read?” what happens when we start asking, “What else is their body telling us?”

There is still a lot being studied and learned about retained primitive reflexes, but emerging research has found associations between persistent primitive reflexes and areas of motor and cognitive development, including reading and spelling. This is one of the reasons I continue digging into the research as we learn more about how all of these pieces may fit together.

If you’ve ever felt like there has to be another piece to your child’s puzzle, this is an episode you’ll want to hear.

Looking to learn more? Head to VisionReadingAcademy.com to learn more, sign up for a free assessment, or get your questions answered.

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Christine’s daughter had finished Vision Reading Academy. She could read. She was reading books, writing papers, and doing things that once seemed almost impossible.

But about a year later, Christine could still see that a few things hadn’t completely fallen into place.

Spelling was still a major struggle. Writing didn’t always match what her daughter could read. Focus was difficult, even with things she enjoyed like cooking, sewing, and art. And with Christine’s physical therapy background, she was also noticing things with movement, body awareness, and the toe walking her daughter had done since she was little.

Then we added retained primitive reflexes, or RPR, into Vision Reading Academy.

As Christine began learning about RPR through her training as a VRA coach, she started looking at her own daughter differently. She went through the questionnaire with her husband, began connecting things they had noticed for years, and eventually decided to bring her daughter back to work on this new piece.

And once they started, things got really interesting.

In Part 3 of Christine’s story, we talk about what those first RPR exercises looked like, why they were so difficult for her daughter in the beginning, and the changes Christine began noticing along the way.

She watched her daughter sit down and stay focused on a school assignment for three hours when similar projects had previously taken weeks. She realized one day that the child who had walked on her toes for years suddenly wasn’t doing it anymore. She saw changes in ballet, movement, handwriting, spelling, and her daughter’s ability to actually recognize and apply phonograms she had been learning for years.

Some of these were things Christine had been working on with her daughter long before RPR ever entered the picture.

So what changed?

This episode is the real-life side of retained primitive reflexes through one family’s experience. Then in Part 4, we’re going to take everything you’ve heard in Christine’s story and dig into RPR itself: what primitive reflexes are, what it means when they’re retained, how they relate to the nervous system and development, and why we decided to make them part of Vision Reading Academy.

Looking to learn more? Head to VisionReadingAcademy.com to learn more, sign up for a free assessment, or get your questions answered.

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In Part 1 of Christine’s story, we heard what it was like to watch her daughter struggle with reading for years and not understand why. We followed their journey from frustration and tears to a child who could finally pick up a book, read it, and believe in herself.

But there was another side to the story.

In Part 2, I ask Christine to look back at her daughter’s experience through her physical therapy background. Suddenly, some of the things that didn’t seem connected at the time start to look very different.

Christine talks about the tension and tenderness she noticed throughout her daughter’s head, neck, shoulders, and around her eyes, the headaches her daughter had accepted as normal, and even something as simple as refusing to wear swimming goggles because having them against her face was uncomfortable.

We also talk about the side of this journey that parents don’t always get to hear: what it felt like for Christine to know her daughter was struggling and not know how to fix it. She shares the feelings of failure, hearing over and over that her daughter would eventually “catch up,” watching progress happen in small ways her daughter couldn’t see yet, and why having someone outside the home recognize those wins mattered so much.

And just when it seemed like the major pieces had finally come together, Christine began noticing that a few things were still hanging on.

That’s where Part 3 of her story begins.

Her daughter had been out of VRA for about a year when we added retained primitive reflexes to the program. What happened when Christine brought her back to work on that piece opened up an entirely new part of their story- and gives us the perfect place to finally dive deeper into RPR and why it has become an important part of what we do at Vision Reading Academy.

Looking to learn more? Head to VisionReadingAcademy.com to learn more, sign up for a free assessment, or get your questions answered.

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Christine knew her daughter was smart. She was creative, imaginative, and could tell incredible stories. But when it came to reading, something just wasn’t adding up.

Words she had just sounded out seemed unfamiliar moments later. Reading for more than a few minutes ended in frustration and tears. They changed curriculum, tried different approaches, and kept waiting for things to finally click. But by third grade, Christine knew this was more than simply needing more time.

In Part 1 of our conversation with Christine, now known to many of our families as Coach J, we’re going back to before she was ever a VRA coach. She shares what it was like to be the mom trying to figure out how to help her own struggling reader, the standardized test that became a major turning point, how she eventually found Vision Reading Academy, and what the journey looked like once they began.

And it wasn’t an overnight transformation. Christine talks openly about her daughter’s frustration with the work, wanting to quit, the small changes Christine could see before her daughter could, and the moment everything began to shift.

Eventually, the little girl who once avoided reading was standing in front of her class reading her own paper, finishing her first novel, and discovering something she hadn’t believed about herself for a very long time: she really could read.

This is Part 1 of Christine’s story, and there’s a lot more to come.

Looking to learn more? Head to VisionReadingAcademy.com to learn more, sign up for a free assessment, or get your questions answered.