[SENco-forum] Re literacy (madness)

SEN at tringham.net wrote: Knowing where and why the ph/gr relationship changes is one of many layers
to de-coding which do not come automatically to all.  
Which is precisely why children should be taught this systematically from the word go!  Of course children do not 'know this automatically'; reading is not a natural act in the same way that learning to speak is.  If children are taught incomplete 'phonics' they will have gaps in their knowledge and struggle with their reading.  They will only learn the 'many layers of decoding' if they are taught them. And children taught by the old NLS methods were not taught them, they were taught a small amount of very basic 'phonics', by teachers who didn't really know anything about it themselves, and left to pick up the rest (or not) for themselves.

Maggie

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