Two Heads Are Better Than One: Reading Horizons Partners with Nonprofit Superhero Training Center

November 2009

Orem, Utah – Reading Horizons has partnered with a local nonprofit company, the Superhero Training Center. The combined knowledge of these two parties creates an environment for struggling readers to obtain the skills necessary for successful reading and a successful future.

The Superhero Training Center is a fun place where people can come and receive good, research-based reading instruction. The name for the center comes from the idea that children can sometimes feel self-conscious about their disabilities, but learning how to overcome those difficulties can help children discover their own power within. The Superhero Training Center is directed by reading expert Ann Sharp, Ph.D. Sharp has dedicated her life and studies to the development and teaching of successful reading methods. She has helped countless children and adults to gain the fundamental skills required for reading comprehension and decoding. Her skills alone are immense, but when combined with the qualifications of her Advisory Board, the knowledge base has an incomprehensible potential to help struggling readers. The board includes, but is not limited to: Kathleen J. Brown, Ph.D., director of the University of Utah Reading Clinic, and Neil J. Anderson, Ph.D., professor of Linguistics and English Language at Brigham Young University and coordinator of BYU’s English Language Center.

Through her dedication to find the best method for teaching reading, Sharp was delighted to discover the Reading Horizons software, which focuses on systematic phonics instruction. This software is based on the same method she found to be most successful in helping struggling readers through her studies and teaching. The NRP confirmed her finding when they studied over 10,000 research methods and found systematic phonics instruction to be the most effective in assisting struggling readers. HEC Reading Horizons and Ann Sharp have formed a close relationship over the years due to their shared goals and ideas on how to reach and help struggling readers. Both parties are excited about this new partnership.

The importance of this partnership can be highlighted by the words of 10-year-old Scott, a student of Sharp's: "Almost everything comes easily for me except for reading. It is the hardest thing I have ever tried to do. But working with Ann and Reading Horizons has made all the difference. I am finally learning to read!" Both of these parties offer valuable information and knowledge from years of experience, and this combined knowledge opens the door for lives to be changed. This partnership was kicked off with an event earlier this month at the Superhero Training Center, sponsored by HEC Reading Horizons. By encouraging participants to play the Reading Horizons Lemons for Literacy vocabulary game, $1,600 was raised to provide Reading Horizons software for the training center.

To schedule an appointment at the Superhero Training Center with Dr. Ann Sharp, please visit www.SuperHeroTrainingCenter.org, or call 801-255-5505.