Systematic Phonics in Early Reading Instruction – It’s Needed
I am constantly amazed by the number of parents who tell me their child is having difficulty learning to read.
I get a sense that these parents are concerned but somehow think things will improve as the child matures. This is usually not the case.
In this article I want to stress some facts that you as a parent need to take on board about children and reading.
• Most adults forget what it is like learning to read. It takes a lot of determined effort. Many researchers consider learning to read to be one of the most complex functions the human brain is required to perform. The critical ages for learning to read are between the ages of 6 and 9.
• The reading habits a child develops between the ages of 6 and 9 usually determine their reading skills throughout school and life. These years are vital in literacy development.
• One of the basic skills needed in learning to read successfully is the ability to process the sounds of the language.
• Speaking clearly and encouraging your child to do so too is giving them a distinct advantage. Sharing nursery rhymes is an excellent pre-reading activity especially when you teach your child to recite the rhymes clearly. Be sure to pick up any suspicious hearing loss and seek a hearing specialist straight away.
• The common way to teach children the Alphabet is to teach young children the names of the letters rather than the sounds they represent. Many reading specialists suggest this can cause reading problems because it establishes letter names as the dominant memory attached to each letter.
• A child needs to learn the sounds the letters represents before they learn the letter names. Your child needs to know the sounds before they can be taught the phonics skills that underpin fluent reading.
• Phonics skills involve blending sounds into syllables and syllables into words.
• The entrenched habit of using letter names to work out words is hard to break. Current research is indicating that your child needs to learn phonics first before reading any text. Time and time again I have noticed whole word reading and word memorization in the early years of schooling causes difficulty in decoding multi-syllabic words in more difficult texts.
An excellent reading program and one I use with students with reading difficulties is the Fitzroy Reading Program.
The five strategies of reading are:
• Phoneme awareness (hearing sounds in words)
• Phonics (letter sound relationships)
• Fluency
• Vocabulary Development
• Comprehension
The Fitzroy Readers develop the above skills systematically and together step by step.
To learn more please visit
This website is informative and an excellent resource for parents.
I highly recommend it.
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