Lessons by Robert Zenhausern, Enabling Support Foundation CEO and Founder.
The
way we teach early reading is the biggest mistake in the history of
Education. It handicaps all children and it’s impossible for the 20 per
cent of the population we label as “dyslexic”
Reading is traditionally taught using phonetic decoding or “sounding
out”. It is a long process as the child learns the names and sounds of
the alphabet and combines them into words they can say. The child is
“reading ready” or simply put, already able to read in Primary One (1)
But even after with “reading readiness” courses, some children cannot
read. About 20% suffer from a known brain abnormality that interferes
with phonetic decoding. (Google Sally Shaywitz) Traditional treatment is
administered to give them drills on phonics, that is, giving them more and more
of what they cannot do. This is equivalent to making the light brighter
for the totally blind.
With all the negatives associated with phonetic decoding, one might ask? Why is
it used for virtually all alphabetic languages? It has but one function:
it allows you to pronounce a word. It tells nothing about what the word
means, only how to say it.
Two (2) earlier academic studies showed that dyslexics knew the meaning of a
word even though they could not say it. It should not have been
surprising since the same can be said of the deaf.
In the next article we will talk about alternatives to phonetic decoding and
the unintended consequences of replacing phonetic decoding.
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