Joshua Gilder, aged 13, unknowingly suffered from dyslexia for several years. He was miserable at school and was dramatically falling way behind his peers; his mum was desperate to help.
At the age seven, Josh wasn’t getting any support from school. His homework became more and more challenging and he was desperate to understand: "I wish I could just change my brain."
Josh was privately assessed and diagnosed with dyslexia and a very high IQ. Joshed moved to a new school that were willing to give him the time and resources he needed. Although he was getting additional support he was still very unhappy. "It was at this point that I watched the Trevor McDonald Tonight show on the television that featured DORE and knew immediately that I wanted Josh to take part in the programme."
Soon after Josh started the programme his confidence grew so much his mum said "it was like living with a different boy." He went in for tournaments in Tae Kwondo and achieved Bronze medal position in the British Championship in his league for sparring, an amazing achievement for Josh.
Within a few months into the programme things also started changing at school. His teacher saw improvements in his writing and he started learning his spellings and retaining the information, so his scores in his spelling tests went right up. This boosted his confidence all the more; he went from being a little boy who couldn’t keep up to a lad that was keeping up with his peers in both work and socialising.
Josh’s SATs results in year six were way above what had been expected and was above average in some areas. When he started at Dore he was 0.6 on the dyslexic scale which is mild to moderate dyslexia. When Josh finished the programme he was 0.1 on the scale which means that there is no dyslexia present.
Josh’s parents were concerned when finding out Josh was dyslexic how he would cope in secondary school as once you fall behind it is very hard to catch up. Josh has started secondary school and has settled in beautifully. He is able to keep up in all his subjects and is coming home with grade A’s and B’s. Josh now does his homework on his own without any help; something they never thought would be possible.
'I would have paid a million pounds for that, given my right arm or even sold my house! There is no feeling better in the world than knowing my son is happy' said Josh's mum.