Reading Difficulties? Phono-graphix - developed by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuiness at Read America in Florida.
Phono-graphix is a revolutionary way of teaching the English sound system to adults and children. The theoretical underpinnings of Phono-graphix are remarkably straightforward and sensible. It is based simply on the nature of the English code, the three skills needed to access that code and teaching these in keeping with the way children learn and the way their minds develop.
There was a clinical study of Phono-graphix published in the Orton Annals of Dyslexia in 1996. The study included 87 children aged six to sixteen, 44% of the study group had previously been diagnosed as learning disabled. In a twelve-hour remedial course, 98% of the children reached their expected reading level for their age. The remaining 2% needed additional tuition in phono-graphix.
Since children are already familiar with the sounds, Phono-graphix starts with the sounds and then teaches them which sound pictures can be used to represent them. A sound picture represents each sound in a word: some sound pictures contain one letter, while others contain two or more. In the English language there is variation in the code this means that many sounds can be represented by a number of different sound pictures e.g. boat, slow, most, toe, note, though. There is also overlap in the code, this means that some sound pictures can represent a number of different sounds. e.g.ow = show and ow = frown.
Children also need to be taught the following skills to be able to use the code.
Segmenting - to use the sound picture code, children need to be able to separate out the sounds in words so that when they hear the word frog they can hear the sounds 'f' 'r' 'o' 'g'.
Blending - Children need to be able to push the sounds together into words so that when they hear the letters 'f' 'r' 'o' 'g' they can hear the word frog.
Phoneme Manipulation - To use a code that contains overlap children must be able to slide the sounds in and out of the words that contain overlap spellings such as the "ow" in brown.
Phono-graphix employs hands-on activities and games enabling children to learn explicitly the nature of the code, implicitly the skills needed to use the code and implicitly the symbols of the code. Phono-graphix maximises instruction by teaching all of these simultaneously.
To find out more about Phonographix or to book a session please ring Elizabeth on 01483 285142 or e-mail her at[email protected]