Reading Trilogy

What is this?

This is an initial reading teaching system.

Can it be used with any child?

This strategy is designed for younger children who are failing to acquire reading skills by any conventional phonics approach.

Is it better than a phonics approach?

No. It is not. Phonics approaches, particularly Synthetic Phonics approaches are the best teaching strategy for the majority of children!

If Sythetic Phonics is best, why use this approach?

Most children learn to read quite happily using a phonics approach but even in schools where they are committed to using Synthetic Phonics very thoroughly, some children still fall behind the others in reading. This appraoch is called Hot Reading and it has proved to be very successful in practical trials in a number of schools.

Is this what is called a 'Whole Word' approach?

The idea of two opposite approaches called 'Whole Word' and 'Phonics' is defunct thinking; it is simplistic and misleading. When a child looks at the textword 'dog' and says 'dog' that child learns not only to recognise the word 'dog'. The child also learns the sound that the letter 'd' makes as well the sounds associated with the other letters in the word. It is very important that children learn the sounds the letters make. How they learn them is less important - it is only important that they do learn them.

Precisely which children should use this approach?

Children in Year 2 (six year olds) who are falling behind in their attempt to learn to read. A solution delivered at this stage prevents the erosion of the child's self-esteem which is an inevitable consequence of the daily doses of failure which are the inevitable result of persisting with an approach which is not working.