A recent Stanford study of brain activity during the reading process has shown that letter-to-sound phonics processing is the best way to learn how to read. By comparison, a whole word sight-memorization strategy leads children down the wrong path.
We couldn’t agree more! This has been the foundation of our Easyread program for a decade and we continue to teach letter/sound matching through our Trainertext method to children all around the world.
Here is a fascinating excerpt that shows the linkage between poor reading skills and whole word sight-reading.
“Words learned through the letter-sound instruction elicited neural activity biased toward the left side of the brain, which encompasses visual and language regions. In contrast, words learned via whole-word association showed activity biased toward right hemisphere processing.
McCandliss noted that this strong left hemisphere engagement during early word recognition is a hallmark of skilled readers, and is characteristically lacking in children and adults who are struggling with reading.”
For the full article, read here: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/may/reading-brain-phonics-052815.html
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Sarah Forrest is Programme Manager of the Easyread System, an online program for struggling readers and spellers, children with dyslexia, and beginner readers. Find out more at www.oxfordlearningsolutions.com
