Where should I start my child? |
If you are teaching a young child, who has never learnt to read and write before, then start at the beginning of Level 0. Read the Teaching notes through carefully before you begin.
However, this programme is not just for teaching young children to read and spell. It can also be used very effectively to help older children and even adults who for one reason or another need help. It might just need some adapting in how the material is presented in the Introduction stage/and or in the supporting resources used.
You can use our simple test (scroll down the page) to find the starting point for your child/young person for Levels 0 and 1, or purchase for a small price the assessment that I use when assessing a new pupil who has come to me with reading problems. Personally I would always start here even if I subsequently started the pupil on Level 2. Use the Level 2 test to determine where to start.
Be aware that often this age group will be embarrassed to some degree or other by their lack of competence in these areas. Assure them from the start that this is unnecessary, as many very clever people have had trouble learning to read and spell (like Thomas Edison). It is not therefore a sign of lack of intelligence. However, it can still be distressing. Help is at hand.
These folk are often the ones who do have some dyslexic tendencies, or other learning difficulties, but not necessarily so: they may just have failed to keep up at school, or need a more systematic approach to learning.
For many years now, the teaching of reading has been a very controversial subject. There has been the 'Real Books' method (where basically the child is supposed to read widely from real books - not reading scheme books - and pick up cues about the text from the context and pictures), followed by 'Look and Say' methods and now phonics is in fashion. Many teachers talk about there being no one method that works for all, and many, though they have to teach phonics, do not properly understand it. Therefore it is often not taught properly, more as a process to be gone through reluctantly, rather than with confidence in the method and a feel for where the students are at, and what they need to help them take the next step forward.
Some children do seem to thrive on this kind of teaching. But many do not. Phonics taught in this way, along with real books and look and say are not systematic methods for teaching reading and spelling. They are very disorganised.
Why do some thrive? Some people just have the ability to pick up the code naturally and work it out for themselves with out much special help. These are what we would term 'natural readers/spellers'. Some people just seem 'wired' to be able to read and spell. Others of us to some degree or other will always struggle with few/more words. For example how many 'm's in commitment, or is it 'independence', or 'independance'? (It's the former by the way!) We can usually compensate for these sort of difficulties by consulting a dictionary, or by using the wonderful spelling check facility on the computer.
So do some people not need to learn the code?
I would argue that it is not because they don't need/have a code - but that on that it has been internalised, as it is with a child who has been taught the code, who after several years of reading couldn't tell you how they learnt to read, they just do it as the code has now been internalised.
Let's think about what happens when we learn to read and spell. These skills are embedded in language, as they are simply forms of recording graphically what has been spoken/decoding what has been recorded graphically. Therefore, speech holds the key to deciphering (reading), or to putting language into code (spelling). Speech has to do with the mouth (lips, tongue and teeth), the vocal chords and the ears. Reading and spelling will use all of these too!
If you haven't already done so, please read the section on Understanding Phonics.
If we consider dyslexia say, then this is a problem primarily with the ability to organise. Many people have a problem to varying degrees in this area. Therefore if a person is already having problems organising information, then to use a disorganised means of teaching them will not hep them to progress. They need the organising done for them so that they are introduced to the code in a logical, systematic manner that builds up slowly from the smallest parts to the whole. The student is then empowered as they no longer have to rely on their memory, which is having trouble organising information into an easy way to memorise it, but instead they learn the code that they can use to 'crack' the reading and spelling. The programme on this site is a programme of systematic phonics. The student is never expected to decode words that they haven't been given the tools for. It starts from the smallest units of sound, the alphabet and works up to more complex sounds, like /eigh/.
The key then to helping those struggling with reading and spelling is to teach them the code. This is best done using a systematic phonic programme. Now at this point I can hear many of you saying 'But we've tried phonics and it hasn't worked'. You may not be aware that there is phonics, and there is real phonics. Many phonic programmes are not very organised and for the child/adult who needs more organisation, they will not be enough.
A proper phonics programme is the only method that will work for all children, unless they are severely disabled mentally. It is dependent on the teacher (using a good systematic programme), not the child, as to whether they can make it work or not. The key is first to understand what is necessary and then to learn to study your pupil. See where your pupil is having trouble and do whatever is needed to help him/her overcome the difficulty. Mrs. Conway made her games in response to such teaching. They were all developed to help a particular person to grasp one little concept, so that they could move on. Maybe you could develop a game to help your pupil move on. You can find our current range of games here.
In other words, you make the programme fit the student, not try to make the student fit the programme. We merely provide the road map so that you can see how to get to the desired end. You and your student will make the journey. Some will need to stop at red traffic lights sometimes, others might need to take a detour occasionally, others will take a packed lunch and others will buy meals along the way. You get what I mean, your journey will be unique, but the overall route will be the same.
You may find that your student has a disorganised smattering of phonic knowledge - or of course they may have none at all. Therefore, the best place to start is at the beginning of the programme and test your student through the different sections.
However, this programme is not just for teaching young children to read and spell. It can also be used very effectively to help older children and even adults who for one reason or another need help. It might just need some adapting in how the material is presented in the Introduction stage/and or in the supporting resources used.
You can use our simple test (scroll down the page) to find the starting point for your child/young person for Levels 0 and 1, or purchase for a small price the assessment that I use when assessing a new pupil who has come to me with reading problems. Personally I would always start here even if I subsequently started the pupil on Level 2. Use the Level 2 test to determine where to start.
Be aware that often this age group will be embarrassed to some degree or other by their lack of competence in these areas. Assure them from the start that this is unnecessary, as many very clever people have had trouble learning to read and spell (like Thomas Edison). It is not therefore a sign of lack of intelligence. However, it can still be distressing. Help is at hand.
These folk are often the ones who do have some dyslexic tendencies, or other learning difficulties, but not necessarily so: they may just have failed to keep up at school, or need a more systematic approach to learning.
For many years now, the teaching of reading has been a very controversial subject. There has been the 'Real Books' method (where basically the child is supposed to read widely from real books - not reading scheme books - and pick up cues about the text from the context and pictures), followed by 'Look and Say' methods and now phonics is in fashion. Many teachers talk about there being no one method that works for all, and many, though they have to teach phonics, do not properly understand it. Therefore it is often not taught properly, more as a process to be gone through reluctantly, rather than with confidence in the method and a feel for where the students are at, and what they need to help them take the next step forward.
Some children do seem to thrive on this kind of teaching. But many do not. Phonics taught in this way, along with real books and look and say are not systematic methods for teaching reading and spelling. They are very disorganised.
Why do some thrive? Some people just have the ability to pick up the code naturally and work it out for themselves with out much special help. These are what we would term 'natural readers/spellers'. Some people just seem 'wired' to be able to read and spell. Others of us to some degree or other will always struggle with few/more words. For example how many 'm's in commitment, or is it 'independence', or 'independance'? (It's the former by the way!) We can usually compensate for these sort of difficulties by consulting a dictionary, or by using the wonderful spelling check facility on the computer.
So do some people not need to learn the code?
I would argue that it is not because they don't need/have a code - but that on that it has been internalised, as it is with a child who has been taught the code, who after several years of reading couldn't tell you how they learnt to read, they just do it as the code has now been internalised.
Let's think about what happens when we learn to read and spell. These skills are embedded in language, as they are simply forms of recording graphically what has been spoken/decoding what has been recorded graphically. Therefore, speech holds the key to deciphering (reading), or to putting language into code (spelling). Speech has to do with the mouth (lips, tongue and teeth), the vocal chords and the ears. Reading and spelling will use all of these too!
If you haven't already done so, please read the section on Understanding Phonics.
If we consider dyslexia say, then this is a problem primarily with the ability to organise. Many people have a problem to varying degrees in this area. Therefore if a person is already having problems organising information, then to use a disorganised means of teaching them will not hep them to progress. They need the organising done for them so that they are introduced to the code in a logical, systematic manner that builds up slowly from the smallest parts to the whole. The student is then empowered as they no longer have to rely on their memory, which is having trouble organising information into an easy way to memorise it, but instead they learn the code that they can use to 'crack' the reading and spelling. The programme on this site is a programme of systematic phonics. The student is never expected to decode words that they haven't been given the tools for. It starts from the smallest units of sound, the alphabet and works up to more complex sounds, like /eigh/.
The key then to helping those struggling with reading and spelling is to teach them the code. This is best done using a systematic phonic programme. Now at this point I can hear many of you saying 'But we've tried phonics and it hasn't worked'. You may not be aware that there is phonics, and there is real phonics. Many phonic programmes are not very organised and for the child/adult who needs more organisation, they will not be enough.
A proper phonics programme is the only method that will work for all children, unless they are severely disabled mentally. It is dependent on the teacher (using a good systematic programme), not the child, as to whether they can make it work or not. The key is first to understand what is necessary and then to learn to study your pupil. See where your pupil is having trouble and do whatever is needed to help him/her overcome the difficulty. Mrs. Conway made her games in response to such teaching. They were all developed to help a particular person to grasp one little concept, so that they could move on. Maybe you could develop a game to help your pupil move on. You can find our current range of games here.
In other words, you make the programme fit the student, not try to make the student fit the programme. We merely provide the road map so that you can see how to get to the desired end. You and your student will make the journey. Some will need to stop at red traffic lights sometimes, others might need to take a detour occasionally, others will take a packed lunch and others will buy meals along the way. You get what I mean, your journey will be unique, but the overall route will be the same.
You may find that your student has a disorganised smattering of phonic knowledge - or of course they may have none at all. Therefore, the best place to start is at the beginning of the programme and test your student through the different sections.
How to test:
You can use the instructions below for FREE, to assess Level 0 skills. In the vast majority of cases it is here that I find gaps in child's ability to work with phonics, so I always start at this level however old the pupil, unless I have good evidence that the problem does not lie here.
However, if you have access to PowerPoint then you may find my simple assessment kit to be as if I am there with you. This is the kit I use to assess pupils when they are referred to me for help. Full instructions are given, including how to interpret results, and it is easy to administer.
1) Start by checking that the child has a firm grasp of the sounds made by the letters of the alphabet. (Introductory stage)
If there are any sounds that are not secure, then start here and put them right, until the whole alphabet is secure. You don't have to follow the lesson plans which were written with young children in mind - just use letter cards to check which sounds are known, which are not known, and then work on the weak areas. Do utilise 'drill': older children/adults can still say 'Ay says a', Bee say s 'b' as they go through the stack of letters. Perhaps play some games to help the pupil learn the letters s/he is unsure of. Make sure the pupil can clearly distinguish the difference between the vowels, as for some people they sound very similar.
Check that the child's pronunciation of the letter sounds is not interfering with his/her ability to hear a word after the pupil has sounded it out. This may entail re-teaching the initial sounds correctly.
2) Then use the CVC section to check that the pupil is hearing beginning, medial (middle ) and final sounds of words.
Give several words from each vowel sound to read and spell.
Stay on this section until this skill is secure. Use the worksheets. Play games. Pay particular attention to the vowels in the middle of the words. Again, make sure the pupil is clearly distinguishing between them.
If the pupil can read these nonsense words, then move on: (Nonsense words make sure they are really sounding, rather than using memory.)
jip fop san deg nub
3) Do the same for the CVCC section, but don't worry about five or more sounds. this will come with practice anyway.
If the pupil can read and spell these nonsense words easily then move on:
skop grum flin frap drut
If there are any confusions, (e.g. tip/trip) give practice before moving on.
4) If these are all alright, then start testing through the 'Level 1'. Again, any problems here should be rectified by following the programme for that section before moving on.
Take a word list - start with 'ck'. If the problem is reading and spelling then check that they can both read and spell all the words on the list. If it is just spelling, then just do spelling.
Reading: Ask the student to read the list. Mark errors discretely, do not correct them.
Spelling: Ask the student to write each word as you dictate to them, one word at a time. DO NOT tell them which word family the words belong to. This is a blind spelling test.
Any errors should now be analysed.
3-10 errors: If there are many errors then this is your starting point in the programme. Read the instructions at the start of the 'Moving on with phonics' Section and take one sound per week.
1-2 errors: If there are only one or two errors, then talk about them with your student, word by word to find out what s/he was thinking when s/he wrote their answer/read the word. Maybe ask the pupil to have another go at that word.
Listen to the reply. What does it indicate? If you think the pupil does basically know the rule for that phoneme, then test the next sound, but I wouldn't go much further. If it becomes apparent that s/he has guessed, or hadn't seen the connection between the words (in this case that they all had the sound 'ck' in them following a short vowel (a vowel saying its sound, not its name.) Then I would start here and not test further. 'ck' is a very important first sound. You need to make sure your child has learned the rules before you move on, even if you miss out subsequent sounds.
0 errors: Move on to the next sound and test again in the same way. Analyse the errors as above. Only move on to test the next sound if there are no errors. As soon as you reach a sound that the pupil stumbles on (at all) then start the programme at that point. Each stage must be secure. Any insecurities will only cause the whole 'edifice' to tumble sooner or later.
Be prepared to work thoroughly through each section. Go slower than recommended if need be - vary the pace according to how well your student shows evidence of having grasped the new sound and the ones already taught. You will probably have some 'unlearning' to do of bad habits - which will slow the pace somewhat. Don't get discouraged. After a while, pupils usually begin to see what is needed and progress speeds up.
This programme will not interfere with your child's school work, but rather should help your child to re-enter school confidently.
However, if you have access to PowerPoint then you may find my simple assessment kit to be as if I am there with you. This is the kit I use to assess pupils when they are referred to me for help. Full instructions are given, including how to interpret results, and it is easy to administer.
1) Start by checking that the child has a firm grasp of the sounds made by the letters of the alphabet. (Introductory stage)
If there are any sounds that are not secure, then start here and put them right, until the whole alphabet is secure. You don't have to follow the lesson plans which were written with young children in mind - just use letter cards to check which sounds are known, which are not known, and then work on the weak areas. Do utilise 'drill': older children/adults can still say 'Ay says a', Bee say s 'b' as they go through the stack of letters. Perhaps play some games to help the pupil learn the letters s/he is unsure of. Make sure the pupil can clearly distinguish the difference between the vowels, as for some people they sound very similar.
Check that the child's pronunciation of the letter sounds is not interfering with his/her ability to hear a word after the pupil has sounded it out. This may entail re-teaching the initial sounds correctly.
2) Then use the CVC section to check that the pupil is hearing beginning, medial (middle ) and final sounds of words.
Give several words from each vowel sound to read and spell.
Stay on this section until this skill is secure. Use the worksheets. Play games. Pay particular attention to the vowels in the middle of the words. Again, make sure the pupil is clearly distinguishing between them.
If the pupil can read these nonsense words, then move on: (Nonsense words make sure they are really sounding, rather than using memory.)
jip fop san deg nub
3) Do the same for the CVCC section, but don't worry about five or more sounds. this will come with practice anyway.
If the pupil can read and spell these nonsense words easily then move on:
skop grum flin frap drut
If there are any confusions, (e.g. tip/trip) give practice before moving on.
4) If these are all alright, then start testing through the 'Level 1'. Again, any problems here should be rectified by following the programme for that section before moving on.
Take a word list - start with 'ck'. If the problem is reading and spelling then check that they can both read and spell all the words on the list. If it is just spelling, then just do spelling.
Reading: Ask the student to read the list. Mark errors discretely, do not correct them.
Spelling: Ask the student to write each word as you dictate to them, one word at a time. DO NOT tell them which word family the words belong to. This is a blind spelling test.
Any errors should now be analysed.
3-10 errors: If there are many errors then this is your starting point in the programme. Read the instructions at the start of the 'Moving on with phonics' Section and take one sound per week.
1-2 errors: If there are only one or two errors, then talk about them with your student, word by word to find out what s/he was thinking when s/he wrote their answer/read the word. Maybe ask the pupil to have another go at that word.
Listen to the reply. What does it indicate? If you think the pupil does basically know the rule for that phoneme, then test the next sound, but I wouldn't go much further. If it becomes apparent that s/he has guessed, or hadn't seen the connection between the words (in this case that they all had the sound 'ck' in them following a short vowel (a vowel saying its sound, not its name.) Then I would start here and not test further. 'ck' is a very important first sound. You need to make sure your child has learned the rules before you move on, even if you miss out subsequent sounds.
0 errors: Move on to the next sound and test again in the same way. Analyse the errors as above. Only move on to test the next sound if there are no errors. As soon as you reach a sound that the pupil stumbles on (at all) then start the programme at that point. Each stage must be secure. Any insecurities will only cause the whole 'edifice' to tumble sooner or later.
Be prepared to work thoroughly through each section. Go slower than recommended if need be - vary the pace according to how well your student shows evidence of having grasped the new sound and the ones already taught. You will probably have some 'unlearning' to do of bad habits - which will slow the pace somewhat. Don't get discouraged. After a while, pupils usually begin to see what is needed and progress speeds up.
This programme will not interfere with your child's school work, but rather should help your child to re-enter school confidently.
Handwriting
If handwriting is a problem, then start to teach the individual letters. Try and get correct pencil hold and correct orientation of letters (although if the child has been holding the pencil incorrectly for more then a year, it will be useless trying to change the habit. Do the best you can to improve handwriting with the current hold, unless it will not work for the child at all). Always use lined paper. Always have the pupil sit at a table of the right height, so that the child's feet are on the floor. Balance is everything with handwriting.
Don't be afraid to do copy work, even with adults. It is a very valuable means of learning at any age - try it yourself and see!
See here for more help.
Don't be afraid to do copy work, even with adults. It is a very valuable means of learning at any age - try it yourself and see!
See here for more help.