In December 2010, Matt's grandfather came into the Middletown Huntington Center to inquire about tutoring for Matt, as he was having difficulty studying for his driver's test. Matt's grandfather said that Matt studied all the time, but nothing stuck, both for his driver's test and in school. To us, this sounded like Matt's challenge was study skills, so I set him up for an academic evaluation that would pinpoint where we could help him improve. During the evaluation we discovered that Matt's challenge was much larger. As a senior in high school, Matt was reading at a very low grade level.

We started working with Matt right away on phonics, vocabulary and all of the core comprehension skills that Matt was so desperately in need of. The reading and phonics was difficult for him at first, but he never complained and he never lost his motivation to be able to study for that driver's test.

Around February, Matt's grandfather shared with me that Matt was becoming frustrated with the work that he was doing. He couldn't understand, after a few months of hard work, why he couldn't stop his instruction at the center and take his driver's test. We sat down with Matt and learned that he had taken some culinary classes through his high school. When we talked about needing to know how to read the recipes and special instructions, he began to understand why he couldn't leave Huntington yet. Matt started to realize that he wasn't just here to be able to pass his driver's test. He was here so he could be successful throughout his life.

From that moment forward, Matt was motivated. He worked very hard through August 2011. Matt improved his reading and skill level by six grades. Matt's counselors at school would call me frequently to tell me that his teachers kept asking what she had done with Matt because his skills in the classroom had improved so dramatically. Of course, she accredits his success to Huntington.

Matt now reads with tone, inflection and feeling in his voice. His confidence and motivation to learn and read more have grown tremendously. When he left Huntington, he told me that he felt much more prepared to face the world. And, of course, he felt more ready for his driver's test than ever before.

Matt is just one of our one of our greatest success stories at Huntington in Middletown. We are so very proud to be part of his success.

FROM: Matt