Hello all,

I recently went to a conference on literacy in London, held by the Reading 
Reform Foundation.  Leading figures on reading reform were speaking, 
including Jim Rose, whose review of teaching methods gave rise to 
recommendations, including synthetic phonics, endorsed by the government in 
March.  I have written some notes on the conference proceedings here:
http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/reading-reform-conference.htm

This was the first time that I heard first-hand from somebody who had 
applied synthetic phonics with adults - prison inmates in fact - with 
interesting results.  And I learnt a new acronym, ABT.  The speaker had been 
asked "Is he ABT or SEN?"  ABT is for "ain't been taught", and this was the 
problem for most prison inmates.  They hadn't grasped the alphabetic 
principle, so no wonder they couldn't read.

Looking into the "official" research on literacy and dyslexia, I can see 
that little account is taken of the ABT factor. 
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus/understandingdyslexia/
I cannot now accept that dyslexia is an abnormality, dysfunction, deficit, 
impairment or disability. However I do accept that dyslexia is a difficulty, 
but the basic problem is a difficulty in _learning_ to read, not in reading 
itself.  If the appropriate pathways in the brain are trained for rapid 
decoding from the beginning, almost any child can become a fluent reader. 
That was one of the key messages from the conference.

With new figures out, showing that nearly a third of pupils cannot read 
simple words by the end of first year at primary, urgent action is required. 
See
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=412806&in_page_id=1770
The current situation is criminal.  No child need be left behind.   No child 
should be left behind.

It will be a hard task to turn around the educational establishment to this 
new goal, but it is task worth doing.

Cheers from Chiswick,

John

John Nissen
Cloudworld Ltd - http://www.cloudworld.co.uk
maker of the assistive reader, WordAloud.
Try WordAloud with synthetic phonics:
http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/teaching-synthetic-phonics.htm
Tel: +44 208 742 3170  Fax: +44 208 742 0202
Email: info at cloudworld.co.uk

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