Coach Conversations: The Transformation That Changed Our Family (Episode 5)

What happens when a parent watches their child go from struggling to read birthday cards and Monopoly cards... to confidently reading at grade level?

In this episode of Raising Confident Readers, Coach K sits down with Coach Leah to hear the story behind her journey- from homeschooling mom and former copywriter to Vision Reading Academy coach.

Before becoming part of the VRA team, Leah was simply a mom searching for answers for her son. After traditional eye exams showed nothing was wrong, a recommendation led her to a free Vision Reading Academy assessment- and everything changed. What she discovered transformed not only her son's reading abilities, but his confidence, independence, and future.

Together they discuss:

• Why vision challenges are often missed during traditional eye exams
• What coaching at Vision Reading Academy actually looks like
• The difference between teaching reading and training the visual system
• The emotional transformations that happen when students begin trusting their eyes
• Real success stories from students ranging from kindergarten through high school
• The habits that make the biggest difference for families
• Why Leah believes every struggling reader deserves a free assessment

Whether you're a parent wondering why reading still feels difficult despite tutoring, curriculum changes, or years of hard work, this episode offers hope- and a different perspective on what may really be happening.

If your child struggles with reading, school, attention, or confidence, don't guess. Start with a free assessment and discover whether vision could be part of the missing piece.

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of our amazing podcast. Today we have our co-host with us, Leah. She is one of our amazing coaches, and I wanted to bring her on and interview her as a coach within VRA. So, Leah, how about you start with introducing yourself a little bit and tell us about you?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

My name is Leah, obviously. I go by coach Leah to my students. I have three kids of my own, two teenagers and a five-year-old. And my 13-year-old actually went through this program. I have been homeschooling them since the start. I was a copywriter for a long time, and I wrote a children's book. And that's pretty much me. And now I have a farm.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

With lots of animals. With lots of animals.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Yes. And I'm starting to make goat milk soap.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

I don't want it. Okay. Your background is you're a copywriter. What led you to become a coach at VRA?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

It just made such a huge impact on my life. And I've always wanted to be a teacher. And I just used that with my kids when I was homeschooling them. But to have this opportunity, after I saw how much it helped my son, at first I was like, no, no, no, I don't need to do that. And then I was like, you know what? Yes, yes, I would love to do this. So that's kind of how it went. I was just like, I want to help kids and I want them to have the same outcome as my son. I'm going to start crying. So we're going to change subjects.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Okay, let's change subjects. All right. So when we have a new coach that trains, one of the things that we do that I say is they get to choose their coach name. And that is because we are coaches that help the team of the parents with the student. So I want to ask coach Leah why she decided to go with that name and what coach means to her.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

I just chose my name because honestly, I couldn't think of anything else. And I was like racking my brain and racking my brain. And I was like, you know what? I'm just going to use my name. And then there's no confusion. I know who I am. And so that's how I came up with Coach Leah. Very hard to come by. Being a coach means that I am there to support them through all their trials, all their tribulations, all the things they come up with. They're like, my kids are having a hard time getting their exercises done. What do I do? My kids won't do the reading, so I talk to the kids, things like that. So I'm there to coach the parents and the kids. It's not just the kids' job to do all the things. But the parents and the kid have to be the team, or it doesn't work very well. I really think that me being open in my communication and they could text me anytime if they're having a hard time with anything and have that coaching open line of communication helps a lot. So that's what it means to me is just to be there for them whatever they need.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Fantastic. All right. So what drew you to Vision Reading Academy specifically? And why is this program's mission so meaningful to you?

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Um, honestly, I was referred by a homeschooling coach and she said, You should have his eyes checked out. And I was like, I already did. I went and I had his eyes checked out, and they had automatist eyes, said everything's fine. His eyes look normal, he's good to go. She's like, Well, try this anyway. Go get a reading assessment. It's like, okay, that's gonna be fun. You know, like I'm just gonna sit there and be like, here, read this. And he's gonna be like, I can't. So I was very nervous getting on there, but there was no reading involved, so that was nice. Because that's like he said, I feel like an idiot. And I'm like, I don't want him to feel like that again. So, anyway, so that's how I kind of got drawn to it. And then it was immediately shown to me what was wrong. It wasn't like it was somebody saying, This is what's wrong, but I couldn't see it. I could actually see that his eyes were just one's going this way, the other one was like, doing its own thing. So I could actually see it, and I was like, oh wow. And that was our answer, and it was all uphill from there.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Okay, fantastic. You talked about that you would want to be a teacher. Was there anything else that was like a personal or professional experience that shaped your passion for helping students with vision and learning challenges, other than also your son in the program?

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Honestly, my son. Like that literally drove me to it because just watching him go from a kindergarten reading level to a fifth grade reading level within a matter of months. And his confidence, I always use as an example, is when he came to me after his first birthday of being in the program, and he's like, it was so nice to be able to read my birthday cards. And I didn't even know that was something that was bothering him. And for him to be like, I don't know, just everything to not have to say, Hey, what does that say? Hey, what does that say? Even searching for movies on TV, you can read the descriptions now. Monopoly. Monopoly was huge in our family. We play Monopoly all the time. We've played it for years and years. He has never been able to read his own cards. And for the past year, every time we play, he grabs everybody's cards. I'm reading them, I'm reading them, I'm reading them. Those things, you don't even know they bother the kids. If I can make other kids have those same successes and feel that success and feel that confidence in themselves, it's huge. It's just so huge. And most students that come in have no confidence whatsoever. I have one who, after every word, she looks at her mom to see if she's right. I've just been like, okay, you're gonna just look at me, just look at the words. We're not gonna ask anybody if you're right, but promise I will tell you if it's not right. And she finally started reading through them. And she's doing like this. Because you have to trust that you know what you're seeing, you have to trust your eyes now, and that they're communicating with your brain and they're doing what they're supposed to do. So it's all that. It's all the things.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

There's no one reason, it's just all the things.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Yeah, it quite literally you feel like that it changed your son's life. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

And even mine to the point where he was like, Hey, I want to try public school for a year. He did, he hated it, but he didn't hate it because he couldn't do it. Right. He hated it because he just hated it. Yeah. And it just such a huge difference in his abilities and the confidence with those abilities.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yeah, but had you put him in public school before, it would have been completely different.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

He wouldn't have been able to be successful.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

And it wouldn't have been because anything other than his eyes. Right. Even like with the IEPs, because they had him in other things, because we really didn't have a whole lot of time to get caught back up to where he should have been after he could really see everything. So when he went in, he did struggle a little bit with that, but more because it was just so overwhelming. So much work all the time, so many things. And when you're scared of reading big portions, that takes a while to get that fear out of there.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Understandable. What was your first impression of the VRA program when you started, and how has that evolved as you've worked with your own students?

SPEAKER_01 9:11

My first impression was like, well, okay, we'll do what Coach says and see what happens. And it happened. There was a lot of the same activities, which is fine, but that's how the program was when my son was in it. It was the same things mostly. And now, as I'm a coach, there's so many more things because there's so many more opportunities for the reading fundamentals program, and he probably would have started in the reading fundamentals program had we had it, but kind of forced him to go a little quicker, I think, not being put in that. So I just feel like we have a lot more options.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

So, as a side note, when Leah is talking about that, we have a lot more options. So every single time that we talk to our students or that we have new coaches that are coming in to train, one of the first things that I tell them is I say, This is an ever-evolving program. And the reason why that it is ever-evolving is because I am a scientist and I'm always going to be researching and I'm always going to be finding different things and piloting different things in the program. I don't just bring things into the program that I'm like, hey, it's here, and then it doesn't work. And I'm like, well, we're keeping it because I brought it into the program. No, I pilot it first and I make sure that it is something that will benefit our students that are in the program before we actually implement it program-wide. So that's what Leah is talking about is when her son was in the program, there were still a lot more to the program than what I had done with my own daughter originally. But now what is in the program is even more than when her son was in the program. So that's what she's talking about.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Yeah, sorry, I didn't probably say that very well. But that's what we no, that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

I just wanted to do kind of like a little a side note because we know exactly what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

But the listeners are probably like, huh? That's a good stuff. And you're like, what do you mean? What how's your program changing all the time?

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Yeah, yeah. So that's why that's why I thought I'd put that in there. Okay. So let's talk about more of your day-to-day work. So can you walk us through what a typical session looks like when you're coaching a student through the BRA program?

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Initially, we get on our session, we kind of catch up for a minute or two just to keep that rapport going. They normally update me about their week and about how it's something cool that happened or whatever. And then we go into warm-ups where I have them warm up their eyes and get ready for the session. If they're super fidgety, I'll have them do some sort of brain integration activity at the beginning. Otherwise, I kind of do it when they start to get fidgety throughout the session. Then we start doing some reday activities depending on where they're at with things and go from there. I play it based on their mood for the day and where they're at with what we're working on. And he likes to do them with me. So we work on those for a long time, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Okay, so along the lines of you're talking about reading activities. So I want to clarify with the listeners is this a reading tutoring program? What exactly are we doing more with the reading stuff?

SPEAKER_01 12:33

I do a lot of work with context filling and reading with their eyes, not with their brain. I am constantly correcting when they add on different things to the ends of words, beginning of words, make up a whole word, make up a whole sentence. So there's a lot of really focusing on what their eyes are seeing and not what their brain wants it to see. Keeping their heads still while they're reading, using their eyes to make the movements rather than having their whole body going around. So, yes, it has the reading aspect of it because we're trying to kind of train them to see things differently. But it's more of training the eyes than it is of training them how to read. Right, exactly. I do have a lot of the reading fundamentals program students. But even with that, most of them know the basics and they're just mixing letters, they're flipping them, they're mixing the sounds. So we go through the letter recognition because once their eyes are starting to warm up and their eyes are doing what they're supposed to be doing, the letters do look a little different. So I start there to say, okay, nothing's wrong. We're just gonna reinforce these.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Right. What is the most rewarding part of coaching students and seeing them grow in their reading and learning abilities?

SPEAKER_01 14:08

All of it. I have a student who was the most improved in his fourth grade year last year in the whole school. That was amazing. I graduated a student who was actually a high school student. He was going into 10th grade this year, and he was reading at an 11th grade level and comprehending at 95%, which was huge because when he came in, he wasn't comprehending really anything. He was making a lot of stuff up, he would tire out after a few minutes of reading, and now the sky's the limit. It's all the things. I have so many successes, I don't even know where to start. Because just watching them grow and have that confidence building. I had a high school student who literally wouldn't talk to me. We went through the motion, but he would not talk to me. And as he improved, his confidence got better, his attitude was he was a different kid. So all the things, really. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

So look, we have students ranging from preschool all the way up to high school level, and even can dabble into college that they come to us, and adults have access for it too. There's no age limit for this because it's not about your cognitive abilities, it's about that myostfacial attention, is what we're looking at. So that's why Leah can talk about different students that she's had, and she's had high school students, she's got kindergarten students, she's got the elementary students, and Leah has a very merry fell schedule because she's that amazing. I want you to think about you've had so many successes, but I want you to think about is there one memorable story or even a couple of students whose progress really stood out to you? That you were just like, oh my gosh, and you were in tears. Side note, as you can tell, we cry a lot here. So it's happy tears.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Okay, so this happened this week, actually. Student number 180. His mom told me that they did their dibbles testing at school. And every year he has done not very good on it. He has very much struggled with the words. Even when he was really focusing on them, he would guess. The Dibbles are based on speed mostly. But the mom asked, Hey, can you do it based on the words and reading the words correctly? And I think he had something like 35 words, and he didn't miss one. No one. Then 168, he's the one who was the most improved in his fourth grade class. Mom sent me a video of it, and I was crying. And then I had brothers, 206 and 207. They did not want to do it. Mom convinced them to do it, and they were like, I don't want to, I don't want to do my eye exercises. They were fighting her tooth and nail to the point where she was like, she contacted me and you and was like, I don't know what to do because they just won't cooperate. So me and Coach Kay had multiple conversations with the kids saying, Hey, let's give it a month, let's see what happens. If you do everything how you're supposed to do, one one month. And if there's no improvement, okay, cool. Let's give it one month where you work really hard. And they did, and they skyrocketed. Improvement was crazy, they did amazing. And ever since they've been working really hard, they've been doing their stuff, and they just keep improving. Those are my the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

That's fantastic. What are some common challenges students or parents face when they start the program? And how do you help them overcome these?

SPEAKER_01 17:54

I think the biggest one is getting onto a new rhythm with doing the eye exercises every day. That is the biggest thing. So we have a tracker form that we send. I've also had a student, a mom who made a new tracker form, and I've distributed that also because it's different kids, different things. So there's a lot of habit building things I go with that I teach them and I go over with them, like habit stacking, things like that, where I say, okay, stack it with different things you already do every day. And I talk to the parents a lot about making it desirable to do it, even a simple reward after right as they're done with it, to encourage them to take the initiative to do it. Some kids just can't do it right off the bat on their own. But even if they bring their stuff to their mom and say, Hey, help me. So there's a lot of different things like that. I think that's the biggest thing is getting their eye exercises done.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

How as a coach do you balance encouraging progress while keeping the process fun and engaging for the kids? Lots of activities.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

If they're bored with something or if they're don't want to do it, it happens a lot with the gaze point drills. I find different ways. I'll chunk it out, I'll block it off, I'll draw different characters on the screen, whatever works, and I just base it off of the kid and their personality. That's where you get to know them, and you don't want to just be like, okay, this is your session. Here's dunno do this is a relationship. You're gonna be with these kids for a while. So it's important to build that relationship.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Yeah, and it's one-on-one coaching that is catered directly to them.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Right. So I base it on them. I read my students pretty well if they're getting fussy with something or they're making a lot of mistakes or whatever. I'm like, okay, let's switch. It's no harm, no foul. We have enough activities to do that with.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

What do you hope to achieve as a coach at VRA in the coming years, both for yourself and for the students you work with?

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Well, it's a tough one because I just, I don't know. I love my students. I want to see them succeed, and that's why I do it. Now, obviously, making a paycheck is helpful, but that's definitely not the reason. I would love to graduate all the students I have right now. I would love to graduate every single one of them and watch them just thrive and get letters for Christmas saying, hey, this is what I'm doing. That's what I want for me.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

I love that. What advice would you give to parents who are considering vision reading academy for their child?

SPEAKER_01 20:20

If you haven't done a free assessment, do it because you don't know until you know. And that's what I have told so many people that you don't know until you know. And if you don't know what's going on and you're struggling, and everything's not working, no matter what you try, you change curriculums. Oh, okay, cool. You start at the beginning again and again and again and again, and nothing's still working. Something's wrong. There's something that's not working how it should. And this is literally a harmless, non-invasive assessment all over Zoom. Get the assessment. That's my biggest thing. Get the assessment, find a way to make it happen. See if you have a scholarship in your area, if you can't afford it, do what you can to get your kid this because even if you have to start out at one day a week, it's better than none. That's what I would tell them because it's amazing. It changed our lives.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

It's life changing. We usually recommend twice a week so that listeners know that we're tight. It's not every single day of the week. And the other thing that would be helpful to know we don't just do homeschool students. Public school students, we have many public school students. So there are options, and we have a lot of public school students that their IEP teacher will help them with the exercises during school and things like that. So this isn't just something for homeschool students. Because we want to help everybody. It doesn't matter. We want to be able to change a child's life no matter what scenario they're living in. All right. Last thing, and we will close this out. Is there anything else you'd like listeners to know about you, the program, or the impact of Vision Reading Academy?

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Honestly, I don't think so, because I think it covered everything that it's just changed everything for us. And even my five-year-old's like, Can I do my exercises? I'm like, okay. Doesn't hurt. Yeah, absolutely. No, I just gotta give my husband a job.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

I know we have many families that come through us and they will have all of their children assessed. And there will be one child that uh needs it more than the rest. And so they'll put that child into the program and then they'll have the other siblings do the eye exercises too. It's not one of those things where we look at it and we go, we need to have every single one of you in the program. We want to empower the parents to be able to take charge of their child's journey and be able to help them. And we're here as coaches to coach them and encourage them and guide them along the way. With that being said, thank you, Leah, for coming on and talking with us today. It's always amazing to hear all of the different stories and the successes and the amazingness that you have achieved for your own family as well as for your students. So thank you very much. And I'm sure that we will be talking with you soon. All right. Well, thank you for having me. All right, talk to you later.