PHONICS FOR KIDS

In 1955, a book entitled “Why Johnny Can’t Read (and what you can do about it)” was published in the USA.  This book was a best seller and caused a lot of controversy.

The author, Rudolf Flesch wrote the book for the millions of parents whose children were being, according to his research, handicapped by the teaching methods of the day.

Flesch explained how he came to write the book and the research he did before publishing it.

The book contains lessons on phonics and is still available today. It is marketed as the classic book on phonics and endorsed by Readers Digest and the method recommended by the US Department of Education.

Below is a summary of the phonics lessons in his book.

We know a lot more about how reading and writing is mastered today. Because the activities are so important for people in modern societies enormous sums of money has been spent on scientific research.

Flesch was a forerunner in speaking about how to master the English Alphabetic Writing system. He was aware that reading is much more than decoding words but without this ability one cannot read. It has been my experience over the years that if a poor reader cannot decode (sound out) the words he is reading very little progress is made.

If a reader cannot read fluently they will not developed the comprehension skills that enable them to process information from print.

If you would like to learn more about helping your child with reading please visit

www.superlearner.com.au

All parents hope and expect their child will learn to read and most expect this to happen during their child’s first few years at school.

However many parents do not realise or ignore the important part they must take in their child’s literacy development.

Simply stated it is the parent not the teacher who sets a child up for reading success and this needs to begin from birth.

If you do not read to your child and enjoy sharing books with him or her you are short changing you both.

When the important adults in a child’s life share books and model their respect for reading and writing this is passed on subconsciously to a child.

Your child will learn to value reading if you do. When reading aloud is part of an everyday routine, without fail, the time you share together shows the child you care and the books you read tells the child that reading is important and enjoyable.

Mem Fox is one of Australia’s most successful children’s authors.

Her picture story books have a worldwide audience.

Mem is also an internationally respected literacy consultant who has had a long career as a trainer of teachers.

In the forward to her passionate book, ‘Reading Magic’, she points out that reading aloud to children should no longer be viewed as a mildly pleasant educational activity. It should be seen as a win-win situation for all concerned in the raising of children.

Many people including paediatricians, speech pathologists, child psychologists, social workers, bookstore owners, politicians, teachers and researchers, carers, media personalities, parents and other passionate individuals all support the importance of reading aloud to young children.

The benefits are well recorded.

Governments now realise that the money spent on promoting early literacy will save money spent on illiteracy, crime, depression, unemployment and welfare benefits. Research results show this to be money well spent.

If you would like to hear an example of Mem Fox reading aloud go to http://www.memfox.net and go to the link ‘Reading  Aloud’.

I also recommend her book

Reading Magic-How your child can learn to read before school-

and other read aloud miracles

Published by Pan Macmillan Australia in 2007 this inexpensive little book has a wealth of information for anyone who wants to know how children learn to read.

Teaching children to read through a phonics only program is never successful.

However an understanding of the letter/ sound relationships is a skill needed by successful readers and writers.

I have written an ebook that discusses how phonics fits into an overall reading and writing program.

If you are interested go to www.superlearner.com.au for more information.

Phonics (the relationship between letters and sounds) is the key to unlocking the over 500,000 words in the English Language. 

Modern scientific reading research overwhelmingly proves the superiority of systematic phonics instruction for beginning readers and for the first three or so years of formal schooling. However this does not work if done in isolation.

There are many strategies used when teaching young children to read and write and phonics is only one of them but it is fundamental.

Thirty five years teaching experience has taught me that people who struggle with reading and writing were not taught how the English Alphabetical Writing System works. They were left to work out the system when learning to read – and didn’t.

I cannot stress the importance of teaching phonics in the early years of school. Phonics for five year old kids will enable children to read fluently. Reading and ophonics go hand in hand. Phonics is a necessary reading subskill that must be systematically taught.

If decoding skills are not mastered in the beginning emotional factors often inhibit later learning.

Whole word and phonics instruction if not done carefully and systematically causes confusion and may be the reason for dyslexia in many students.

I have tutored several students who were having difficulty reading because they had memorized too many words by sight. They experienced a lot of discomfit when phonics was introduced.

Going back to reading simple easily decodable texts often helps poor readers gain confidence and a belief that they can learn to read. I have seen self confidence grow in teenagers as they began to read simple texts and I explained to them how the system worked.

 
Many teachers are not taught all the phonics principles and rules needed to teach students to read. I certainly wasn’t. It took me a long time to figure it out.

I am not trained in phonetics. This is a different area.

Teaching a student to read with phonics is simple if you are taught all the rules. Trying to teach reading without the knowledge of these rules is like teaching basic mathematics without knowing the rules for borrowing and carrying.

No matter how we look at it effort is needed to learn to read. It involves practice. Learning to read is a challenge for over 40 percent of children. This doesn’t mean they cannot be taught.

Our teaching methods must be looked at when we have a child struggling to learn to read.

A lot of research continues into reading and writing because they are so important to society. It seems the same arguments turn up again and again.

Professor Max Coltheart of Macquarie University NSW Australia has done in depth research on the reading process.

I am presenting here a summary of his research findings from an interview he did on ABC Radio in Australia.

Dr Coltheart has read 300 and 400 year old books on how reading was taught that long ago. The earliest book he read was written by a man called Mulcuster in 1590.

There were chapters in this book about the whole word and phonic methods of teaching.

The book seemed very modern, even though it was written 400 years ago.

The same argument as today was that the whole word reading didn’t teach people to generalise to new words they hadn’t seen before.

The problem about teaching phonics seen then as now was that it was meaningless drivel that’s hard for children to understand.  

In schools today the whole language approach which teaches reading and writing as natural processes like learning to speak and understand speech is the philosophy followed.

The whole language approach is different from the whole word method.

It is assumed that just as most children learn to speak naturally with little trouble they’ll pick up reading and spelling too quite naturally, without systematic instruction because it’s just part of language.

There’s a lot of hostility to breaking language up into whole words or into letter-sound relationships, because that’s seen as artificial and an impediment to the natural acquisition of reading and writing.

The truth is, spoken language is natural and biologically easily acquired, but written language isn’t.

Reading and writing are completely artificial, unnatural processes that only a minority of the human race today acquire.

There are many cultures where there’s no reading and writing, because there’s no writing system.

 An 8 year old child’s spoken vocabulary probably contains tens of thousand of words and his sight vocabulary 100 to 200 words.

So what is absolutely critical in learning to read is to be able to sound out words that you are looking at and never seen before.

 Children who are not taught to sound out words are missing a fundamental reading strategy.

 A fluent reader does not sound out all the time.

What eventually happens for the reader who can sound out words is that a sight vocabulary is built up where many words are recognized in print on sight.

 Professor Coltheart states that whole word recognition and letter sound knowledge are both essentials for normal learning to read.

 Around the middle 1960’s it was recognized how important it is for young children to understand that words can be broken up into individual sounds.

 If that is not known a person will not relate letters to individual sounds. Researchers in kindergartens noticed that some children could not break simple words such as c-a-t into single sounds.

They were also unable to play the game ‘I Spy’ (I Spy something beginning with C or any letter of the alphabet).

 Two years later these children had reading problems. In the first couple of years of learning to read the focus is on building up a very small stable sight vocabulary.

 These children didn’t have problems in the first two years of learning to read but it was around 7 when they started to fall behind. It is at that time that using sounding out to try and expand vocabulary escalates.

Research indicates that there is a genetic contribution to the problem some children have with recognizing phonemes (sounds). This does not mean they will remain non readers but they will need help.

Professor Coltheart emphasises that to become a fluent reader the two skills that are the building blocks of reading are:

1. Knowing about letters and sounds and sounding out.
2. Ability to build up a sight vocabulary

This is an analytical way of looking at learning to read.

 Learning to read is acquiring a set of cognitive (mental) skills.

It can be boring at times and hard work and many children refuse to do the groundwork. Most people need systematic training as early as possible.

I will let Max Coltheart speak:

“… you can teach children to break “cat” up into three sounds in kindergarten, and that’s going to help them learn to read.”  

” there’s certainly a two-way street between learning to read and knowing about the structure of language.” 

“(reading) isn’t a biological skill. We don’t need practice to learn to understand speech, or to learn to walk, or anything biological like that. But we do need practice in reading because it’s an artificial skill, no more natural than learning to play chess or learning to play golf. “ 

“But there’s not a critical period for learning to read because it’s not a biological phenomenon. And so whether a person is six or sixty, you can diagnose the kind of reading problem and the same kind of treatment method is appropriate whether they be six or sixty.”  

“Of course the problem with referring to a child as having a learning difficulty suggests that they’re having difficulty learning anything, but in fact it’s just reading they’re having difficulty with. This doesn’t mean the child’s problem is anything to do with brain damage, that’s certainly not true. What it means is that there’s a certain structure that the reading system needs to have …………………………….. in the case of children, they have trouble learning particular components of that structure. “

If you or a child you know has a reading problem first check whether two fundamental skills are in place:

1. Knowing about letters and sounds and sounding out.

2. Ability to build up a sight vocabulary.

If you have any concerns seek advice as quickly as possible. Don’t hope your child will grow out of it.

Many children do not.

The National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy in Australia found that early, systematic and explicit teaching of phonics is a necessary part of an integrated approach to the teaching of reading.

In the first three years of school – and beyond if necessary – all children learn best within an integrated approach to reading, which teaches phonics, phonemic (sound) awareness, fluency in reading, vocabulary and text comprehension. 

Phonics is the relationships between letters and sounds.

Fluency is the ability to read quickly and naturally, recognize words automatically, and grouping words quickly.

Vocabulary knowledge is remembering new words and what they mean.

Text comprehension is processing what is being read and developing higher-order thinking skills.

Over the past twenty five years or so much scientific research has been undertaken into how children learn to read and write.

Many of the findings are now being incorporated into best teaching practice.

In the modern world where we are surrounded by print we often forget the inheritance we have received from the past. This history needs to be told to children so they can appreciate what has been passed down through the generations.

In pre historical times the pictures of primitive man were often recorded in caves or on tablets.  These are known as pictography or ideography. The spoken word was used to interpret these pictures often of a religious or spiritual nature. Oral traditions grew from these interpretations.

The first writing systems appeared about the 4th Century BC in the Middle East.

The first two systems were: The Sumerian Cuneiform Script and Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
The Chinese Script (characters) developed around 1600 BC. 

Olmec and Maya scripts also developed before Columbus discovered the ‘New World’.

Characters were added to picture symbols in an attempt to depict what was being said more accurately. Some characters represented whole words and some parts of words. Thousands of characters and symbols were used to record the more complex needs of developing civilizations.

Learning to read was a huge task. Hieroglyphics had to be learned by memory. Some hieroglyphics incorporated phonetic clues. Learning hieroglyphics was laborious and tedious and only scholars and priests were the experts.

The fundamental idea behind an alphabet is one symbol per sound in a given language. Writing is recording these sounds with a symbol – a way to record an unlimited number of words.

A successful reader knows what sound each symbol represents and blends the sounds into recognizable words. Once this process is automatic the real purpose for reading (meaning) can develop.

The Alphabet is the foremost invention of all time. It opened up knowledge and communication for humanity.

This first alphabet is the direct descendent of all the alphabets used in the world today.

A Brief History of the English Alphabet

Time Line
1200BC: 

North Semitic people (Middle East) had a working alphabet of 22 letters.

1100 BC: 

The Semitic Alphabet developed into the Phoenician Alphabet.

The alphabet invented by a Phoenician was a commercial tool and was first used to record commercial transactions. It was a business man who invented the alphabet!
The earliest Greek alphabet was developed either directly from the Phoenician or from a version of North Semitic almost identical to it.

The Etruscans adopted the Western Greek Alphabet.
5th Century: The Romans adopted writing from both the Etruscans and the Western Greeks.
The early Roman alphabet looked like this: 

A B C D E F H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X

The Romans also borrowed letters from the Greek alphabet. 

At its peak, the Roman alphabet looked like this:
A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z 
Due to the Roman dominance of Europe, the Roman alphabet became the standard alphabet throughout Western Europe, and eventually spread throughout the Western World.

The Advantages of the Alphabetic Method of Writing

A code is a series of symbols that represents something.

Any alphabet is a code for the sounds of a language.

The superiority of the alphabetic method of writing was clearly seen.

All civilized nations in the western world eventually adopted this method of writing.      

Features of Alphabetic Writing Systems

• More accurate recording of spoken language.
• Less reliance on memory to master.
• Easy and faster to learn than hieroglyphics.
• More citizens could learn it with relative ease. Learning to read involved mastering the sound symbol system.
• A secular and practical sound system liberated from stifling priestly traditions and superstitions.

The English Alphabet is a series of symbols developed over centuries. These symbols represent the sounds we speak.

The alphabet used to write English today was developed from the Roman alphabet.

The Anglo-Saxon language was written down using Roman letters due to the Roman invasion of Britain. Over time the letters J, U, and W were introduced to spell the sounds the Roman alphabet didn’t accommodate.

The English Alphabet today is:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
     a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 

The English Alphabet has 26 letters. Each letter has a lower and upper case form.  The upper case letters, most of the time, will be larger than the lower case letters.  Upper case letters are used at the beginning of sentences in names and in titles. Punctuation was added over time.

The English Alphabet code is not a perfect code. One letter per sound would be much easier to understand.

We only have 26 letters to spell around 43 sounds.

There is an argument amongst linguists as to the exact number of sounds. Most languages have around 43 sounds.

The English Alphabet is the way hundreds of thousands of words can be recorded and read. It is not possible for the human mind to memorize that many characters or words.

One, two, sometimes three and four letters can stand for the sounds of English within a word. Sometimes the sounds of the language have more than one spelling. This is why

English spelling is regarded as difficult.

If you would like an outline of the way English sounds are spelled I have written an eBook that systematically outlines the steps to mastering the phonemes of English spelling.  Please visit www.superlearner.com.au  for more information.

What sets humans apart from animals is language.

It is language that enables us to think and communicate with one another.

We form all our concepts through words. 

If our thinking is confined to the words we hear and speak our intellectual development is limited for it is through the written word that complex thinking is recorded and communicated. This is why learning to read is so important for it is by reading that we expand our vocabulary and more importantly our ability to think.

The Alphabet is the foremost invention of all time. It has enabled hundreds of thousands of words to be invented to record and communicate human achievement.  

 Reading and writing have a language base. They are skills which contribute to personal growth and enable people to contribute to society in countless ways.

All skills have fundamental principles that underpin them.  When these principles are understood and mastered the skill can be established through practice.

To master any skill involves the correct form of practice and continuous effort. We are not born with the ability to read and write.

People need to be taught how.

I have been a teacher for over 35 years and have seen how many children and adults struggle with reading.

My experience within the school system led me to search for answers to this problem. It didn’t make sense to me that some very young children could read easily while many older children, teenagers and adults struggle and give up.

A lot of research has been done into reading trying to find the answers. One of the fundamental reasons many people have trouble learning to read is they do not understand how an alphabetic writing system works.

Understanding how The English Alphabetic Writing System works can be taught in a systematic way – step by step, one step at a time.

Learning the mechanics of reading and writing is like cracking a code.

Once a person understands how to crack the code they can concentrate on the information the text presents. For we read to get information.

It is never too late to learn to read and write because they are not biological processes.

If you would like an outline of the letter sound relationships that are one of the linchpins of reading and writing please visit

www.superlearner.com.au

In my next post I will outline a brief history of the English Alphabet.

A successful reader must understand and speak a language.

Learning a language is a complex activity and begins at birth when loving parents speak to their baby.

Language development in young children must be monitored carefully.

A child learns language by being surrounded by people who interact with him or her constantly.

If you have any concerns about your child’s speech seek professional help immediately. This can be done through your local doctor, pre-school or school.

For a young child to learn to read he or she must recognise word boundaries. That is when one word starts and ends and to recognize the next one.  At the same time a child must know the meaning of the words and the sentence and relate it to their own world. Language also has grammatical rules that have to be mastered.

Observing young children develop language is awesome.

There are many people who have not mastered reading and writing and it is not their fault. Learning to read is a skill and teaching it was often hit and miss and  many children struggled often due to inadequate reading theory and uninformed teaching.

Today things are looking much better but many children are still at risk if their

reading Instruction is based on human reason rather than solid scientific research.

Reading success in the past was largely accidental – due to parental input, intelligence, talent and the integrity, knowledge and the integrity of teachers  who were also poorly trained..

 Because reading and writing are such important skills in modern society a lot of scientific research is continually being undertaken.

Scientific research is testing theories to see whether they work and produce the same results constantly.

Reading Research is only around 25 years old.  

 Most educators have their students interests at heart and many fads rather than solid scientific research were seized upon to help students. The results of reading research is now filtering down to educators.

Systematic phonics teaching as part of learning to read is commonsense as well as supported by research.

Unlike learning language which children model from those around them learning to read is not an inate skill and aspects of it need to be taught specifically.

“Early, systematic, explicit phonics instruction is an essential part, but only part, of a balanced, comprehensive reading program,” maintains John J. Pikulski, International Reading Association President.

To be effective in the modern world it is important to be an expert reader.

Modern research can help.

If you have any questions about this article please do not hesitate in contacting me.

If you would like information about how phonics can be taught  systematically I have written an ebook that explains this. Visit www.superlearner.com.au for more information.

Our brains are wired for language but not reading and writing and so these are skills have to be formally taught and practiced.

There are many adults who are not proficient readers despite attending school. It is estimated that 16% of people have debilitating reading problems.

We know brain composition may have something to do with the problem many people have in learning to read.

In many cases no matter how dedicated the teacher and the way the reading program is delivered many students are still unable to read.

Many of these children are highly intelligent with gifts such as ability with their hands, outstanding sporting ability, scientific curiosity and more.

After much experience in working with struggling readers I believe there is something the educational community needs to incorporate into the language curriculum.

Exercises to stimulate the brain in children particularly those with learning delay need to be undertaken on a regular basis.

 Knowing the relationship between exercise and successful brain development has always been known.

Launcelot Johnswood developed his program Basic Movement Therapy for people with learning difficulties in 1971. It is a simple program of exercises that are based on the movements that nature seems to demand in order to develop and arrange the brain in five distinct levels of neural organization.

It is possible that people who are having problems with reading and writing may have missed out on some stage or stages of neural organization.

The term dyslexia was coined to acknowledge that reading problems could be related to something happening in the brain.

If someone has dyslexia it seems the collecting part of the brain gets the seeing and hearing messages muddled up. Some part does not work things out correctly and is not sure what to do. This means the person feels confused and gets upset trying to work out what are the right messages.

People with dyslexia are often pretty smart or even super smart.

It is not a disease but it is a way of thinking.

Often it is a gifted mind waiting to be taught.

Famous dyslexics are said to include Nelson Rockefeller, Ann Bancroft, Cher, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, Tom Cruise, Agatha Christie and many more.

Technology is being used more frequently to find exactly what part of the brain needs stimulation in people with learning challenges.

Brain Gym is an exercise program that everyone can benefit from.

It is a program of 26 easy and enjoyable physical movements that enhance learning and performance in all areas.

The movements integrate body and mind to bring about rapid and often dramatic improvements in concentration, memory, reading, writing, organizing, listening, physical co-ordination and more.

Doing Brain Gym exercises develops the brain’s neural pathways, no matter what our age, the way nature does through movement.

 To find more about Brain Gym visit www.braingym.org

There is a lot of excellent information on this website.

 

 

Exercise is a process of re-educating the mind/body system for accomplishing any skill or function with greater ease and efficiency.

A phoneme is a sound of language. English has around 44 phonemes (sounds) that are used to make hundreds of thousands if not millions of words.

Spoken words are made up of a series of discrete (individual sounds). For example:   cat    /k/ /a/ /t/   has three phonemes. Understanding this is called phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is not phonics.  Phonics deals with letter sound relationships and is associated with print.

Before a child begins school they need to be able to do five types of phonemic awareness tasks.

They are:

1.   Hearing rhymes and alliteration (the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of the next or nearby words). Nursery Rhymes are a great way to develop this skill.

2.   Choosing a different sound at the beginning of words.  For example sun, stick, fish

3.   The ability to orally blend words and split syllables.  Say the first sound in a word and then the rest of the word and see if your child can blend them and tell you the word.  (say  f  -  at. Ask your   child to say the word)

4.   The ability to hear the individual sounds in words.  For example ask: What sounds do you hear in fish?

5.   The ability to change sounds to form new words. For example if I replace the s in sat with m what is the new word?

Why is Phonemic Awareness important?

Without this ability to hear the sounds in words learning to read, write and spell can be a real struggle.

Most phonemic awareness activities should be oral. No writing needs to be involved. You are developing your child’s listening skills.

If you notice any difficulty your child has with these exercises seek professional help as soon as possible.

Keep in Mind

• ·     Phonemic awareness is not related to print. Since phonemic awareness activities are oral it is not advisable to make written words or letters part of the activities until your child can identify the letters of the alphabet.
• ·     Most poor readers have poor phonemic awareness skills.
• ·     To ensure you have a print rich environment for your child.  Read to them daily making sure they have plenty of language experiences.

Because the ability to read and write is more important than ever and a must for citizens of modern societies a lot of research has been conducted over the past twenty five years.

Research indicates as many as 20% of children are affected by lack of phonemic awareness.

No t providing early preventive measures for such children can cause them to end up being labelled

learning disabled or dyslexic and they continue to fall behind in school.

Phonemic awareness can be taught  and it is never too late but much better if it is taught early.

If you would like information about phonics (letter sound relationships) I have written an eBook outlining a systematic approach. This book outlines step by step the phonics knowledge your child needs to understand and provides downloadable activities that make learning fun.

Please go to www.superlearner.com.au to find out more.

I welcome any queries and questions you may have.