As a Davis Facilitator, Richard has delivered one-to-one Davis Programmes to children and adults since 2002. He is also a Davis Workshop Presenter and Specialist and has delivered lectures and teaching workshops on the Davis methods in countries as diverse as Iceland, Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Poland, the United States, India, South Africa, New Zealand and Israel. He is Principal Trainer for Davis UK & Ireland and for the Russian-language training provided by Davis Learning – Baltic Association in Tallinn, Estonia.
Richard is a licensed Davis Autism Approach Workshop Presenter, Facilitator and Coach and has a particular interest in the Davis Concepts for Life Programme, a variant of the Davis Autism Approach Programme developed for undiagnosed individuals who have hit a “glass ceiling” in aspects of their personal and/or professional life.
Richard’s extensive background in education includes time spent teaching in both the adult and mainstream secondary educational sectors. For ten years, he occupied various positions at Malvern College, a flourishing independent secondary boarding school in Worcestershire, UK which specialises in the International Baccalaureate for its international students. Richard was Head of German for three years, IB Theory of Knowledge Coordinator for five years, a Deputy Housemaster for two years, Special Educational Needs Coordinator for six years and Peer Mentoring Scheme Coordinator for eight years.
Richard is a licensed Specialist SpLD Teacher Assessor. An Oxford-educated linguist with a working knowledge of six European languages, he has developed a specialism in multilingual dyslexia/SpLD assessments for non-native speakers of English who go to school in the UK.
Richard has a keen interest in holistic approaches to health and learning; alongside his dyslexia work, he has run workshops on effective parent/child communication based on the work of Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish (How To Talk So Kids Will Listen). He conducts courses on parenting children with ADHD and/or autism authored by Elizabeth Currie Shier, and he has authored a six-week Davis methods course for parents of bright but struggling learners.
Richard has written articles on the dyslexic learning style for publications as diverse as Literacy Today, Green Parent Magazine and Personnel Today magazine and he has recorded video presentations on dyslexia for the Dystalk project (http://www.dystalk.com). He has conducted webinars on multi-sensory learning for Operation Diversity, the University of Chester and the SEND Group. For the last 3 years he has been a guest speaker at the Dyslexia Show in Birmingham.
Richard is author of the book, Why Tyrannosaurus But Not If?, which was published in paperback and Kindle edition in July 2017. The book and course present the Davis approach in the context of a dyslexic child's experience in mainstream schooling.
His second Davis methods book, Counting On Fingers — Why Some Bright And Creative People Struggle With Numbers And Mathematics, And How That Can Be Changed, co-authored by Ronald Davis, was published in October 2023.
Richard regularly presents public webinars on different aspects of the Davis methods.
Licensed to provide:
Licensed since: January 18, 2002
Certifications:
Travel: I am willing to travel to clients
Online services: I coach online or in person
Delivery Languages: EnglishEnglish • FrenchFrench (Français) • GermanGerman (Deutsch) • PolishPolish (Polski) • RussianRussian (русский язык)
Dear Richard,
I thought it only fair to share some information about Eden Trainor whom you worked with several years ago. Eden came to your base with Lynn his mother and spent a week working with you and your colleagues to help him develop strategies both to understand and to deal with the issues raised by his dyslexia.
Eden was generally disengaged from school work and performing poorly. However, within a year of working with you, he rapidly rose to the ‘top sets’ in virtually every subject – including English – and got a reasonable set of GCSE results. Moving to the sixth form, it was clear to us that Eden could focus on those subjects he loved and was really good at and with a wee bit of encouragement could do really well.
He has recently been awarded the chance to study Physics at St Catherine’s College, Oxford and is doing really well in his Maths, Further Maths, and Physics A Levels. We hope, and indeed expect, that he will get the grades that he needs to take up his place at Oxford.
Upon reflection, my wife and I, and Eden acknowledge the significant turning point in his life that was facilitated by your help. We cannot thank you enough, and wish that you would share in the joy and excitement of Eden doing so well, and the pivotal role that you were able to play in making his life opportunities better.
Thanks to you and your team.
Nick
S’s success at school (thus far) and his overall confidence and happiness is due to completing the Davis Programme. We are delighted with the outstanding improvements and can’t imagine where he would be without having completed the Programme.
- Mother of S, 3 years after his Davis Programme with Richard
I have no doubt at all that Richard and his special methods of helping people with dyslexia changed the course of my son E.’s life. E. was registered as special needs due to dyslexia and a whole range of other conditions, which included an auditory processing problem and Aspergers. As a result of this he was seen at Gt Ormond Street who sent reports to the school.
What Richard did for E. is to turn around the perception that he was struggling academically, to an understanding that he was in fact talented both academically and in his ability to visualise – which opened up so many doors for him. He achieved 5A’s in his GSCE’s and a couple of A*’s. His other grades were B’s and he achieved 11 in total. He was offered a place at two London University Colleges of his choice and got the grades needed to be able to choose which one he preferred.
What we didn’t realise was that E., who was 14 years old at that time, could not ‘do’ his alphabet. After his very first day with Richard, E. could do his alphabet backwards and just this achievement turned this lad around from really not wanting to go and see Richard, but agreeing reluctantly, to seeing what he could achieve and wanting more!
The SENCO at E.’s school was extremely helpful and supportive and we are still very grateful to her for how she helped E., however, it was only my searching which found Richard, and really every child with special needs should have access to Richards special knowledge and approach.
– Mother of E.
9 years after his Davis Dyslexia Programme
The Davis Maths Mastery course matched the pace my child needed to learn. I witnessed my son grasp concepts with speed and clarity, growing in confidence and excitement to learn more. Maths very quickly became his favourite subject.
We were both blown away by how quickly years of lost learning were set in a foundation which became easy to build upon.
He can’t remember the time he did not understand Maths.
Since his Davis Programme with you, Tom has changed his life around completely. Thank you Richard. It makes me want to weep when I see the difference in him.
- Louise Jameson, Actress
