Many five, six and seven year olds read easily. This is probably because they were read to from an early age and as a result have developed a sound vocabulary. Today, a lot is known about how the brain works and how children learn. This development has made teaching, reading and spelling more informed. It [...]
The Internet enabled me to go back in time to when I learned to read. I found the set of graded books called readers I learned to read with. I now have the full set of these, to me, precious books. The amazing thing is I can remember vividly much of their content. Whitcombe and [...]
I have it seems, spent a lifetime trying to come to grips with the role phonics has in teaching a child, or anyone else for that matter, to read. Experience has taught me time and time again that phonics strategies are necessary when decoding print. But teaching a child to read involves so much more. My belief is most children [...]
Once upon a time when I decided I’d like to join the business world the only job I could get was that of a sales representative marketing educational products to primary schools in the state in which I lived. A sales job! At the time I didn’t think a sales job was all that great. [...]
Language skills are the basis for a child developing as a fluent reader. Children with parents and caregivers who read and talk to them have an enormous advantage. Learning how to spell (encode) and read (decode) words are simple skills to learn when taught properly. Children who are taught these skills early will most likely develop into [...]