7-Year-Old Hooked On Phonics, Refuses To Kick The Habit
Learning to read is one of the greatest milestones in a childâs early development.Â  For the family of 7-year-old Peter Hall, what started off as a blessing quickly turned into a curse.PeterÂ was reading byÂ the age ofÂ 2, with the help ofÂ the popular Hooked on PhonicsÂ series of informational workbooks and DVDs, but now the youngster refuses to learn or do anything else.âHis grandmother bought him the first set of books,â says Peterâs mother, Monica Hall.Â  âThank God sheâs dead and gone so she doesnât have to see the monster she created,â she says.Â  âI know she meant well, but I thank the Lord above that sheâs in a place where she canât see the hell sheâs put us through.Â  I lost my job, my husband, and I âbout near lost my mind!ââWe started off by following the directions,â Monica continued.Â  âThey said to do the lessons for 20 minutes a day, 2 to 3 times a week, which seemed fineÂ and was good for our schedule.âPeter instantly took to the workbooks, cards and DVDs, begging for more when the end of one learning segment was reached.Â  Temper tantrums and hunger strikes resulted if the books were taken away.âAt the end of the first week, I kept hearing these scratching noises in the middle of the night,â said Monica. Â âIâd go into Peteâs room and there heâd be with a flashlight under his covers, reading another book, turning another page, skipping ahead to another lesson â if we tried taking the book away from him, heâd holler and scream like we were stickinâ pins in him!Â  Eventually we just let him keep going.Â  Now I see we made a huge mistake.ââHe wonât eat, wonât sleep â we were advised by a doctor to hook him up to an intravenous so that he wonât dehydrate, and we had to install a feeding tube in him last month so he wouldnât starve to death,â Monica explained through sobs.Â  Even the child welfare officer threw her hands up and â¦ and she walked out.ââIt was a living hell on Earth,â says Peterâs father and Monicaâs estranged husband, Bill.Â  âI moved out 8 months ago.Â  I couldnât take it no more â the books, the lessons, the DVDs, the sound of pages turninâ â I quit drinkinâ 20 years ago, but I fell off the wagon by the timeÂ Petey started askinâ for biographies. Â That was the limit! Â Books were like crack cocaine to him, or even maybe meth â it was that bad.Â  Iâve been around addicts, but I never seen anything like this before!ââThe commercialÂ says more than 3 million families have used the program and are happy with it,â says Monica.Â  âWell, what about us?â They donât show people like us inÂ those commercials.Â  They donât show the people whose lives have been ruined by this evil! Â Itâs not fair!Â  Itâs just not fair!â Â She burst into tears.Monicaâs cries eventually subsided; the only sounds the can beÂ heard when thereâs no other noise in the house always come from Peterâs room; the turning of pages and the constant click and whirr of the feeding tube mechanism advancing a steady stream of mashed nutrients intoÂ the childâsÂ abdomen.âItâs gotten to the point where he doesnât even talk anymore.Â  He just gets up, plugs in another bag of mush, loads up the machine and starts another book.Â  I want to die.Â  Dear Lord, how I pray each night for deathâs sweet embrace.Â  Why me, oh heavenly Father, why me?âHooked on PhonicsÂ representatives were unable to explain the extreme circumstances surrounding the Hallâs plight.âTheyâve been in touch with us,â said Monica.Â  âAll they said is, they can keep sending us more books and cards and DVDs with their prayers and good wishes.Â  They said they were working overtime just to keep up.Â  I know just how they feel. Lord only knows, I know just how they feel.â