Children should experience stories, books and literature as early as possible. When they cannot yet read words easily and independently, they delight in having stories read aloud to them – it is simply the best way for them to enjoy literature at this stage.
Very often we hear from authors, organisations like the National Literacy Trust and initiatives like World Book Day that the solution to child illiteracy, particularly in the poorest communities, is giving children greater experience and practice with books. But is this enough?
There is certainly no excuse for large numbers of children in mainstream education failing to learn to read by the end of primary school, when all children should be able to read well enough to enjoy reading. That’s why it is so important that they are taught well through synthetic phonics right from the beginning so that all learn how to read and are able to read independently and fluently for themselves.
The Reading Reform Foundation (RRF) proposes that the answer lies with how children are taught to read from the beginning and throughout their primary schooling. There is massive research to show that children taught systematically and rigorously from Reception and then given sufficient practice with books, which they can read using the alphabetic code they have been taught, will be able to leave primary school at age 11 years equipped to tackle the secondary curriculum without struggling to read words.
My own research with about 800 children has tracked every child in mainstream classes from Reception to their Key Stage 2 English SATs (Standard Assessment Tests) at 11 years of age. My data did not exclude a single child in the schools, even those who were potentially vulnerable for a range of reasons: those with complex Statements of Special Educational Needs, those with English as a Second Language, those with poor language and social skills as measured at school entry to Reception, those with summer birthdays, those from poor backgrounds who were eligible for free school meals or Pupil Premium, and those from the travelling community.
We achieved amazing results and virtually eliminated illiteracy even with children whose families did not read with them at home. Boys did as well as girls. We monitored and assessed the ability of all the children to read and spell from early Reception. For those who struggled we started extra, small group, keep-up teaching and practice. This very early identification of difficulty with learning to read was crucial.
In this way we avoided dyslexia developing, even though some children clearly had dyslexia-type learning difficulties profiles. (Paper presented to the ResearchEd conference in London in 2014 and the original research paper – https://tcrw.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Grant-Follow-Up-Studies-May-2014-2.pdf )
Although there is still room for improvement in the way children are taught reading in primary schools in England, and some schools seem to be more effective than others, the statistics show that existing government initiatives with synthetic phonics are working.
Dr Marlynne Grant
Educational Psychologist, Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council
BSc, CertEd, MEdPsych, PhD, AFBPsS, C Psychol Bristol.