William’s Story: Finding His Words

At six years old, William was:

• Creative, enthusiastic and determined to do well
• Full of imagination and eager to write stories
• Beginning to struggle with reading and phonics
• Experiencing a widening literacy gap
• Working with a spelling age of 5 — a full year behind his peers

Despite his strong verbal ability and love of stories, the mechanics of reading and spelling were becoming a barrier. The cognitive effort required to decode and spell accurately made writing difficult. William’s confidence began to dip.

William’s teachers recognised his potential and saw that a literacy intervention could help him to thrive. By engaging with IDL regularly between Year 2 and Year 3, William made fantastic progress:

• His spelling age grew to 6 years 10 months – this reflected an impressive 21 months of progress
• His writing became far more independent and sustained
• His spelling accuracy improved significantly
• In Year 3, he was achieving age‑expected attainment

IDL provided structured, cumulative practice that reduced the cognitive load involved in spelling. As more became automatic, more mental energy was available for creativity, structure and expression.

By the age of nine:

• Dyslexia testing confirmed ongoing challenges with multiple instructions and cognitive load
• He entered the BBC 500 Words competition and reached the final 5,000 out of 44,000 entries
• He describes himself as confident, expressive and passionate about language

The child who once struggled to keep up with literacy expectations now dreams of becoming a writer.