Teach your dyslexic child to read - Phonics vs Whole word

How do we read unfamiliar words?

In English, fluent reading requires both phonics and rote memorization of high-frequency words. Phonics helps us decode unfamiliar words that follow phonetic patterns. However, many English words are not phonetic, so we must memorize them.

This is why debates over which single method to use when teaching children to read English make little sense. We should use every useful tool available.

Teaching reading without phonics reduces an alphabetic language to something more like a pictorial one from ancient times. Alphabets were invented precisely to make reading simpler and to allow us to figure out unfamiliar words.

Phonetic rules enable students to sound out many words, yet some still need to be rote memorised because they follow no simple rules—for example, cough, bough, and dough.

Adult readers rarely need to sound out new words because they have already memorized most of them by sight. Still, strong phonetic skills remain valuable for beginning readers who must “sound out” words.

Therefore, when learning to read English, use both phonics and rote memorization of high-frequency words (HFWs), as introduced from the first lesson. A competent reader uses both methods every day: sight-reading most familiar words and applying phonics to unfamiliar ones.

Try reading this sentence and notice which method you use:

Mr. Ramasamy wanted to buy some coconolanum and chandirum for his wife.

You probably did not recognize three of the words, yet you read them using phonics. “Ramasamy” is an Indian name, while “coconolanum” and “chandirum” are invented words used only to make a point.

If you read those three unfamiliar words several times (and if they actually meant something), they would become familiar and you would begin reading them as sight words—just as you already do with most of the words in this text.

In the same way, a proficient reader has phonetic strategies for decoding new words and enough reading experience to recognize most words by sight.

In short: Use both phonics and memorization of high-frequency (Dolch) words. Apply phonics to words that can be sounded out phonetically, and treat common but irregular words—with, there, and the other Dolch words—as sight words.

 

For lesson 27 click here: