[senco-forum] Re: literacy

Sharon - Synthetic Phonics is indeed the 'be all and end all' for all children who do not have a specific learning difficulty and that is the vast majority of poor or non-readers. Those with specific learning difficulties such as your children will need specific teaching - no-one disputes that. Your concern has a personal component and is understandable.  If the problems of this vast majority of illiterates were prevented from arising, as it can be, then the available resources could be focused on those with the many and varied specific difficulties which do indeed exist.

The notion of teaching phonics 'because it does no harm' is not logical - it would do no harm to teach all children the 1,000,003 times table or how to play the mouth organ but no-one would suggest that these skills should be taught to every child simply because they does no harm.  Synthetic Phonics should be taught because it does good to all who are to learn to read. 

The issue is only clouded by the fact that about 80% of children would probably learn to read no matter what teaching strategy was used because they can deduce the sound/synthesis relationships from a very small of experience of visually memorised words. I would personally prefer an approach which identified this 20% in the reception year and then grouped them in classes taught by teachers trained in synthetic phonics for the subsequent year but the DfEES have difficulty in coping with simple ideas. 

Eddie C.