Hello Robin,

I passed your message onto Debbie Hepplewhite, who has obtained information 
from Professor Rhona Johnston herself.

------------------

Dear John,

Rhona kindly sent me this reply to Robin's question. Could you please
forward this to Robin - thank you.

Debbie

"Here is my reply to Robin's questions:
Clackmannanshire sample

The study was carried out in Clackmannanshire with beginning readers, there
was no pre-selection of pupils. As to the characteristics of the sample,
Clackmannanshire is in the top 10% of deprivation in Scotland. The four
schools in the most deprived areas in the region were included in the study.
Six of the 8 schools in the study were in areas of deprivation. Mean letter
knowledge was 10% of letter names and 9% of letter sounds when the children
started school and virtually of the children were non-readers. Rhyme skills
were measured before and after the programme, and increased more in the
synthetic phonics group than the group taught by analytic phonics.

'At risk' children

In research studies 'at risk' children are usually the lowest performing
children in the sample on ability to hear sounds in spoken words. The 'at
risk' children in our study were those who started school unable to give
even one rhyme for one word, or one phoneme in response to a question such
as 'What are the sounds in 'zoo'? They also had no word recognition ability.

At the end of the 16 week programme, the analytic phonics taught group
scored 8.5% on a test of phoneme awareness, the analytic phonics group with
additional phonemic awareness training scored 22.2%, and the synthetic
phonics taught children scored 45.1%. The synthetic phonics children
performed significantly better than the other two groups.

The two analytic phonics taught groups then carried out the synthetic
phonics programme. The word reading for all of these 'at risk' children the
end of the second year at school was 8 months ahead of chronological age.

Best wishes
Rhona

Professor Rhona S Johnston
Department of Psychology
University of Hull
Hull HU6 7RX

Phone: 01482 465595
Fax: 01482 465599

email signature Debbie Hepplewhite Synthetic Phonics Trainer/Consultant
www.SyntheticPhonics.com Editor Reading Reform Foundation Website
www.RRF.org.uk Tel: 01635 524911 email: debbie at syntheticphonics.com

---------------------------


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <robinschwarz1 at aol.com>
To: <nifl-ld at nifl.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 8:40 PM
Subject: [LearningDisabilities] Re: [NIFL-LD:4953] Re: LD and 
intensivephonics



> John-- what were the criteria for inclusion in the Clackmannanshire study? 

> Were students screened for phonological processing skills before 

> instruction, or were they merely beginnning readers?  If the latter, who 

> is to say there were any at risk for being non-readers (which is a whole 

> lot different from being an impaired reader) at all?  Why then would a 

> 100% success rate mean the synthetic phonics prevents reading 

> difficulties?  I'd like to know more about the base lines of the group you 

> started with, please.

>

> rclaims about rhyming contrast sharply with studies on reading 

> difficulties in English learners and others where weakness in phonological 

> awareness, which includes a significant awareness of rhyme structures, is 

> seen as THE key factor in reading problems.    I certainly have seen a 

> high correlation between difficulty rhyming and difficulty reading in 

> reading impaired adults, both English language learners and native English 

> speakers.  And I have seen the reading improve, sometimes dramatically, 

> where sensibility to rhyme was strengthened.

>

> Have you tested your young readers before and after instruction with your 

> system as to their sensitivity to rhyme and rhyme structures?   It would 

> seem to me that if they have developed the blending skills you maintain, 

> they would increase their sensitivity to onset-rime as well.  Robin 

> Schwarz