About Me

My name is Vicki Squadrito and I live in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. I am married with 2 adult children.

As a parent, I know and understand the frustration and heartache of watching a child struggle to learn to read, write and spell.

My experiences with my own child’s persistent literacy difficulties are where this story began. Reading, writing and spelling proved incredibly difficult for him, right from kindergarten. A hurdle, so large, at times it seemed impossible to clear. It was like he was completely blocked when it came to acquiring literacy skills.

This led me on a path of new discoveries.

I started working at his school as a Learning Support Officer, hoping to better understand and educate myself around how to help him and others just like him, all the while searching and researching a solution to this problem.

Over a ten year period and working in different schools, it became apparent to me that schools did not have the funding, time, resources or knowledge to better help these children. These children were and still are “slipping through the cracks” and as a result, are our most vulnerable learners of all.

I also witnessed the confidence and self-esteem of these children take an absolute battering. Every child starts school the same way – they believe they will go to school and learn to read and write and make their parents proud. So, what happens when they don’t? They, themselves, do not understand why they struggle to read, write and spell while their peers seem to be able to pick it up easily and naturally. This can result in a child not wanting to go to school at all, increased sick days, acting out and worst of all, completely giving up.

For parents, feelings include –

Worry – “my child is not learning to read like the other children”.
Frustration – “why can they read a word one day and not the next?”.
Desperation – “who will help my child? No one seems to know what to do”.
Scared – “I am scared for my child’s future”.
Heartache – no parent wants to see their child struggle every single day.

In 2012 I undertook a year of study to become an MSL (Multi-sensory Structured Language) Specialist, not only to help my own child, but other students just like him. Tutoring with a Difference was born.