Top Ten Myths of Reading 1

Top Ten Myths of Reading:

Reason over Rhetoric, Data over Dogma           

            Does this sound familiar, remember thinking, “I’ve tried everything. I taught my child the Alphabet song, showed her all the letters and capitals, even sent her to preschool. My child just can’t seem to learn how to read. I don’t know what to do next. I’m at a loss.”? 

Top Ten Myths of Reading: (Are you guilty of some of these?)

Myth 1. Teach the letter names, like in the alphabet song.

Truth: Instead, teach only the letter sounds. Do not teach the letter names. It is confusing to young children that the letter name u (you) doesn't say the sound "y" (yuh), the letter name y (why) doesn't say the sound "w" (wuh), and the letter name w (double-you) doesn't say the sound "d" (duh). Children easily pick up the letter names later.
Also, only teach one sound per letter, to start. Keep it simple for success (KISS your child).

            Visual Attention Span (VAS) Theory reading expert Jean Clyde says, “Today I saw Adam. He is almost 11, has a shy smile, is a little small for his age and thinks that he is average in reading and a little below average in spelling. However his mother is concerned about the fast approaching problems of Adam's entering high school, a very common concern among parents of 11 year olds! She has been reassured that Adam is progressing satisfactorily but his mother has long ago learned to distrust such [school] assurances.

            He can read one, two and many three syllable words, which is more that many of my other 11 year-olds can do. And yet when I ask Adam to tell me the sounds of letters he shows hesitations and some of the 3-syllable words show evidence of confusions between names and sounds.

            Adam had originally learned letter names and guessing. He had then struggled to read. He preferred guessing words partly because guessing [seemed] faster, partly because his elementary teacher encouraged him to guess, but mainly because his insecure grasp of sounds undermined his confidence.

            Guessing however is inherently inaccurate. [The next teacher tried but] failed to over-teach [phonics] to the stage where his newly acquired phonic skills became automatic. The phonic skills that he was taught are therefore still insecurely based and guessing still dominates.

            Knowledge of sounds needs to reach the stage where, when you see a letter, you automatically associate it with its most common sound. Later on you can learn the secondary sounds but if you fail to initially consolidate the basic letter sounds, you may condemn the Adams of this world to being average in reading and below average in spelling when they might have been superior in both!” http://www.vasresearch.com

PS: Stay away from electronic or computer methods of learning to read, which incorporate the myths and may trigger ADD or dyslexia. 

Myth 2 - NEXT WEEK!

http://www.thegodfreymethod.com/blog/top-ten-myths-reading-myth-1