Coach Conversations: Every Child Deserves Someone Who Believes in Them

What happens when a mom watches her struggling reader become a confident, lifelong learner?

In this episode of Raising Confident Readers, Coach V sits down with Coach Cami to share her family's journey- from searching for answers for her daughter to becoming one of Vision Reading Academy's coaches.

As a homeschooling mom of seven, Cami had successfully taught all of her other children to read. But one daughter continued to struggle despite her best efforts. Headaches, letter reversals, frustration, and a growing lack of confidence left her wondering what she was missing.

After discovering Vision Reading Academy, everything began to change.

Together, Coach V and Coach Cami discuss:

• What led her family to Vision Reading Academy
• The surprising changes she witnessed beyond reading
• Why consistency matters more than perfection
• Practical ways to motivate children to complete their daily exercises
• What it's really like to become a VRA coach
• Why every student receives an individualized approach
• The incredible impact of having another adult believe in your child

One of the most powerful moments of the conversation is the reminder that sometimes the greatest gift we can give a struggling child isn't another curriculum- it's someone who believes in them until they begin believing in themselves.

If you've ever wondered whether your child is capable of more than they're currently showing, this episode is full of encouragement, practical advice, and hope for the journey ahead.

Because sometimes changing the future starts with helping a child realize...

"I really can do this."

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Welcome to the Vision Reading Academy podcast. My name is Vanessa Milan. I am otherwise known as Coach V. And today we are doing coach interview with Coach Cammie. So tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Hi, so I am a mom and a wife. I have seven kids, six girls and a boy. And he's right in the middle. And yes, he does kind of hate his life sometimes. We as a family love to hike and be outdoors, play games, watch movies. I personally love hiking. I would go every day if I could, but with seven kids, that doesn't usually happen. I also love to read, and currently my favorite obsession is historical fiction. Love historical fiction right now. I homeschool my kids up till about sixth or seventh grade, just depending on the student, and then send them to school so they can learn from someone besides me. I am on the board of a local homeschool co-op where we have about 30 families in our co-op to help raise and educate each other's children. So that keeps me pretty busy. Indeed.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

And I love that. I also love the hiking aspect because that's me too. I've always related on our love of the outdoors, the beautiful mountains and the hiking activity. I would also spend my life in the mountains if I also didn't have a bunch of kids. And a life outside of hiking. Right. And just homeschool and things like that. So we just, yes, we've always had so much in common. So I know your husband already shared your daughter's story, but if you wouldn't mind just sharing briefly how you found Vision Reading Academy.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Okay. So as a homeschooler, I taught all of my kids to read. And my second to youngest daughter was just struggling. She was having a hard time mixing up B's and D's and P's and Q's. And the start of the word would go to the end, and we would sound a word out and then forget it on the next line. You know, all of those things that are typical kind of to start with when you're learning to read. But she just never was able to get over that hang up on any of those things, and she would get headaches. Her handwriting is terrible. And so I just didn't know how to help her. I didn't think she was dyslexic, but I didn't know what was going on. And I was starting to get frustrated. She was beyond getting frustrated. And so one day I just randomly, I don't actually believe in coincidences, but I saw a post from Miss Crystal about this new company that she had started and was taking new students, and she posted a link for a free assessment. My daughter had recently gotten glasses because of her headaches. We knew something was going on with her eyes, but we didn't know what. So the eye doctor prescribed glasses, and he wasn't overly confident that they would help. So we decided to give it a try. She was wearing glasses and she didn't notice a difference, but with young kids, it's hard to tell exactly what's going on because they don't have the words to tell you all the time. So anyway, we did this assessment with Coach Crystal, and she was like, Yeah, we can definitely help her. So we waited through the summer because summer's crazy busy and we didn't want to start something new. I wanted to wait till my older kids got back into school and more of a routine before we started with the exercises and things. So we waited until after summer was over and we started with Coach V. And that was the best. She clicked so well with my daughter. And my daughter just loves Coach V to this day.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Well, I love her back. It's it's just beautiful. But if they didn't, and there was some kind of personality conflict, or the kid wasn't really just jiving, then a switch is no problem. But in general, that's extremely rare with what we've seen. It's just amazing how the students just really find a bond or they have something in common or they just feel so comfortable with our coaches.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Well, I think as coaches, we care so much about our students that we're like, if I'm not hitting this for you, let's find someone else who can. That's the main thing is getting you the help that you need rather than this is my student type situation.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

We genuinely love our students if we're struggling to figure out how do I help them pass this hurdle or something. We how wow, we all come together and say, I've got this student that's struggling with this. What have you guys done? Or we brainstorm and we work together as a team to support each other as coaches, as well as every single coach is invested in every single student in BRA, not just our own. So I want Coach Cammies and Coach Jess and all of the coaches, I want their students to succeed. So if I can support or help in any way, shape, or form, I am there 100%. And all the coaches are the same. So I love that about our team and it's amazing. So that's your initial story of being introduced to BRA and your daughter's intro and experience. But what made you decide to become a coach?

SPEAKER_00 7:28

So what made me decide to become a coach was just seeing how much BRA changed my daughter's life. I'm not gonna lie, it was hard work. It was a lot of work, and she didn't always want to do it.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Weird.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

I know, just like anything, right? Anything that's hard, the harder it is, the better the results sometimes. But hard is relative, right? Like it's not physically hard, it's not even mentally hard. It's just taking the time every day to do the things that need to be done, just the little things. So that's the kind of hard, just the monotonous day-to-day. Okay, we gotta do another set of exercises, or let's do your retain primitive reflexes, and just that kind of hard, not like physically demanding or even mentally demanding, just the follow-through.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Well, there's some initial discomfort in the very, very beginning, of course, with starting any new program, the worst it will ever be is just right there at the beginning. Yeah, but there is a discomfort sometimes in the discipline because it can feel demanding. Yeah. Or the wait, how long is this gonna take me? That's undetermined, based off of the severity, based off of the frequency of doing whatever exercises and the willingness are needed. That too. And because I had a stubborn daughter as well, and one that was just like, oh, I don't want to do them. Right. And it wasn't because it was physically hard. There was like a mental component to it as well. Like you're saying, the willingness, yeah, and just keeping that perspective that we do want reading to be easier and we do want to succeed as that goalpost and that light at the end of the tunnel, the day-to-day can become really challenging. So, what were some things that helped you motivate your daughter when she was like, I really don't want to do it?

SPEAKER_00 9:31

So, my daughter is really good with not bribery, but maybe incentives. So we had the little chart where she would cross off each day how many times she did it, hoping for five. That was the goal, it was five every day, and that actually was a game changer for us. I don't know why I didn't do it to start with. I just wanted her to buy in, I guess. We have a little pencil box where she keeps some of her tools for her exercises and the little charts taped right inside, so she just marks them off every time, and she gets it's a really, really low reward. She likes to save up her money. She wanted to be rewarded with money, which is totally fine. She likes to save up her money for things that she wants. So that actually was a game changer for her. Just seeing what she needed to do, being able to mark it off, get a little bit of incentive at the end of the week or after several weeks, whatever she was saving for, whatever she wanted to do, that was a game changer for her. Before we did that, we would just try to make it fun. We would say when she was starting with her bead exercises, we'd say the bead colors in different languages. And sometimes we'd just make up our own language because why not?

SPEAKER_01 10:51

I love that, and that's such a creative component to add to it. I feel like when you change up the monotony, even though you're not changing how it's being done, but you're adding a new component to it, it brings new life.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Yeah. A little bit more fun or different. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Not sure if we fully answered the question of what led you to becoming a coach.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Oh, yeah. So just seeing her progress and seeing how it works and why it works. And now she is an avid reader. She no longer wears glasses, she no longer gets headaches. And I know that doesn't happen for everyone. It's definitely a case-by-case thing, but in her case, she doesn't need those things, she doesn't get headaches, and she loves to read, she understands what she's reading, she is always begging to go to the library to get the next book or find the next series, just seeing the success that she had and just how it changed her life. And through the exercises as well as the retained primitive reflexes, her handwriting's better, her speech is better. She couldn't say her R's very good before we started the RPRs, and then a couple weeks in, all of a sudden she had every R sound the beginning, the middle, the ending, all of them without any help from anyone. And I was thinking, okay, once we're done with this coaching, we'll start on speech therapy to help her get her R's because she's past the age, but she just got it. Just got them.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

So that makes me so happy.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah, it was pretty amazing. And I was like, wait, is this what happens? Is this typical? And Miss Crystal was like, Yes, it is. It can be for sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

A lot of ripple effects, right? Right. A lot more than just the core of what we're looking at. We call them happy coincidences.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Right. Yeah, just yeah, for sure. And so I saw her success and how much it changed her life, and in in a way, changed my life and the life of my family. And I want that for every kid. I want that for every kid who has a hard time reading or whatever it is. Maybe reading's okay, but maybe math is hard or whatever. I want that success and that love for learning and reading for every kid that I saw in my daughter. So I wanted to become a coach so I could help other kids see that in themselves. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

I think that's probably a very common desire in all of our coaches. Every single one was a parent first in the program. That's a non-negotiable because we feel very strongly that the empathy component for the child struggle, but also for the parent struggle, that we are a support to the parents and that we understand what the child's going through because we were in the thick with our own children.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

And because of that and the change we've seen, how can we not, if it's a possibility, how can we not offer this to the world and to share this with other moms, with other kids, and just be like, your whole life could be different. Your whole life could be different. Yeah, yes, for sure. I love that. So what has surprised you most since becoming a coach?

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Since becoming a coach, what I have been the most surprised at is I know that you loved my daughter and that Miss Crystal loves my daughter. And I, you know, not that I don't love kids, I do love kids, but just having my own students and just being like, okay, how can I help this student the most? What's going to be most effective? What are they gonna like? This maybe didn't work as well last session. So what's gonna be different for them? Just the level of care and how much I think about how to help them, and just different tactics and things that I can use to help them and just the love that I genuinely have for them. That was that was kind of surprising.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Well, then it goes beyond that 30-minute session for sure, right? For sure that throughout the day we'll be thinking of that student and their particular set of challenges, or this exercise is working, but how can I tweak it for this specific student that oftentimes we are tailoring every tool that we have to personalize it for each of our students, even the reading exercises that we do.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

I had a student the other day who was not wanting to do a session, she was not feeling it. She doesn't understand why she has to read so much in the summer, which I totally understand. And she was just fighting it. She had her special kitty there. So her special kitty read some of the things, and she loved that. And part way through our session, she was like, Do you realize that it's just me reading for special kitty? I was like, What? That's so crazy. But it got her through the session and she was happy and laughing and giggling by the time we were done because Special Kitty learned to read.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

We adapt to the needs of that child, the needs of the student. I have the sweetest student that she has her stuffy that she's had since she was a baby, and it's her comfort stuffy. And I know this stuffy by name, and when I see this stuffy, I say hello because the stuffy is part of our session. Yeah. We adapt to each student and just love on them and where they're at. And we just continually adapt to their needs and address that. And I love that that became something we're like, let's approach this differently.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Yeah. Yeah. And then that's successful. She can come to every session if she wants to. Absolutely. She's always welcome.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Oh my stars. I love that. I love that so much. What would you say to a parent who is wondering if Visual Media Academy is right for their child?

SPEAKER_00 17:34

I would say that give it a shot. You never know what's going to happen. You know where you're at now, but you never know where a road is going to take you. And the assessment is free. And so why not hop on and see what we can see and see if we feel like Vision Reading Academy is going to be a good fit for you and for your child. I feel like a lot of times things like this are not as mainstream. And so you're like, is this really gonna work? How's that gonna help? But why not give it a shot? You don't really have anything to lose, and you know, you get going with it after giving a good, honest effort. If it's not helping, you're not in a contract or anything, it's very low pressure. We want what's best for your kid just like you do. So just give it a try, give it an honest effort. Do the things that the coaches are asking inside and outside of the sessions, and then if it's not working, we can look for something else. We can try a different road, but there's really nothing to lose.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Absolutely, I fully agree. I claim the tagline when in doubt, rule it out. So you've nothing to lose by signing up for a free assessment and just getting some feedback. Yeah, that part is free, they won't always be free, but right now they're free. So definitely take advantage of that, hug on it. When in doubt, rule it out. And I love what you said about give it a good, honest try because we have a hundred percent success rate. Every single one of our students that has done what we've asked them to do has gained improvement, every single one. So it's that willingness to try something new and to give it the amount of time to see if it works, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:37

And that's the thing, is it just takes time. You're not gonna see overnight improvement from one night to the next. Why would you say that it's not a quick fix? Oh, just like with anything with diet and exercise, you can't diet one week and then see results the next, right? It takes time. You've got to build that into your routine, you've got to make it part of your life every day. And as you keep going, you'll see progress along the way, but it's not gonna go from not being able to read to being able to read in a month. That's not the way anything works in life. You gotta give it some effort, give it some time, but then you're gonna see the results and see the rewards, and it's gonna be amazing. And you'll look back and you'll say, Oh my gosh, that was so worth it. And it wasn't actually that hard.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

And maybe as we talked about at the beginning, maybe not for reasons that you think it's hard. Yeah, it's more the discipline side of it being hard. And I'm totally with you in that regard. I also I feel like it took time for habits to form. If your child is struggling, sometimes it's even belief in themselves. The confidence, the most heartbreaking thing that I think we see as coaches is the lack of confidence or the belief that child is stupid.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

It's the most heartbreaking part because we see the intelligence in these kids every time. It's and the ways that they have adapted in order to survive, in order to get through school or to read or to be able to do what they do shows some incredible adaptability as well as intelligence to get them to where they are today, even if they're not at their grade level, the kids their age are so far ahead of them. Do you know what it took for them to be where they are today?

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Yeah, so much. It's huge. Yes. One other thing that I will say too is just having another adult believe in your child and be their cheerleader and praise, and they're not the mom. They don't have to fight or encourage or anything to do the exercises. The coach just gets to be there and just love your child and just encourage and hype them up. And just that alone that my daughter received from Coach V was amazing. It built her up in ways that I didn't expect. She's not an overly affectionate child towards strangers, but the first time we met Coach B in person, I think she gave you the biggest hug I've seen her give an adult outside of our family ever.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

I love that. And she was even resistant at first. She was like, I don't know if I want to. They say don't meet your heroes, okay? There's a reason for that. And it's kind of like I don't want this good opinion of this person to change if I meet them in real life. And I happen to be in town, and she at first was like, that just feels like such a big commitment.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Yeah, she didn't want to commit that much to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

But then it was like, hold on, actually changed my mind. And yeah, it was the very least. Meeting her in real life because our sessions are offered over Zoom. We're an international company. We can work with students from all over the world and we have the capability to have sessions and students from anywhere lived on the other side of the country. And being able to meet her in person was just I I just wish I could hug all of my students in real life because I love them that much. But I know as her coach, I got all the glory while mom had the blood, sweat, and tears. Well, yes, but we know that our mothers in the program are in the trenches with our children. And because we love our children and our children know we love them, oftentimes we get to see the worst. Yeah, for sure. Because they know that we'll still love them. That unconditional love, we tend to see that, but they tend to be on their best behavior with their coach. So if I said, let's do this drift. And it is her most hated drill, even though she didn't want to do it, she would willingly do it. That is the brilliance in working with someone outside of your home, especially when you're homeschooling and you are the educator and you are the one always lifting and supporting. It is so nice to outsource that to somebody else who can love your child, who can cheerlead them. And when you do have another adult that is recognizing your brilliance and pointing it out and just be like, Do you realize what you just did? You just see the light in their eyes. You see them sit a little taller. Yeah. And it's the most beautiful thing to watch their confidence bloom. It's like a bud, and they're testing the waters. They're still questioning, maybe even their very worth in the world. And this bud slowly starts to open. And we as coaches continually watch this flower bloom. That's my favorite part. It is the most gratifying and beneficial thing of what we do is watching their confidence. It's not just their skills. These kids already have skills. Yeah, for sure. They have already learned how to read in most cases, but it's now a matter of being able to use those tools that they have learned because their eyes and their brain are at war. Yeah. And until we get that switch has flipped where the brain no longer has to overcompensate and protect the nervous system can also relax. The eyes do what they were designed to do. We have the most incredible experience where the child then goes, I can do that. I've been telling you that since day one. Your mom's been telling you that since day one. And watching it.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Yes. And I think just having that other person there is such a great thing. Such a confidence builder, such a whole life builder.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

It is because the one thing they will do for the rest of their lives until they die or have dementia, or you know, it's like heaven forbid, Alzheimer's or something, they will be reading for the rest of their lives. And we want to send confident children out into the world as an international company. They are the future of their respective country. Their ability to drive their future as a professional, to be able to work and provide for themselves and to be an adult with competent skills. They're not a victim of their circumstances any longer. And they can choose their path.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

And I think it also shows them that oh, I have a problem. I can solve this. I did that with my reading or with whatever it is. I overcame that. I can overcome this too. So I think it's just a whole life skills building program for sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Absolutely. I fully agree. Well, thank you very much. This was a beautiful introduction. And um Cami is an incredible coach. And I'm just I'm so grateful that we get to work with you. I'm so grateful that you chose to go through the training. It's intensive. This training is, it's not just like, oh, I had a kid in the program, I can do it. It's not that at all.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Yeah, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

What would you say about the training? What would you say about the training to become a coach?

SPEAKER_00 27:13

So the training to become a coach was very comprehensive. The hours that we have to put in shadowing a senior coach is so beneficial because you just get to see lots and lots of different students and different ways to work with them and different ways to do the drills, even though there's the same drills, you can do them so many different ways. And just the ability to connect on so many different levels with each individual student. And oh, let's adjust this, let's do that. Instead, that was really eye-opening because I'd only seen my daughter's sessions. I was like, oh, that's how it is for everyone. But surprise. So individualized for each student. And that was probably the most eye-opening part of going through the training was just how individualized it is. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

We really want to make sure that we have effectively and efficiently done our jobs so that when that student graduates from our program, it is a lifelong change that they can take with them forever. And they have the tools and skills that should, if anything ever happened, that they have the tools and skills to bring themselves back. They wouldn't necessarily have to come back and get additional coaching, that they could then tackle it on their own. We give those tools and skills to our students to help them be lifelong learners and have lifelong success. Yes, and I love that so much. Same. Beautiful. All right, Cammy, thank you for your time today. Oh, thank you. You betcha. My pleasure. I always enjoy my time with you. Yes. I'm sure your students do too. Anyway, we will close out this getting to know you session. And I look forward to many more. Sounds good. Have a good one. You too. Thank you.