Reading Whisperer Approach

[Korrale4kq]

Also nearly all good phonics programs always start with phonologixal awareness. So there is not much novel in the approach. That is how I started with my son. But it only helped his speech so far. He was able  to isolate sounds but still unable to speak words.

[Korrale4kq]

And by 3 hrs of phonics intense reading instruction it does include phonological awareness, songs, rhymes, letter regognition, phonics, decoding and guided decidable readers.

[ReadingWhisperer]

There are only two phonics programs I know of in the world that start with phonological awareness- start with speech sounds and not print.

Phonics programs - by the very definition of what phonics is (print) does NOT start with phonological awareness.

If it has a focus on phonological awareness then technically it is not a phonics program. Yes- any good teacher will ALSO include phonological awareness- and many are no longer wanting to use the term 'synthetic phonics' etc because they want people to realise that it is more than phonics, if its to be effective for every child.

But as I said, there are only 2 'programs' in the world that I know of start with phonological awareness and have a strong focus on speech sounds over print - speech sounds FIRST and then print. Its why in the UK they introduced the initial stage - because schools were using programs like Jolly Phonics etc- starting with phonics/ print.

And if your child was still not speaking then I would strongly suggest looking at our approach 'Shaping Reading Brains™' - its not a program- not a prescriptive method- its an approach. Parents can use it without buying anything and start this from birth. It is supported by speech pathologists as it includes those very elements of their own approach to developing speech. That is most certainly NOT included when people teach what most understand as 'phonics'. And it enables children to gain meaning from what they are actually encoding and decoding from day 1- so comprehension is not a problem. Comprehension difficulties come because they are not quickly becoming fluent (watch Dr Tallal again) and because they have been focused on the print part from the beginning. Theyve been told 'what sound does that letter make' or to learn a word as a whole - and the whole approach has made it so difficult for their brains to process the info quickly enough to even remember what theyve read by the end of the paragraph even if decoding the words. Its too much to then actually understanding the content. And yes, these children often seem to be 'reading'- but they arent- because reading HAS to include understanding what youve read. And this comes back again to oral language.
This is another reason why we developed this approach- because Im a special needs specialist - and I created it to prevent these difficulties- after having seen why they were being created in the first place. 

Hopefully at least worth considering...

[Korrale4kq]

What are the only 2 programs that start with phonological awareness?

[Mandabplus3]

I am guessing... but thrass has speech sounds and so does one called phonics....something. This isn't the first phonics program (I know she doesn't like the terms phonics or program but what else is there to use! It may start at phonological awareness but if it is letters in sound groups it IS phonics!)  to group speech sounds. I know lots of teachers who teach their " schools chosen" phonics program by grouping sounds and spelling options, it's not new. However credit where it is due. I really quite like the speech sounds clouds. I would happily use them in my classroom. I think using the speech sounds clouds week by week and having kids look out for words with that sound is a great idea. Very child centered. I am not huge on using pre made universal posters. So these clouds are a great way to individualize for each classroom or child. It's quite similar to the Tool program used in the states.
Oh and my kids are in Queensland and they get home readers in prep. Thank goodness! How disappointing to be able to read and not be given a book to have a go at!  And I have even seen them sent home in kindy. I have no problem with early exposure to language.
I like the ideas but really can see a valid place for whole word learning too. Especially for the high frequency words. Those top 100 words really slow kids up until they memorize them and yes flashcards and sight word readers are a quick way to learn them. I know she says on her website and videos that she uses flashcards for these words. Perhaps if she had come here with that and not " whole word learning is wrong debate" more parents here would hae been happy to look into her " method" as we are starting our kids so young we have plenty of time to show them 2000 whole words or more as well as teach them speech sound pics and basic phonics for decoding. All exposure to print is helping shape their reading brains. There has been no brain scanning evidence to refute that fact yet.
Do pop over to her face book page and check out the speech clouds ( sadly you will have to like her page to see them all!) and decide if you want to include it in your learning. It was an interesting, if completely biased, read.
Oh and I noticed reading whisperer your last reply was much more much more considerate and polite to our way of thinking. It is appreciated 

[Korrale4kq]

The Montessori approach to reading starts before phonological awareness by having the children match and regognise sound cylinders filled with various things. We use coins, sand, rice, bells etc. They also use bells to increase their listening attention. 
Then they move onto phonologixal awareness, then phonemic awareness.

And I agree with you Manda, when most of us talk about a phonics program we are using the generic term that encompasses phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling etc.

[ReadingWhisperer]

"I am guessing... but thrass has speech sounds and so does one called phonics....something. "


No!! :-)

Ill stick to 'doing' rather than trying to explain- you can watch the videos or not - Ive put the links there for those who are interested. Perhaps youll get it more when you watch it - with lots of different and unique children of all ages - and with English as a second language, special needs etc.

Glad there are some decodable readers going home in Prep - most state schools are being told not to send them. QLD has the worst reading and spelling of all states - and they need to pull up their socks. But cant- because teachers arent given quality training....so dont know what to do. I trained several schools in WA recently and when I asked who had been given any training about the teaching of reading and spelling (specifically research based- government report recommended- proven to work etc) 1 out of 143 had.

Matching and recognising sound cylinders has nothing to do with phonological awareness unless I misunderstood what youve written Korrale4kq.

I support Montessori because its child centred. But still not enough- certainly not as taught in the 12 centres Ive worked in/ supported.

As I said, Ive explored everything over the last decade- not as a researcher (although Im about to do a PhD)- but as an educator. And have come up with an approach that should actually be supported by all- as it includes all the good parts of everything- and focuses on preventing difficulties - so ideal for any child with speech difficulties etc. Shaping reading brains.

Just keep your minds open- and take what you feel would be useful for your child or class from the clips. If every single child has excellent oral abilities as well as decoding, encoding- fluency, comprehension..... before school- there must be something in it. You cant say that if you havent taught more than a handful- especially not if at one time. The difficulty for teachers is having a class of 25 - 30. They need something that can work for all - when teaching that many. Not just the lucky ones. As we see from reading scores this isnt currently happening. The world needs a change- and to move on...so teachers have the skills and resources they need to teach ANY child- including those who dont have parents like on this forum who are keen to support them- and can do so as they can read themselves.

As I said, 46% of Australian adults cant even read well enough to follow a cooking recipe. Why people arent more alarmed and also standing up for our children is a mystery to me!!

Im certainly read for a change. Ive told Campbell Newman Ill happily go and work with any Prep class in QLD (preferably a school that is currently failing) and get every child reading and spelling- and be videoed. To do that I couldnt possibly not start with and focus on oral abilities - and phonological awareness. NOT phonics - even as you think of phonics.

And if any other teacher of 5 and 6 years olds has his or her WHOLE class reading AND SPELLING (with comprehension) to at least the level of a 7 year old (chronologically speaking) then please do contact me so we can share ideas. 

Back to 'doing' - keep an eye on the Read Australia youtube channel from end of June! - and facebook page. Even if to try to pick holes- worth watching surely? I dont gain anything - other than preventing difficulties for children and giving every child the opportunity to immerse themselves in the AMAZING world of language and literacy

Emma

   

[Korrale4kq]

Of course sound cylinders are not phonologixal awareness. They are used BEFORE phonological awareness as a way to exercise they ear.

[Korrale4kq]

As for your videos. I am slowly going though them. They are long and take over an hour to buffer for me. That is why I have been reading and asking questions.

[ReadingWhisperer]

Phonological awareness is difficult if they are hard of hearing but doesnt actually have anything to do with hearing- ie if you ask children to listen to sounds thats not related to what happens with the brain when listening for speech sounds.

There are a few shorter clips that will be useful- and especially watch the ones we will be producing - as these will show children from 2 years of age.

The long videos are where Ive showed the whole session - so can be an hour in length even if the session wasnt. About 20 hours of footage:-) Look at those  posted on facebook as usually more concise :-)

     

[Frukc]

In my country, there are no flashcards at all. In every kindergarten there are posters with "s for sun, m for mom". we learn phonics at 5, reading at 6. school starts at 7.

I definitely will focus more on phonemic awareness in future  

What is different for my language (Latvian). 
- We have a phonemic language. we write as we speak. every letter has just one pronunciation and every word is just a sum of letters.
- We never teach letter names to preschoolers. we teach that s is s and k is k. I learned letter names (f as ef, k as kaa) when I was 10. It is the same in all our neighboring countries and in all 5 languages I know. Except English. I really do not know why English children learn that K is Key. Than it is a double learning.
- our children learn reading exactly as in your videos. snap is s n a p. I do not know if it helps very much because many kids learn alphabet early but start to read late. We call it "the click" when suddenly kid understands how it works and she starts to read. Probably, your approach can help here

My brother (now 45) learned to read with flashcards. When he learned music, his teachers were impressed by his ability to read a whole line together. This skill is necessary but not easy to get.

I am sure that we will not be included in governmental reports because flashcard method (accordingly to Doman) can be used until 5 years but official learning to read is started after 5. So, failures are being corrected.

That was interesting to read about Australia. Maybe there is too much "one size fits all" approach which is too superficial. 

[ReadingWhisperer]

Thats so interesting - thanks for sharing!

I dont teach letter names until they are reading and need to be able to use the names as labels. Some can cope with learning both alongside each other but I teach towards helping the highest number (ie as if all will have phonological difficulties) - because the children who will get it will get it anyway. Ive had so many teachers at training arguing with me- until I do an activity where they have to read and spell using a made up language - different symbols to represent the speech sounds- with different letter names - and they quickly get my point and stop teaching letter names :-) Letter names dont help with reading or spelling- just labelling. Infact that exercise reminds many of the processes involved, and gets them more child focused.

English is so much harder than most- I admire anyone who speaks it as a second language and understands it! And think of it in this way for children- that the written code is like a different language. Often we are so used to reading and spelling that we dont realise how difficult it is!

[Mandabplus3]

Frukc please don't take this one persons view as reflection of what is really happening in Australian schools. There was sooo much wrong with her last batch of comments I couldn't be bothered banging my head against the wall anymore. If you want another view Pm me.
It was most interesting to read how your country teaches though. I think you should start a new thread for that interesting topic!

[Frukc]

Mandabplus3,
Don't bang your head! From my part of world, you are so far away that everything is possible 

I am not sure if I cal tell very much about the teaching because I learned at home and my kid also. Our people happily live without the names of letters; we know them but we prefer to say b instead of be because than we feel that we speak more precisely.

in our local parenting forum, mothers often ask "how to teach my 5 or 6 year old to read".
typical answers are:
- wait "the click";
- start with two letter words;
- teach what is the syllable, teach how to count syllables in a word and you will succeed.  Official teaching is based on syllables: kids learn to read single syllables and then bond them together. 
- I try to recommend things like "point on a milk pack and say "milk"" but nobody takes me seriously, whole word approach is not widely known here. 

I think, it is similarly as in other non-English languages.

English is my fourth language and I started to learn it at 22. I speak BSE (bad simple English   ) . Still I think that it is easier to learn English than German (I started to learn it at 12) or Russian (at 6). Because in English you can learn a word and use it. In other languages, there are genders and cases and you can not say a word without knowing a lot about it.

Writing is something different. I do not understand how do you know what to write if you hear "right" or "write". May be you need to develop your intuition to know what to write and may be this is a reason why English becomes so dominating - because of the intuition but this is just my funny theory 

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I am with Seastar. This argument can go on forever 

You ladies are so wise.    And its true, no real point in arguing. So instead I will just share my firsthand experience and overall view on the matter.

Both of my children learned to read with a combination of whole word and phonics, primarily through LR. My daughter literally picked up hundreds of new words within a month or two at just 14 or 15 months old. Printing out the words from LR was key for her, and  adding in a bit of phonics was icing on the cake and she decoded her first novel word (WAX) at just 19 months old.  She was decoding words like "magenta" on her own by age 2. I started a earlier with my son, and his reading fluency has far surpassed every step of the way. He first demonstrated his knowledge through decoding the word "crime" around 18 or 19 months old as well IIRC, so clearly he had to have been silently decoding cvc words long before then.

To the ReadingWhisperer- I can definitely respect and appreciate your passion for literacy. I share it too, albeit in a different way. I watched a close family member's life become destroyed by illiteracy and was determined that it would never happen to my children. So I have surely seen the damage that weak reading skills can inflict on a child. However,  I do find it a bit short sided to think there is one "right way"to do anything as all children are different. Having tried many different early learning products, I can say with confidence that LR is the best that we have used and I wholeheartedly recommend it to parents, schools, and other charitable institutions on a regular basis. Yes, this site absolutely helps parents and promotes the sale of a reading product to parents looking for tools to help them on their early learning journey. But did you know that the Foundation also gives grants and sponsorships to institutions choosing to use this curriculum and families who could not otherwise afford this program? All the folks and parents at BrillKids believe in empowering children through literacy, and that's how far the mission is being carried out-- Early literacy for ALL! So simply because this is a "commercial" website should not discount the fact that our opinions and experiences teaching our children are indeed valid, nor does it make the method any less valid. However ,It's understandably difficult to convince a parent such as myself that this learning style is ineffective, or worse harmful, when we have experienced the exact opposite firsthand with our children!

There are literally thousands of children who have very effectively learned to read using this method, my kids being one of them. I am actually using the program now to teach my children Russian. After just a few months of exposure, *I* spontaneously decoded my first word in Russian without ever having learning a single letter or letter sound explicitly! It was a three syllable word, no less.   It was amazing to me because as a adult, as I had very little hope in trying to really learn to read Russian and I was simply trying to teach my kids. I happened to be learning right along side them! So yes, knowing how much plasticity a young child's brain has, it only makes sense that they are able to decode written language while hearing it that much easier, learned in the most natural, intuitive way possible! If the experiences of the parents on this site were not enough, literacy expert Dr. Richard Gentry backs this style of early learning completely and says that there is a currently an "academic blind spot" in the field of infant and toddler literacy.

Teaching letter sounds versus names is used widely in Montessori classrooms if I am not mistaken. I had not learned of this method until after I already taught my daughter to read successfully using letter names first, so I used the same method with my son. However, I can see where it makes sense. As far as how primarily whole word early literacy impacts spelling, my daughter is barely 3.5 and I found this little gem on her wall yesterday. (attached below) She did such a good job I could hardly be mad at her! (And for what it's worth, early learning is amazing and so are my kids....my daughter just walked up to me and informed me her milk has protein in it.  How many 3 years olds do you know that run around making those observations LOL?!)

We're glad to have all literacy enthusiasts on the site, we just try to keep all debates respectful and relatively positive. And to the parents posting on this thread, your confidence and wisdom makes me proud to be part of this community.

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