SmartReading has changed my life!
Thursday, 20th October, 2011, Groningen

I am Niek Lijkelema 23 years old and I am studying Social Work Services. I was honoured when asked to write my story about Smart Reading and what effect it has had on my dyslexia. In answer to this question, I first want to share my life experience with you so you can get a better picture of the effects of SmartReading.

I am a dyslectic; this was diagnosed in grade 4 of primary school. When they found out, my mother followed a course and started a practice at home. I had a lot of trouble because of my dyslexia during secondary school.
After making the Cito test (this test indicates at which level you should do your studies) I was classified as being at the lowest level. My mother knew I could do better and fought for me to move up a scale (in the Netherlands it is called VMBO Theoretical) and the permission was granted. After the second year, my study became vocationally oriented. I failed my English exam but then passed it later after taking an oral exam. My dream was to be a car salesman so I started to follow a 4-year Sales Course. In the third year I did an internship for a car dealer and found out that it was not my thing at all. At that moment I decided to go into the healthcare sector. I worked my way up during my studies and had just started University when all the trouble started. I failed the first year because it was so difficult. After many letters to the Examination Committee I managed to re-do the exams with a Sprinto Stick, which is a software package that helps dyslectic people with writing. The school board allowed me to go on to the second year, but I had to redo the exams, which I hadn’t passed in the first year. The dean had also referred me to a psychologist where I had eight sessions. This helped me in some ways but soon I fell back into my old routine.

At a certain moment, I was checking movies online in the hope that I could find something that could help me with my studies. That’s when a movie about SmartReading came by. I see movies like that quite often, but this one stuck with me. I enrolled for the training and started the course with little expectation. I walked up to the trainer and told him that I am dyslectic, he told me that it would be a bit difficult for me and that I would be drained of energy by the end of the day. That is exactly what happened. I was exhausted by the end of the day. But, on my way home, the acquired skills already started to show with the first signpost I read: ‘Hillegom Exit’.

Day 2
Day two we learned to jump-read and to make mind maps. I really like mind mapping, it gives me more pleasure during my studies.

What was the effect of the SmartReading course on me?

This course gave me peace, structure and a goal orientated focus. It taught me not to just start something, but to first make an overview and to make ‘go-goals’. Before the training I wanted to read everything, every single word, all the lines, everything, the whole contents of a book. SmartReading is useful in the way that it creates a purpose for reading; it motivates and creates peace in your mind while reading. Mind mapping makes studying much more fun and it makes you remember more and better. Thanks to your ‘go-goal’ you read with a purpose, which makes you remember all the necessary information. I started to adopt the techniques while I was in class and while I was studying. Now, when I’m SmartReading, people can talk to me as much as they like, but I don’t hear them at all because I’m so focused. It gives me a fantastic feeling to be able to read and finish a book in an hour and a half and understand and remember everything!!

What is the effect of this course on dyslexia?
This is a difficult personal question to answer, mainly because of the fact that there are different types of dyslexia. Yet I am convinced that this course will help everybody with any type of dyslexia. A dyslectic person needs to work three times as hard as a person without dyslexia. But due to SmartReading they don’t have to work three times as hard anymore! They have more time to do nice things and have fun once in a while. Dyslectic people are easily distracted and have major concentration problems. With SmartReading you do not notice what is happening around you. This feeling alone gives me much pleasure, as well as a feeling of peace. I would definitely like to recommend this course to all dyslectic people. The investment gives you great value for money.