According to National Assessment of Educational Progress, approximately one-third of all poor performers in fourth grade have college-educated parents. Just because you are intelligent doesnt mean your children will find reading easy. It is NOT related to intelligence.
Fortunately, 90% - 95% of poor readers can greatly increase reading skills through prevention and early intervention programs that focus predominantly on teaching children about the alphabet code using synthetic phonics. We must teach these children explicitly and directly using (synthetic) phonics if we are to help them before they completely 'switch off'. The problem is that many don't recognise who these children are until already failing- with 'phonics' being used as some type of remedial program. Why not just teach all to 'de-code'- and to develop phonological awareness from the very beginning?

Many products sold to the public encourage parents to think children just learn to read if immersed in books and stories- and by learning to recognise whole words. As if phonics is something to do alongside this, rather than as the main focus. Too many teachers are still focused on ‘child based learning’ and on constructivism they often do not realise that there is a serious lack of supporting evidence for its effectiveness in teaching children to read. Unfortunately this ‘method’ of teaching reading- the ‘whole-language’ approach to teaching and learning – reflects this philosophy of learning, and has been the predominant approach for early literacy teaching and learning throughout English – speaking countries (Pearson, 2000; Westwood, 1999, 2004). This approach assumes that children are inherently active, self-regulating learners who construct knowledge for themselves, with teachers needing to give little or no explicit decoding instruction. This quite simply isnt the case!

Synthetic Phonics is the foundation on which successful early reading instruction is based within the UK. Please see 'Letters and Sounds'. http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/84969 The aim in the
UK is that all 6 year olds will be reading, and this is being achieved by using synthetic phonics.

It is the 'approach' with young children that has the best results for all children- especially those (20 - 30%) who are going to fail without this direct, systematic instruction. And also for those with dyslexia and other learning difficulties. As Professor Maggie Snowling of York University (UK) says 'As far as I can see, the only effective treatment for dyslexia in children is a structured phonic program in a one-on-one situation, backed by confidence-building." No-one (with credibility) would advise that we teach hundreds of flashcards (sight words)

Teaching young children using synthetic phonics is recommended by all government reports of the last decade eg the Rose Report. AU Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy - and as the foundation of the Reading First component of the No Child Left Behind Act. by the US Reading Panel etc. Ofsted (UK) claims that primary schools should be able to teach 'virtually every child to read'.'Reading by Six' highlights the best practice of 12 outstanding schools in England, and claims that all schools can follow suit by sticking to a consistent and rigorous phonics-based approach.
http://www.cypnow.co.uk/news/1041027/Primary-schools-able-teach-virtually-every-child-read-claims-Ofsted

This is a short clip you may find useful http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pei0o-_cFc&feature=player_embedded#at=48

Teachers who have successfully taught a WHOLE class of 6 year olds to read confidently (a class that includes children speaking English as a second language, and with learning difficulties) knows that this is the ONLY way to do this (for all children)

Unfortunately there are so many 'experts' who appear to be openly ignoring this- experts who have never actually taught children to read, write and spell by 7- and certainly not in a classroom- and with children including those who have learning difficulties or where English is a second language. They focus on 'learning to love reading' overlooking the basis principle that to be able to love reading we first need to teach them to read.
This is why we turn to individuals such as Ruth Miskin and Debbie Hepplewhite for advice and inspiration- they have actually taught children, and managed successful whole school programmes. 'Success' meaning that children learn to be confident readers very early on. We must get them reading by 7 or they will find it increasingly difficult to 'catch up'. You may or may not know that some US prisons predict future intake by looking at Yr 3 and 4 reading scores.

This philosophy - of not focusing on synthetic phonics- is unfortunately also
promoted by some popular children's authors - who are not teachers- such as Mem Fox. She means well- but would change her approach if actually having to teach children- especially those with poor phonological awareness. They will NOT learn to read, and will definitely struggle to write and spell. The 'nicely, nicely', focus on a love of literacy approach leaves children failing. Again, difficult to love literacy if the print looks like chinese and you have to either memorise it or guess. As do many advocates for the 'whole language approach they cite a study undertaken at a UK University. Excerpt

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteers are in the rghit pclae: you can raed it wouthit a porbelm bcuseae we don't raed ervey lteter but the word as a wlohe

However this was given to people who had already learnt to read- if they had given it to children learning to crack the code the results would be different. Only when children are reading do they start to read in silence and scan the page - often omitting words. Its called fluency. We dont read words as a whole unless we already know what it is. Please read the beginning of this sentence aloud - and then think about what you did. (it is used to demonstrate this very point in Reading Reflex by Geoffrey and Carmen McGuiness). When we see an unfamilar word we sound it out. Most words are unfamiliar to beginning readers! To them most sentences are like this. If we dont teach them to break the word down they are stuck- if they havent learnt it as a whole word. And why our system of sending home sights words can be detrimental to children. Far better to teach them how to de-code words- if done properly only about 55 words in the English language cant be de-coded (eg yacht) Why not just teach those words as sight words? Children can de-code the rest if taught properly.

Please read aloud..

This Gallimaufry is multitudinously gargantuan, puisantly capacious and....

I havent included the whole paragraph, but hope Ive made my point.

Even when phonics is included within commercial products they are confusing. For example in the Born2Read product line they ask parents to teach sounds that I would never recommend be taught as separate sounds.Yes, we teach 'th' as a separate sound (digraph) as the t and h when together make a new sound. They however include 'sounds' such as 'br' 'tr' etc. Why? br is the same as b+r. This will really confuse those children with poor phonological awareness. For example if you teach 'br' then ask the child to write 'brown' (which should be 4 sounds ie b+r+ow+n) -and then ask them to listen to the word 'brown' and tell you what the new word is without the 'r' they cant do it- because they think 'br' is one sound.

Born2Read include items such as the 'at' family? (as displayed on the products page). Teaching in 'families' is really confusing for most children and sends the wrong message to those with poor phonological awareness. 

They claim on the site that All BORN2READ products have been designed as a result of extensive research and testing. I have asked for copies of this as the products I have seen would not stand up to peer review.
Even though they acknowledge that phonics (although do not specify what type of phonics) plays a major part they do not appear to carry this through with their products, which is typical of many products. Of course sight words are easy to produce and sell.

For the 20 - 30% of ALL children who have poor phonological awareness having to learn sight words will not only NOT help them but will actually be detrimental. To teach ALL children to read they must learn the alphabetic code, and ideally in a multisensory way during the initial stages. This is why 'Jolly Phonics' is so successful for young children. (research specific to JP demonstrates that after only 16 weeks of synthetic phonics teaching children were reading seven months above chronological age. Seven years later, with no further systematic synthetic phonics, their word-reading ability was three and a half years above chronological age)

When you are spelling an infamilar word that is exactly what you do- go back to working out the order of the sounds and which sounds to use to represent them. For example if I gave you the word 'fasata' (a made up word) you could spell it in at least 15 different ways based on our 'code'. (phasater, phasarta etc) If you do not teach children this code they will be very poor at 'spelling' - they will either have to memorise it - or fail. As the human brain can only retain a certain number this isn't a great option. 

The whole language approach (within which sight words are taught) has been discredited for well over a decade - and only those who are making money from this are still endorsing it - for example the Your Baby Can Read programme- currently under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising. That program is also based on young children learning sight words.

Our Aussie children deserve so much more- especially in Queensland- and it is so diffcult for parents to know what they should be buying. Please only buy resources and teaching strategies that are in line with modern research and recommendations for effective teaching. If in doubt- ask us! We can also tell you where to find quality resources and products- for free.

Emma

Emma Hartnell-Baker BEd Hons. MA Special Educational Needs.
'Empowering Parents as a Way to Raise Standards of Literacy within Australia' www.ReadAustralia.com / www.facebook.com/ReadAustralia

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