[senco-forum] Re: Reading, Literacy and the implications

Graeme.

My comment to which you take issue: 'Those innately less well equipped to assimilate the sound/symbol relationships intuitively can quite readily acquire decoding fluency through concentrated practice exercises dedicated specifically to these sound/symbol relationships.(synthetic phonics) 
You say that you would substitute (Whole Word) for my (synthetic phonics) - I couldn't go along with that.  I should have perhaps said  'THE VAST MAJORITY of those innately less well equipped to assimilate  etc etc "
Whole Word recognition is an inevitable, inextricable and valuable part of the way that all children begin the reading-learning process.  Whole word recognition is even part of the synthetic phonics approach although most SP fundamentalists would rather die than concede this. Some Whole Word assimilation is both inevitable and desirable.  The problem with Whole Word as an exclusive teaching strategy is the fact that our capacity to remember 'whole words' as discrete visual constructs' is limited to a number, well short of the minimum vocabulary required for anyone to become a competent reader.

I think what Ruth has described so vividly, are the complex personal disasters that are created in the teenage years if reading difficulties are not resolved in infancy when resolution is easier, less expensive, more socially responsible and hence, much more logical.  We could achieve that now!

Eddie C. 