Joanna Hardy

Joanna’s story

Vital stats

Age – 14
Problem areas – Eye tracking, reading, writing, spelling, short-term memory
Completed Dore – May 2009

Background

Marie-Therese Hardy, a qualified lawyer, home educated one of her two sons with great success, however when it came to her daughter Joanna the journey was all together different. Reading presented Joanna with a big problem from an early age. Unlike her two brothers who began reading at 18 and 24 months, Joanna was still struggling at five years. She couldn’t read simple words, those she could were often jumbled on the page and she often omitted punctuation. Although concerned, her parents could see that Joanna was bright as she had razer sharp long-term memory and could recite films and conversations verbatim. Despite trying to follow ballet and swimming, she would do things back to front and appeared uninterested in learning and paying attention. Finally, Joanna was diagnosed with Dyslexia in 2007 at age 12.

“At one point, it seemed that we had an impossible mountain to climb regarding any form of learning.”

Marie-Therese Hardy, Joanna’s mother

Joanna’s journey

Joanna’s parents contacted Dore in 2007. After two weeks on the Programme there was a marked improvement in her eye tracking and subsequent reading. Keen to get an objective external assessment, her parents made regular appointments with a local hospital. Six weeks into Dore, the Hospital confirmed there was a marked improvement in her eye tracking and a result would no longer need specialist spectacles. After a further six weeks Joanna’s development meant that she was beginning to understand text on a page rather than store words and sentences in her long-term memory. Her reading and writing began to show a marked improvement over the following months and years. Joanna recalled how letters no longer appeared to jump around the page. She could also understand sentences, paragraphs, commas and speech marks because she could actually see them. Her pedantry disappeared and her witty humour became apparent.

The future

Since completing the Dore Programme Joanna’s quality of life has turned a corner. She is currently studying seven subjects and has her sights set on eight GCSEs in the coming years. Her self-belief and confidence has risen to such an amount that she is even speaking about becoming a writer when she finishes her education. For most teenagers, the activities they start to loose interest in, Joanna is just beginning to embrace. At the time of writing, Joanna was moving onto Grade 2 piano after having previously never been able to differentiate between the black and white keys. Even her violin teacher was seeing an improvement in her rhythm, which is directly linked to her coordination. But what is most satisfying about Joanna’s story is that she is able to analyse and appreciate the difference Dore has made herself.

“My daughter has been given a life…not just got one back.”

Marie-Therese Hardy, Joanna’s mother

Read her story in the Yorkshire Post Here