I started Brain Friendly Reading with my students and I am amazed at the progress I have seen from kindergarten to 4th grade!

By tapping the charts daily, students have made significant gains in letter/sound connection, especially vowels!! My students look forward to the chart tapping and are engaged from start to finish!

Arm spelling has been a critical piece in the program that has supported my students' reading and spelling!! The lesson pages encompass decoding, encoding, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. You can teach so much with one lesson page! It is exciting to see so many students increase their ability to read and spell.

The games that come with BFR are a perfect way to practice and review skills.  Students are so excited to play!  I am passionate about this program and want to share it with anyone who wants to help their students or own children excel in literacy! Kristin Dwyer and her Brain Friendly Reading team have been helpful with our school-wide implementation and offer continued support and opportunities for professional growth.

Watching my students' faces light up knowing they succeeded is the greatest gift!

If you are looking for a program based on science, easy to use and understand, a program that can help you move your kids up the ladder of reading even the ones with different learning abilities, then you are blessed to come across this page!

Don’t overthink - take the decision right now and join this training. I took this training last spring and it was a game changer for me! Yes, I am changing lives every day with the help of BFR program and BFR team. One of my special ed students moved from level 6 to 28 in 3 month.

I started my own tutoring business after getting certified and all my students are making lots of growth. Thanks BFR for helping me make a big difference in kids lives!!

I use BFR with my homeschooler, and it has completely transformed our reading lessons! She is so much more engaged with all of the kinesthetic, multi-sensory techniques and all of the fun games. Thank you for creating such a wonderful, engaging, and science-backed program!

Using Brain Friendly Reading has been a game changer for our students in both a whole group classroom setting and in small groups and one-on-one sessions.

I could write a book on why everyone should use Brain Friendly Reading but I'll just give one example. I work with a student who has very severe learning disabilities. in his 1st grade class, his teacher is diligent about tapping charts. They have not had any explicit instruction in vowel teams yet but have been tapping the vowel team chart.

One day, he came to work with me and there were words on the board from a session with a 2nd grader. He identified the vowel team and without a chart in front of him he remembered the anchor image for the vowel team, said it out loud and then proceeded to read all the words.

As a special education teacher, I have been exposed to many reading intervention programs. Brain Friendly Reading has shown very user friendly for both my students and myself. I have seen great results in my students reading ability since implementing BFR in my reading groups. In fact, this passed year, I had four students show two years growth in one school year.

I have been using the board games in my 3rd grade classroom, and I've appreciated how they include differentiated versions for each "skill."

For example, game board 2 for bossy r "ar" includes two syllable words and has been perfect for many of my third graders.

Sometimes I will have students read and write the word on a separate piece of paper before they move their game piece to incorporate more writing practice. The game boards also include words with meanings that aren't always immediately familiar to my students. I enjoy having opportunities to bring in vocabulary.

I LOVE using the arm spelling strategy. It's been ridiculously satisfying witnessing students arm spell on their own when working on other assignments.

I took the Brain Friendly Reading Level I course in the Fall of 2020. This inspired me to start my own tutoring business, which would not have been possible without We Shall Read's ongoing support through their weekly coaching calls.

The BFR curriculum is simple to implement and also can be adapted to help all types of learners. I learned so much in the course that was not taught to me in college. It provided me with the skills and strategies to successfully teach reading to my tutoring clients!

I think the Brain Friendly Reading approach is a real break-through for teaching children and adults to read.

Students in our district saw amazing benefits to their reading, writing, and overall confidence with the strategies of Brain Friendly Reading! We are so grateful to Kristin and Kelly for the support that they showed to our staff by modeling, brainstorming, and answering many questions! If you are on the fence about whether or not to explore Brain Friendly Reading, take the leap! You will be amazed at what your children can do!

There comes a time when you and your child start to feel hopeless and frustrated. Finding Kelly has been a godsend for us. I have a smart 7-year-old boy with severe ADHD and mild dyslexia, who needed a realistic plan to help him improve his reading ability and fluency.

Brain Friendly Reading is a program where kids learn through “play.” He plays “Uno” and “Go Fish” with words and is unaware that he is actually learning. Kelly makes every lesson so fun; it is actually hard to tell if Kelly or Ryan is having more fun (they laugh all the time.). And it has been proven that kids learn better while they are happy and having fun, this is where Kelly is FANTASTIC.

In the 6 months that she has been working with him, his reading ability (level) has more than doubled. It has been extraordinary to see his progress. I honestly could not have helped my child improve his reading and learn to love to read without Kelly and the Brain Friendly Reading program.

I recently started BFR training in my school district. After our 3 mini session, I started to use the chart tapping and arm spelling with my special needs students. I have seen a change in their skills and in their confidence.

Then I suggested to 2 of my general Ed teachers about starting to use BFR in their rooms. I come in every day to do a mini lesson for their whole class. The kids are so enthusiastic about their learning and the teachers are seeing great success with the kids. The kids are increasing their reading levels and some have improved their NWEA scores.

These great successes have only been after my start back in March. The class lessons started end of April. Thank you to everyone in the Brain Friendly Reading organization. I’m loving it!!!! Plus I will do my 30 hour training this summer.

Our school is LOVING BFR!! It has had an amazing impact on our teachers and students. It is the most simple way to make the most impact for students!

I recently started using Brain Friendly Reading with the students I tutor. They range in age from kindergarten through second grade. I’m already seeing gains in their ability to match letter names to sounds, segment the sounds in words, and blend sounds together to read.

My students LOVE the games and activities - the pace of the lessons is quick and engaging - and they always ask if we can play the games again. In fact, they’re having so much fun, they often don’t want the lesson to be over! This program provides me with all the tools I need to help children become confident, capable, and joyful readers.

As a parent of dyslexic children and a teacher, this is the best program to move children up the reading ladder. I am so glad to have this training in my toolbox!!

My colleagues and I just finished the Level 1 course this afternoon, and it was one of the most beneficial things I have done in my teaching career.

Because we are a 3rd-5th grade school, Kristin tailored the trainings each week to fit the unique needs of teachers working with older, struggling readers. Her commitment to making this work a reality in our schools showed in the comprehensive responses we got to the questions we emailed her, the in-depth answers to our questions during the trainings, and her willingness (dare I say enthusiasm) for staying online long after the sessions ended to help us think through the questions that didn’t fit into the time allotted. There are a lot of children’s lives that will be changed because of all we learned through the BFR course.

As a former classroom teacher who based their instruction off of the balanced literacy format, I was thrilled to learn more about the Science of Reading. The more I delved into SoR, the more I knew I wanted guidance and mentor ship on how to switch my thinking and teaching practices.

Kristin and Elaine structured the format of the BFR Guide to align with what researchers have proven to be the best practice in a sequential, systematic lesson format following a scope and sequence. They use their Montessori background, Orton-Gillingham training, Science of Reading and many years of combined experience to create a user-friendly format that teachers can easily implement for teaching or tutoring right away. They intertwine the best strategies and give the best tools to implement and move kids. They structure the training the way they want us to teach, with direct, explicit instruction. Throughout the training they provide mentor ship through weekly coaching calls to answer questions or lend support.

I am half way through the program and can’t say enough amazing things about BFR. I am already seeing SO much growth in the students I tutor!

I took this course this fall and it was my first dive into science of reading. I’m a speech pathologist working with deaf/hard of hearing kids. I knew I needed more in my tool belt for my students. I took this course and learned about the brain research behind reading and practical activities and strategies to use with students.

I started using the strategies right away and have seen huge changes in my students. Students who knew no letter sounds and couldn’t retain them, were picking it up, I have another student working on spelling patterns and she is making improvements every session because of the strategies I learned. The materials and resources provided completely exceeded my expectations.

My second grader struggled with reading all last year and was assigned to work with a Title I reading interventionist at school who simply gave him extra word memorization sheets. Needless to say, that did not help my undiagnosed dyslexic AT ALL.

When school ended in the spring I knew I had to do something to help him work on reading, so we started working with Kelly doing BFR lessons. In just a couple weeks we saw remarkable differences - he was ACTUALLY READING, not memorizing or guessing from pictures. Over the summer he went up an entire grade level in reading and is almost caught up with his peers. He is truly reading and spelling with ease and it is amazing to see what a difference this program has made. I couldn't be prouder or happier!

My 7 year old was stuck at a kindergarten reading level. I discovered he wasn't actually reading just had quite a few sight words in his arsenal. I attended the BFR Tutor Training Winter/Spring of 2020 and started over with my son in his reading.

Last year he hated school, reading, spelling and handwriting but now we have gone from tears to cheers in just a couple months. He loves to tap his charts and decoding words is his jam. It has given him the confidence to try reading things outside of our lessons.

BFR has been such a blessing to us! I'm so glad to have found it!! Thank you Kristin and Elaine for opening up this world to us!! We are forever grateful!

My son is severely dyslexic with very big deficits in working memory, and I have looked at nearly every program out there.

This program is the only thing that has helped him blossom and created the necassary conmections from short term to his long term memory to be able to begin the process of reading, in an incredibly short amount of time. What I thought would take at least a year or more, now has turned into months instead.

Totally worth every penny I have spent.

Kristin's reading program was a steady, through approach that give my son tools to use in order to read at his own pace. The program allows him to have the power over his dyslexia. I am amazed at the levels he has grown in reading. He can sound out words that no one else in the family can, because he knows all the phonics, strategies, and tools that can help him read the English language effectively.

I wish I had learned this way myself as a child. His levels in reading continue to increase and I am watching him gain confidence and excitement in his abilities. He can finally play games with our family that require reading the instructions. His reading as a hole has opened up so much for him. He now can read high school level words and he is in 8th grade. I am excited for where this program will take him next.

Thank you Kristin. You have been a blessing my son and our family!

Kristin and BFR have made ALL the difference in the world. In September 2019, my daughter was unable to recognize letters or sounds. Eight months later and we are at a place I was not sure we would ever be. Honestly, after not making progress elsewhere, I started asking questions like “what to do if your child never reads”. BUT now I am confident my daughter will get there. Any progress is progress and she has progressed!

In addition to the amazing work she has done with my daughter, she has taught me so much. Kristin helped me understand why my daughter was having problems and what we needed to do help her. Kristin has been up front and honest with me. She answers all my questions fully, has given me clear guidelines and helped me set realistic expectations. The way I work with my daughter has totally changed and I am able to set goals that are within reach.

This program has been life changing for us on so many levels. As much as I have already said, there is so much more that I cannot even put into words. Simply stated, give BFR a try, you will not be disappointed.

My son was eleven years old and HATED to read because unbeknownst to me-it was painful. We are homeschoolers and have tons of books! His lack of reading and my inability to help him was causing a lot of stress. We spent thousands of dollars and saw slight improvements in his ability that quickly faded once we stopped using the program due to his “completion” of it. But one thing that didn’t seem to change no matter what we tried, was his misbehavior and bad attitude.

Once we were led to Kristin, there was an immediate connection for both my son and I. The chart and arm tapping is allowing my son to have control of something he has wanted to do but was unable on his own. Kristin and her methods of teaching and encouraging me, as well as him, have helped unlock his superpower! Due to memorizing his charts he is more successful at reading than ever before and more importantly, his confidence has grown immensely, creating a better attitude and less stress. Kristin is gracious and gifted and we are so thankful for her.