Jeffrey Wilhelm, PhD Offers Insight for Parents of Children Struggling with Reading
Nardagani advisory board member Jeffrey Wilhelm, PhD is a distinguished professor of English education at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, and a nationally recognized literacy expert. A highly regarded author and co-author of more than 37 books about literacy and literacy education, 24 of which are national best-sellers, Dr. Whilem shares his experiences with the online reading program after conducted a research study to explore the efficacy of Nardagani on the decoding skills and reading fluency rate of struggling readers in a school setting. The literacy expert now offers some insight for parents of children who are struggling to read.
Nardagni: How did you learn about Nardagani?
Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm: Narda connected me directly at (Boise State) University and sent me a letter and some materials, which I looked at, and I felt that it was highly unconventional. I’m not an early literacy person, so I set it aside. So, the next thing, she called me and said I am in Boise and I would like to talk with you. I sat down with her and she showed me some videos, both students who were at the middle school and high school level, and parents of those students who had used Nardagani. It was entirely compelling because I’ve worked my whole life in middle schools and high schools, and I know that typically there is anywhere from 3%-10% of the kids who don’t know how to decode, and therefore can’t do any of their school work or don’t have basic comprehension.
Nardagni: What compels you about Nardagani?
Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm, Ph.D: I was very compelled that even at that age, when nothing else had worked, that Nardagani had provided a breakthrough. And, if you could see the parents and the kids relief and joy at having made this breakthrough on the videos—it was just immediately compelling to me. When I see something that works to help those kids then I am immediately attracted to it.
Nardagni: What are some other aspects of Naradani that impress you as a literacy expert?
Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm, Ph.D: When it comes to ease of use, one of the things we found in our studies, was that teachers could learn it quite quickly in a couple of hours, and they could like wise teach parents or other students to use it within a couple hour time span. So they could be teachers or or peer teachers for kids who were struggling.
