A Balanced Approach to Literacy and the Importance of Phonics
Research has shown that both phonics and meaning-based reading instruction should be utilized in the classroom. The ultimate goal of any reading program is reading comprehension. In order to adequately comprehend what is being read, however, students must be able to correctly identify the printed words on the page. Fast, accurate decoding of single words has been found to account for a large share of the differences in students’ abilities to comprehend text.

The English language is an alphabetic system, meaning that words are composed of letters that are intentionally and conventionally related to segments of spoken sounds. For individuals struggling with poor phonological (sound) processing skills, the alphabetic principle (phonics) must be systematically taught. It is clear from the research that, for beginning and struggling readers especially, multisensory, language-based, systematic approaches to reading are more effective than whole word approaches.

Research tells us that, due to the ultimate importance of mastering the alphabetic system, early learners should be given preventive, research-based phonics instruction in the regular education classroom (Kindergarten - grade 2). For students who are at risk for, or already experiencing, reading difficulties, remedial instruction should be provided as early as possible, and intensively enough, to ensure success. The number of days per week and the number of students in the instructional group should be based upon severity of the problem.

Moving Through the Stages: From Phonemic Awareness to Comprehension
Phonemic Awareness > Phonics > Fluency > Vocabulary > Comprehension
With the understanding that the ultimate goal of reading is good comprehension, research indicates that this comprehension is typically reliant on the success in several underlying skill areas. It is obvious that vocabulary skills greatly influence comprehension. Also crucial for good comprehension, though, is the ability to read text automatically and fluently. Fluent readers quickly and accurately identify printed words based on their letters and letter patterns. Automatic word identification skills are generally dependent upon the ability to rapidly identify and name the sounds associated with the printed letters (phonics). In order to learn letter sound associations, though, students must have the auditory ability to perceive the individual sounds of our language within spoken words (phonemic awareness). It is also assumed that students must have the visual ability to discriminate among and identify letter shapes (orthographic awareness). With success in each of these skill areas, students can achieve the goal of reading comprehension.

Three Critical Components
Phonemic Awareness, Orthographic Awareness, Rapid Naming
Each of these components obviously affects reading ability. Individuals having significant weaknesses in rapid naming, combined with difficulty with phonemic and/ or orthographic awareness, though, often exhibit a significant reading disorder that requires intensive treatment.

Phonemic Awareness The auditory skills of blending, segmenting (breaking spoken words into individual sounds), and manipulating sounds, as well as perceiving the number and order of sounds within spoken words, are important phonemic awareness skills that are necessary for the development of phonics. Phonemic awareness is an auditory skill that typically emerges along with the alphabetic principle. Unlike phonemic awareness, phonics involves print, and assumes the understanding that printed letters systematically represent sounds. We cannot link sounds to letters if we have trouble perceiving these individual sounds in spoken words, which is why phonemic awareness is essential for acquiring strong phonics skills. It has been shown that assessment of phonemic awareness predicts third grade reading failure with 92% accuracy.

Orthographic Awareness
Orthographic awareness, the ability to visually perceive the sequences and patterns of individually printed letters within words, is also essential for success in the alphabetic word attack strategies needed for reading. A student having difficulty distinguishing between two letters (‘b’ and ‘d’, for example), or trouble determining the order of letter patterns in a word, is likely to have great difficulty when trying to decode text.

Rapid Naming
A third area found to be critical to the reading process is the ability to rapidly name visual symbols. Difficulties in this area can be tested and documented as a weakness. One must be able to apply the sound and letter knowledge at a quick rate, rapidly articulating sounds and sound patterns while decoding printed words.

Effects of a Reading Disorder
It has been found that 85% of special education referrals come in third grade, and 85% of those referrals are for reading. By the end of first grade, poor readers have a significant drop in self-esteem and motivation to learn to read. Because of the decreased ability to read text, poor readers have difficulty learning other school subjects (science, history…), and have decreased opportunities to develop complex, higher level language and cognitive skills. Poor readers also have a decreased chance of attending college, and fewer employment opportunities are available.

Prevention and Early Intervention
Prevention, and early intervention with appropriate teaching methods in grades K, 1, and 2 can, and do, decrease the numbers of special education referrals. Research indicates that 90% - 95% of poor readers can increase reading skills to average levels, given early intervention that combines training in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. If this intervention is delayed until the student is 9 years old, which is when most children are referred, approximately 75% will continue to have difficulties learning to read through high school.

NICHD Recommendations for Prevention and Early Intervention of Reading Disorders
• Include daily phonological awareness and phonemic awareness activities in the standard Kindergarten curriculum.
• Begin teaching phonemic awareness directly at an early age (Kindergarten).
• Teach each sound / letter correspondence explicitly (initially teaching the sound in isolation).
• Systematically teach frequent, highly regular sound / spelling relationships.
• Train phonemic awareness along with letter sound knowledge, and use letters in the phonemic awareness training.*
• Teach children exactly how to sound out words.
• Use connected, decodable text for children to practice the sound / spelling relationships they have learned, as well as a limited number of sight words that have been systematically taught.
• Use interesting literature to develop language comprehension. Children benefit from having stories read to them to build oral language skills.
• Balance, don’t mix. Both types of instruction, phonics, and meaning-based, should occur, but not necessarily in the same lesson.
• Create and maintain a high level of motivation for students, through appropriate instructional methods and materials, for continued success in reading development.

* Research strongly indicates that phonemic awareness training programs that include the teaching of letter sounds and the use of letters in blending, segmenting and manipulation activities yield higher gains than those phonemic awareness programs that do not utilize letters. Techniques and materials that provide students with the ability to learn letter sounds quickly allow students the opportunity to successfully use letters in these activities.

Research Opportunities

According to the report of the National Reading Panel, research has indicated that the use of mnemonics in letter sound training (letters embedded into meaningful pictures, use of hand cues...) was more effective than the use of letters with no pictures or letters with keyword pictures which were not embedded into the letters. Because the use on mnemonics in letter sound training showed promising results, it was listed as one of the instructional features of explicit phonics programs that should be studied further in order to determine a list of the most effective instructional features of phonics programs. Another area listed by the National Reading Panel warranting further instruction is the motivational factor of particularly fun and engaging programs that train phonics/phonemic awareness programs. It was suggested that students may respond better to (and that teachers may be more likely to continue utilizing) those explicit programs that are also fun to use and motivating for both students and teachers. Another feature of both phonic and phonemic awareness programs that has been identified in the research as one that enhances learning is the use of oral kinesthetic cueing. Finally, due to the importance of the ability to rapidly name letter sounds in decoding tasks, leading towards the development of fluent reading skills, strategies that promote quick and accurate access of letter sounds should be further studied.

The Reading with TLC program features the use of powerful mnemonics, combined with oral kinesthetic cueing through the use of embedded pictures and imagery, story telling and hand/body cues. Fluent letter sound production skills are facilitated through the use of mnemonics. In addition, accuracy and fluency at the sound and word level are also trained using unique strategies that prevent naming errors and that facilitate accurate responses on the first production attempt, thereby eliminating error patterns and eventually leading to quicker naming response time. The Reading with TLC program also features the use of fun and engaging letter characters in the activities and materials. For these reasons, our program, which has already been shown to yield consistently positive results in pilot studies, would offer researchers a unique opportunity to further investigate specific instructional components, identified by the NRP and in the literature as promising instructional features and areas of further study. Researchers interested in conducting studies of the Reading with TLC programs, or components of them, are invited to contact the authors for more information at ntelian@aol.com.

Research References

Adams, M. J. Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print. Cambridge, MA: MIT. 1990.

Chall, J. Learning to Read: The Great Debate (third edition). New York: McGraw-Hill. 1996.

Hohn, W. and L. Ehri. Do Alphabet Letters Help Pre-Readers Acquire Phonemic Segmentation Skills? Journal of Educational Psychology , 75, 754 – 762. 1983.

Kamhi, A. and H. Catts. Reading Disabilities: A Developmental Language. Boston / Toronto: Little, Brown, and Company. 1989.

Mastropieri, M. and T. Scruggs. Teaching Students Ways to Remember: Strategies for Learning Mnemonically. Cambridge: Brookline Books. 1991.

National Reading Panel. Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence –based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH Pub. No. 00-4754. 2000.

Snow C. E., M. S. Burns, and P. Griggin. Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Washington, D. C. : National Academy Press. 1998.

Wood, E. F. B, L. Flowers, and E. Grigorenko. On the Functional Neuroanatomy of Fluency or Why Walking is Just as Important to Reading as Talking Is. In M. Wolf (ed.) Dyslexia, Fluency, and the Brain. Timonium, MD: York Press. 2001.

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