Toe by Toe: Highly Structured Multi-Sensory Reading Manual for Teachers and Parents 5th Edition

I started working with my child to teach letters and phonics around 4 yeras old. Once she knew her letters pretty well, I moved on to another book that advertises your child will be reading in 100 easy lessons. It simply lead to frustration for both of us. I moved on to a method that says there are no tears. (There were lots.) A method that is supposed to crack the reading code? Decoding is difficult for my child. (At this point, we started seeking evaluation for neurodivergence.) A tested multisensory approach that alligns with Barton? Nope. Orton Gillingham? Nope. Finally when she was 7.5, I came across a random recommendation for a book called Toe by Toe. What a weird name! But then I read about it some more and checked some reviews. Nothing else was working, so I figured it was worth a shot. This worked. It helped her learn basic phonemes, how and when they are used, how to separate syllables, and how to hear the word in her head before saying it. Toe by Toe was a game changer for us. At nine, she is reading independently for schooling, but also for fun.

My daughter is dyslexic and was not diagnosed until the 5th grade, at which time she tested at 3rd grade, one month reading level. Someone recommended an online program that was $300 which she did independently. She resisted it so much that it began to be a problem, but she did get to 4th grade reading before it fell apart and I stopped fighting her about continuing - we moved to a new state and middle school became a nightmare so there was no time or energy to work on a program that she detested. This summer I stumbled upon Toe by Toe (after making the decision to invest in an extremely expensive special school this year), and made the investment of the equivalent of one restaurant meal for two. We started working 10 - 15 min a night and the results were amazing. She started out over 2 years behind and jumped 10 months in less than 20 sessions. She has been reading 4th grade level books since the 4th grade and now she is reading adult level books. Her fluency is exponentially better, she attacks words without fear now, and she remembers rules that the other program taught her that she never really learned, like the silent e that I honestly never thought she would get. I haven't tested her again - we are working very slowly due to school and after school activities, but she has still been progressing along. The biggest difference between TBT and the other is that I can gauge exactly where the problem is because I can SEE what the struggles are because I am doing the guiding, and that makes all the difference. If you follow the procedures, it sticks. We got sidelined for a month because of sickness, etc, and I backed up many pages to review, and quickly stopped that because even though it had been a month before she breezed through everything that I was reviewing. If I had known about Toe by Toe in kindergarten (and more importantly, known what the problem was that early), I would not be spending $15K on private school - she would never have gotten so far behind and developed such anxiety. If you have a child, no matter the age, that does not read fluently and struggles with phonics and sounding out unknown words, buy this book and then do it. Then join the Facebook group for the support. You will not regret it. Your child really can learn how to read at grade level with this program. And you don't need an expensive OG tutor to make it happen (because you know your school can not do it either). This book should really cost substantially more than they are charging - there really is no amount of money that most wouldn't spend to get their kid up to their peer's level!

This book is a God send! An answer to prayer. Had many sleepless nights worrying, that my son would never read. I’ve worked through this book twice with my severely dyslexic son. The first time he was 8 or 9 and could only get through about half of it and then we were both crying at the end of each lesson so I tossed it and thought it didn’t work. He’s now 11 and has progressed beautifully and is consistently reading! He’s happy. Im happy. I promise it will work if you are consistent and your child is developmentally ready. It is so easy to implement and unbelievably straight forward. Only 35 dollars. All the other resources and programs for dyslexia are hundreds or thousands of dollars. If you are on a budget, definitely try this. Its amazing!!!

I waited for several years before jumping in and assisting my daughter with reading at home in addition to the support she receives at school. In the meantime, I researched several different options and everything seemed too cumbersome and difficult to employ on a daily basis with our busy, inconsistent after school schedules. British friends of ours recommended Toe By Toe while we were living overseas and it sounded just awful; the exercises and "ticking" system sounded almost offensive and certainly something my daughter would never buy into. I finally decided to go ahead with Toe by Toe this past February (2018) after my daughter was receiving inadequate support in her fifth grade classroom. We are now four months into the program and I am so very grateful for the structure and consistency it provides. Not only am I seeing dramatic improvement in my daughter's decoding/word attack skills, I'm able to recognize patterns and isolate specific skills that need improvement. I'm so impressed with this program that so adeptly weeds out the gimmicks and games inherent in most of the other reading support programs and utilizes our students' time so efficiently. My daughter cried and threw fits for the first month, which were often driven by feeling "stupid" when she would miss the more elementary skills. I recommend standing firm and sticking to 10-20 minutes per day. Your student will come around when they understand that Toe by Toe is not negotiable and realize that the time spent each day is short and worthwhile. I've even used the Toe by Toe method to create a multiplication facts exercise that has helped my daughter fill in her math facts gaps within a month. Toe by Toe is a game changer.

Very clear structure and easy to follow. I am confused however, why it's called a 'multisensory' program, no information about 'multisensory' strategies as such (besides writing and saying words/sounds). However, it will come in very useful and I look forward to using the program.