Reading
Letters and sounds aren't holding. Reading aloud is a fight. The book stays closed. We rebuild from phonological awareness up — the sound-to-letter mapping that decoding rests on.
Ballito · KwaZulu-Natal
Remedial teacher in Ballito, KwaZulu-Natal.
A boutique Foundation Phase remedial practice on the KZN North Coast — one-to-one sessions, the same teacher every week, plans built around your specific child. A short drive from Umhlanga, Salt Rock, Simbithi, Zimbali and the wider Dolphin Coast.
Bellavista-trained · BA Education · SACE registered · Sessions in Ballito, KZN North Coast
— 01 / Where families come from
A short drive on the North Coast.
Sessions run from a calm teaching room in Ballito. Most families are inside a 5- to 25-minute drive — across the wider Dolphin Coast and from neighbouring estates and towns.
- Ballito
- Umhlanga
- Salt Rock
- Sheffield Beach
- Tinley Manor
- Simbithi
- Zimbali
- Brettenwood
- Dolphin Coast
- KZN North Coast
Full address is shared once a free discovery call is booked, for child privacy.
For parents new to the term
What Foundation Phase remedial actually is.
Foundation Phase covers Grade R through Grade 3 — the years where reading, writing and numeracy foundations are built. Remedial work fills the gaps that get skipped, so school work begins to land.
Writing
The hand fights the page. Spelling won't stick. Sentences come out shorter than the ideas inside them. We work on letter formation, fine motor, and written-output stamina, in that order.
Numeracy
Numbers feel slippery. Mental maths jams. Word problems hide the maths inside them. We build number sense first — bonds, place value, and the concrete materials that make abstract maths legible.
— 03 / How a discovery call works
Twenty minutes. Four steps. No pressure.
Call
You book a free 20-minute call online or on WhatsApp. A time that fits — early morning before school runs, or after pickup.
Listen
You tell me what you're seeing — at home, at school, in homework battles. I listen and ask the questions that fill in the picture.
Plan
We talk through what a screening session would look like, what weekly support would look like, and which makes sense for where your child is now.
Decide
You decide in your own time. If we're not the right fit, I'll point you to someone who is — an OT, a speech therapist, or a psychologist on the North Coast.
— 04 / Bellavista-trained, Ballito-based
A small practice, deliberately.
Wild About Learning is run by Chelsi Cryer — a Bellavista-trained remedial teacher with a BA in Education and a Foundation Phase specialisation, working out of a calm room in Ballito on the KZN North Coast.
Bellavista S.H.A.R.E. is South Africa's leading specialist school for learning differences, in Johannesburg. The training that informs every session here comes from there.
The practice is small on purpose. One teacher, one child at a time, the plan built around the specific picture in front of us — not a programme to slot into.
— 05 / How we're different
A boutique practice, not a franchise.
For a parent in Ballito, the choice is rarely between remedial or no support. It's between a programme your child slots into, and a practice that builds itself around your child. Both have their place. This is what the boutique fit looks like.
Same teacher, every week
Not a rotating roster. The same person tracks how your child is reading on Monday, how their pencil grip is holding by Thursday, what shifted between week three and week six. Continuity is the work.
Plan, not programme
Franchise models run a fixed curriculum at a brisk pace, in groups of four to eight. Here the plan is built around your specific child — what they need next, in what order, with the materials that fit that week.
One child, one room
Forty-five minutes, one-to-one, in a calm room with the right materials. Not a desk in a busy centre. Not a Zoom screen. The room is part of the work.
Wild About Learning offers informal educational screening, not diagnostic psycho-educational assessment. For formal assessments we refer to registered educational psychologists on the KZN North Coast.
— 06 / Common questions
Asked on most discovery calls.
Where in Ballito do you run sessions from, and how far do families travel?
From a calm teaching room in Ballito. The full address is shared once a free 20-minute discovery call is booked, for child privacy. Most families travel in from Ballito, Simbithi, Zimbali, Brettenwood, Umhlanga, Salt Rock, Sheffield Beach, Tinley Manor and the wider Dolphin Coast — typically a 5 to 25 minute drive.
What's the difference between an educational screening and a formal assessment?
A screening is informal — a structured 90-minute observation across phonological, visual-perceptual, motor and number-sense skill, with a plain-language plan at the end. A psycho-educational assessment is a formal diagnostic process performed by a registered educational psychologist. We do screenings; we refer to North Coast psychologists for assessments.
Do I need a school referral or formal diagnosis before starting?
No. Many families come on their own initiative, before the school flags anything formally. We work with children who have a diagnosis and children who don't. The practice complements school work and stays in close contact with the child's classroom teacher where helpful.
What does Foundation Phase mean, exactly?
In the South African schooling system, Foundation Phase covers Grade R through Grade 3. It's where reading, writing and number-sense foundations are either built or skipped, and skipped foundations are exactly what this practice is set up to find and fill.
How much do sessions cost?
Fees are shared on the discovery call, alongside a frank conversation about what would actually help your child — weekly one-to-one, a focused bridging arc, or a once-off screening. Pricing is transparent and depends on which shape fits.
Do you offer in-person and online sessions?
The default is in-person, in the practice room in Ballito. Foundation Phase remedial work depends on tactile, multisensory materials — letter tiles, sand trays, number rods — that don't translate well to a screen. Online support is occasionally arranged for families outside the KZN North Coast radius, by exception.
— What next
Twenty minutes. No card. No commitment.
Tell me what you're seeing. I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right fit, or point you to someone on the North Coast who is.