PHONICS PRESS RELEASE 

News
March 17, 2000
For Immediate Release
Contact: Lori Foster
sales@mindplay.com 

My Reading Coach aims to eliminate illiteracy

TUCSON, Ariz. - Now that he has retired, expert speech pathologist and reading teacher Jim Larrabee's mission is to teach every man, woman and child to read.

That is possible now that Larrabee is digitized, teaching his successful, phonics-based reading lessons on My Reading Coach software by MindPlay. Today the company released a three-CD single-student edition, which follows the school version released last year.

"This is truly personal, individualized instruction - a significant, new approach for educational software," says Mindplay's CEO Judith Bliss who benefited from Larrabee's instruction several years ago. "Mr. Larrabee identifies gaps in a user's reading ability, teaches at the student's pace and continually monitors progress. He is patient and encouraging, and he'll work with you at home, school, work or anywhere."

The company's unique technology that replicates the teacher's intelligence, along with his voice and face, blends with Larrabee's proven methods to work equally well for students of any age.

Children, older students, inmates with the Arizona Department of Corrections, people with learning disabilities and non-native speakers have tested My Reading Coach>.

Ninety-five percent of those who use the program 40 to 50 hours improve their reading the equivalent of one to five grade levels.

"People can learn to read and understand anything they can hear and understand," Larrabee says. "The lessons on My Reading Coach bring their reading level up to their vocabulary level, whether that's the vocabulary of a seven-year-old or an adult."

MindPlay offers a free reading assessment online at www.test4free.com to help people determine if their reading needs improvement and, if so, in what areas they could use help.

The new edition of My Reading Coach gives a single user up to 100 hours or one year to complete the lessons and sells for $99. The School Edition allows an unlimited number of students unlimited use and includes a management component for teachers. The program is available for Windows™ and also runs on Macintosh™ computers with SoftWindows™ 98.

For more information, go to www.mindplay.com on the World Wide Web or call 800-221-7911.

Mindplay and My Reading Coach are registered trademarks of Methods and Solutions, Mindplay.

"All teachers have told me they've seen improvement in the Larrabee students - they are applying what they learned from Larrabee in their other classes.  Even parents have commented they've seen improvement at home.  One boy, in particular, was a potential drop out and very belligerent about learning in general; he had a dramatic turnaround at about Lesson 14.  He started participating in class and reading out loud - voluntarily.  All but one of my Larrabee students experienced growth on the standardized reading comprehension tests … ."

Karen Enos, Teacher
Myers-Ganoung Elementary School

"This completely interactive program is positive and appropriate for adults.  Since it is based on phones of the real 'talking language,' this approach promotes comprehension carryover from speaking to reading.  What a unique concept!  The bottom line is that it works.  We have had one student gain seven levels in three months, a group who gained two or three levels in two months and Spanish-first speakers who are now conversing with their non-Spanish-speaking roommates."

Doris T. Sokolowski, CEPT
Arizona State Prison Complex for Women - Phoenix 

"We've done pre- and post-test comparisons and some students have gained three and four years in their ability.  The program is doing very well for us."

Dudley Hendricks, Director
Washington County School Program