Adults & TTRS

Two years ago, on his 70th birthday, Brian Playford’s wife gave him a computer, and his TTRS journey began. An accomplished and award winning engineer, Brian also describes himself as a very dyslexic man who never used to read for pleasure, and one who had always very much struggled with writing and spelling. Two years on, here are some of his comments about TTRS:

Reading The course has transformed my life in terms of reading. Before, I only read what I absolutely had to, and I never enjoyed it. My reading has improved significantly. Now I read every day and it’s a pleasure. I hate to think how many books I’ve read! My wife calls me a bookworm now. I must say, though, that some of the books are American, and I find it doesn’t help my spelling. But the thing is, now I can pick up that a word isn’t spelled right (e.g. “color” for “colour”). Reading is a lovely thing to do.

Writing When I used to do e-mails it was a nightmare, but now, what would take me half an hour I can now do in five minutes. There’s a definite improvement there. Now I can access the spell check and the grammar check and that definitely helps. When you do sentences, you stop thinking about your fingers, and you just do it.

Spelling My spelling has definitely improved. Certain words are just “there” where before I would have struggled with them. Sometimes I think of a word, and then it’s automatic - I don’t think about the spelling as such. Instead of being overwhelmed by a word I don’t recognize I can now break it down into manageable bits, try out different pronunciations, and re-read the sentence to figure it out from the context. These are strategies I couldn’t use before TTRS.

It used to be that if someone gave me a telephone number, I’d have to remember and write down each number separately. Now I can chunk them together. I can do that with words now too.

Keyboard Skills When we’ve come back from a holiday, I’ve been amazed how quickly I dropped back into the typing,. I might make a couple of mistakes in a module, but I never score below ninety-two or ninety-three percent correct. Most of the time my scores are in the high nineties. When I first started I was nowhere near that kind of level, so I’m now working my way through the course for the second time. I’ve scored 791 “excellents”. I’ve even got three perfect scores, and my speed has increased. I find the scores very motivating.

Frequency When I started out, one or two modules might take me half an hour and I’d try and do that every day. I’d come off the computer very tired. These days I’m very much faster than that. I might do up to ten modules in the same time and I’m not as tired.

TTRS has given me confidence. Yes, I’m dyslexic and I’ve struggled with reading, writing and spelling until now - but that’s all part of life’s rich pattern. You can’t be good at everything. If you were you’d be really boring!

Three months on TTRS and has now reached Level 19. Brian has achieved 284 excellent scores and 1 perfect score.

“My wife bought me a computer for my 70th birthday and I've been following the Touch-type Read and Spell Computer Course for about three months. I'm dyslexic and I've always struggled with spelling and writing. When I was in school I could study for a spelling test, and get nineteen out of twenty words correct, and two weeks later I wouldn't be able to remember a single one. There's an incident that comes to mind when I was trying to remember how to spell the word "I" - I was sitting there and the sweat was pouring off me. I just couldn't remember "I". That's how bad I was."

“When we went back to school after six weeks summer holiday, I used to feel as if I had to start everything from scratch...as if I'd forgotten it all. So after using TTRS recently for the past three months my wife and I went on holiday and, I thought "I bet I've forgotten it all" - but I hadn't. I went right back to the same place in TTRS on my return."

“Sometimes when I'm typing, and I'm repeating a word two or three times, it becomes automatic. I don't have to consciously think about where the fingers go. Sometimes my fingers are working quicker than I can say the word. I'm developing the confidence to let my hands move about the keyboard, and I'll suddenly think to myself "Blimey. I've done it!" I feel I can trust myself to get it right. I'm letting go of that self-doubt. I haven’t been so excited since I took my first girl out!”

“My spelling has improved without me even realising it. Words come readily now, whereas previously I wouldn't have had a clue. Taking Touch-type Read and Spell has helped me to break words down so that I read and spell them more easily."

“I didn't used to read for pleasure. I'd read the first two or three pages and the last page of a novel and that would be it. But TTRS has helped my reading, and my enjoyment of reading. Now I read quite large books and enjoy them. Sometimes I'll even get so involved in a book which tells a good story that I don't want to put it down. That's a new experience for me."

Mick Harvey (Erith Youth and Family Centre TTRS Adult Course)

January 22nd 2006 Mick Harvey, TTRS tutor writes (names have been changed):

The adults on the course differ quite considerably from each other and would each have a different story to tell. Some are dyslexic, others have spelling and confidence problems, while others just want to learn to touch type.

A lady, Barbara, was the reason for me starting the adult session; her son who is dyslexic with other special needs, has been attending the children's TTRS for some time. Barbara asked me to help her as she also is dyslexic and has very poor confidence. She has grown in confidence considerably as she has progressed through the modules. When I took her hands off the screen she was most unconvinced that it would work for her, but now she is really flying along.

Alice, who was referred to me from adult education, has quite severe confidence as well as spelling difficulties. She has improved markedly in both since starting the course. One of the benefits of her being on this course is the one to one help she can receive. She is able to work through the things she doesn't understand in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere and can now laugh at her mistakes. Ann has taken a copy of the dictation sheets home as she likes to practice the spellings before the next session.

A young man, Bob, has very low self confidence. He is unable to attend the most basic literacy course as his starting point is too low. He started on the course while on a 12 week Princes Trust Award scheme and is now up to level 4 and really enjoying the course. He attends regularly arriving at least 30 mins early each week.

A mum, Seba, whose family had to flee Afghanistan when the Taliban was ruling, brought her two children to start on the course about 3 years ago and they are still working through. They stared the course as a means of learning English. Mum started about six months ago; her English is very poor, she doesn't have the confidence to attend an ESOL course, but she trusts us and is relaxed with us. We have arranged now for the two children to work alongside the mum on the same evening. It works very well as they help mum to understand what we are saying. It is a credit to the adaptability of the course that we can take on these students who otherwise would not get any help. The course builds the students confidence and literacy abilities by design, but with ones like Seba and Bob I am able to help them more by asking what the word means and where would they use it. As they get more confident I will encourage and help them to look the words up in a dictionary which I keep available to them.

Several adults attend that have poor self confidence which is their primary hindrance to learning. I enjoy seeing them grow in confidence and looking to the next learning step they can take. TTRS is a brilliant all age, all ability course, that everyone can use and succeed in.

Regards Mick Harvey

A TTRS Adult Class is held every Monday lunchtime at the Youth and Family Centre, Erith, Kent The course has been established for three years and continues to build in numbers and interest. Tutors: Mick and Wendy Harvey.