Chris invited me to post.
“The best early predictor of reading difficulty in kindergarten or first grade is the inability to segment words and syllables into constituent sound units (phonemic awareness)†(Lyon,1995).
"The evidence is clear, whether from research, good practice observed in schools, advice from submissions to the Inquiry, consultations, or from Committee members’ own individual experiences, that direct systematic instruction in phonics during the early years of schooling is an essential foundation for teaching children to read. Findings from the research evidence indicate that all students learn best when teachers adopt an integrated approach to reading that explicitly teaches phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary knowledge and comprehension. This approach, coupled with effective support from the child’s home, is critical to success.
The attention of the Inquiry Committee was drawn to a dichotomy between phonics and whole-language approaches to the teaching of reading.
This dichotomy is false.
Teachers must be able to draw on techniques most suited to the learning needs and abilities of the child. It was clear, however, that systematic phonics instruction is critical if children are to be taught to read well, whether or not they experience reading difficulties…
(National Inquiry into the Teaching of LIteracy- Australia- also supported within the UK and USA government reports. )
Phonological awareness isnt about print- so make sure you are focusing on the speech sounds - not letter sounds.
Chris- some children can learn to read using sight words because their brains can process the information and understand the other skills needed- by hearing the sounds in words and how they link to this print. At least 35% of all children cant however- and you cant see what is happening in the brain - so most parents and teachers only realise when they are failing- or struggling when they cant memorise any more words (the brain can only retain a few thousand) . As already posted I believe it to be dangerous to spread the word that using sight words is preferable because it is for some- but not for most. Many very intelligent children with good memories can memorise these words and this masks the phonological awareness difficulties that are necessary for good reading and spelling. Phonological awareness is NOT phonics- and is the basis of reading and spelling difficulties.
I am not speaking about one child and their ‘journey’- Im speaking out for all children. They deserve the most effective ways to prevent difficulties. Dont let them fail because your child suceeded - as if this somehow means its beneficial to the majority of children. Every single government report of the last decade recommends against a ‘whole language’ approach and points out that systematic phonics teaching is beneficial even to good readers and spellers. ALL brain imagaing studies- actually looking at what happens in the brains of poor and good readers- support what these reports recommend. We need, as parents and educators, to be much more aware of what is happening in the brain- or likely happening- and to know how to pick up on clues about what is missing- rather than focus on print, and on whether they say a word when looking at the flashcard. There is so much more that needs to happen- and we can give children much more.
You say your child learnt using sight words however this is very unlikely to be true. What would happen is that the child had a great memory but ALSO a brain that much more efficiently processes speech sounds and how they link to sound pics (letter combinations that represent speech sounds) He was lucky - in that the sight words didnt hinder him. Many wont be so lucky.
Also remember that reading includes meaning. 46% of Australians cant UNDERSTAND what they are reading if they can decode it- well enough to follow the directions written. It doesnt matter why- what matters is that we stop using what we think will work for our child- using another child as an example that this ‘works’ and instead look at rigorous evidence-based research and also what works long term for the most children- especially those with LD.
“Underlying this report by the Committee for the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy is the conviction that effective literacy teaching, and of reading in particular, should be grounded in findings from rigorous evidence-based research. The global economic, technological and social changes underway, requiring responses from an increasingly skilled workforce, make evidence-based high-quality schooling an imperative. Nowhere is this more important than in the teaching of reading (a key element of literacy) since reading competence is foundational, not only for schoolbased learning, but also for children’s behavioural and psychosocial wellbeing, further education and training, occupational success, productive and fulfi lling participation in social and economic activity, as well as for the nation’s social and economic future.”
AU Inquiy into the Teaching of Reading 2005
So its great that - despite believing your child benefited from sight words- that you are realising that phonological is a HUGE component of reading and spelling. Some ‘get it’ - but many dont and need direct, intentional teaching.
I have posted an hour clip about starting with phonological awareness- its broken into 4 parts. It was to accompany the shaping Reading Brains DVD - for parents buying the Speech Sound Pics folder- or wanting to make their own. So although there are 6 sound pics to start off with - s,a,t,p,i,n - the focus is on what to do before you even introduce the phonics (print) So start with developing an awareness of the speech sounds that these can represent. If you go to the facebook page youll see all the Speech Sounds - in clouds- that represent these 6 speech sounds. So for example there are 8 ways to represent the ‘sss’ speech sound and not just the letter s (8 sound pics)
Please always remember- phonological awareness is NOT developed using letters, blocks etc. Infact this can confuse them- we dont want them to look at anything- we want them to close their eyes and ‘hear’ (or look at mouths, think about what happens when they say or hear these speech sounds) Children dont need to have any idea of what letters are to develop this- and it should start first. Ideally Prep children (first year of school) should have at least a term on just phonemic awareness before even being introduced to letters or words- even high frequency difficult to decode (at that stage) words.
So although this is about hearing speech sounds- its not to do with hearing loss (although of course that will factor into it as they cant hear so well- but the focus is how the interpret what they hear.)
The 47 minute video has lots of ideas about what to do as well as clips of pe-school aged children doing them. They are split into 4 clips and can be seen near the top of the facebook page http://www.facebook.com/readaustralia They are below this link - just posted by a parent and teacher
http://reading.uoregon.edu/resources/bibr_pa_concepts.pdf - that gives an overview of what phonological and phonemic awareness etc is.
Children are all so different- and much of what is different cannot be seen- as its happening in the brain. So we need to teach as if children dont have these great brains- like your child- and that will lead to them having spelling and reading ages of much higher than expected for chronological age etc…We also need to be much more aware of what we are actually teaching that is beneficial - it may not be the part of the teaching you think !
Reading scientists - neuroscientists- would say that this statement is misleading and inaccurate despite your perception of what was happening in their brains.
“taught our three children to read with flashcards and only introduced sounds and letter names after they had learnt to read”
So just be careful as it can reinforce this idea to parents who may have children who dont have brains that can do this- without ALOT of phonological awareness training and phonics in order for them to learn to read and spell. In addition to having these brains you must have been also giving them the stimulation they needed to make sense of it all- so look not at what you think you did, but what they processed. That would be more beneficial to others. You would no doubt have created a language rich environment even before showing flashcards - using songs, books, rhymes, talking etc. You might have pointed to words as you read so the children understood how you know what to say. All these things are changing the brain- and far more beneficial to reading and spelling- than flashcards. However parents think it must be the print that helped- and infact it usually isnt. So forget the flashcards and tell parents what you actually did- that you took for granted and perhaps didnt realise was the real reason you helped them develop their reading and spelling brains. In that way you will give parents much better tools with which to help their own children. Just shift the focus and think outside the box- remember all the things you did to develop phonological and phonemic awareness that had NOTHING to do with print. For example there is a clip of me helping develop phonological awareness while driving the car- talking about the r/oa/d etc- giving speech sounds- like I said, many children cant hear that words are made up of smaller parts- and need help.
Teaching a whole word goes against that as it again teaches them NOT to look at the smaller parts. And even though you say they dont- when fluent- that again isnt strictly true- it is just happening really fast. When you come to read a word you arent sure of your brain has to slow down and you become more aware of what it is actually doing- like if you say the following outloud- ’ This gallimaufry is multitudinously gargantuan, puissantly capacious and ineffable Junoesque and in consequence of such Protean tribulations…’
Hope you find the videos helpful and thanks for inviting me to comment. If I am personally attacked again I will stop posting again. I may be getting negative karma points for ‘lecturing’ but does it really matter if you like the way I write or post- or that Im sharing information that can help at least 35% of all children who will never read for understanding unless taught using the very strategies I keep telling people about. I do try to back it up so you dont think its just my opinion- but bottom line - its based on what works for children who do not have ‘reading’ brains. You cant know that until they fail - and for many learning whole words as sight words masks that.
Em
http://youtu.be/Lxs-RazOU8U
ps the attached photo is the very reason why we created Read Australia - every child is unique- and we cannot teach as if all will learn in the same way. We MUST focus on individuals- rather than hoping all will ‘fit’ our education system and pay much more attention to the learning process we cant SEE.
pps I apologise to Mandabplus3 - I went back and it was not you that had posted personal insults towards me and my ‘crap’. I am a member on many forums and asked to be guest speaker on many but I admit this has been an experience like no other.
I hope the above has some more useful information and that people will at least consider a focus on what is going on in the brain- not what they can see - or think they can see and is happening. We can actually SEE from brain imaging studies- see what happens when we ask children to do certain tasks- we can SEE what happens with good readers - and see from brain scans of 4 year olds which are the ones who dont have that ‘reading brain’ and need specific training. So yes, I am going to be to the point about it- I work with thousands in any one school district who have to fail before this training is offered. Im asking you to offer it from birth- and have told you how to do it. The rest really is up to you.
I do not want to spend hours of my time writing facts and then being criticised for my delivery. The facts are what will help your children. And I do not wish to upset anyone, so I will leave the forum completely.
I am working through the ones I haven’t read. I liked the teacher and parents one, it showed some great ideas on which letters are easiest to start with and which ones are harder. The ones you can say without distorting the sound for longer are the easy ones. Mmmmmmmmm, sssssssssss, llllllllllllllll, Ffffffffff, etc I think this is a great place to start.