Part 3: The Grail Contaminated – Why Clarity Still Fails Some Children

 

In Part 2, I explained that clarity in instruction—the correct sounds of letters, taught step by step—is the Grail. It prevents confusion and keeps children from shutting down. But even with clarity, some children still struggle. Why?

 

Because the human mind is like the human egg. Once an idea has entered, it is difficult for a new one to penetrate. This is especially true for curious, intelligent children. They absorb early input eagerly, and when that input is wrong, it embeds itself deeply. Later correction often bounces off. These are the very children who shut down—not because they lack ability, but because their early learning was contaminated.

 

Early Contamination: Baby TV and YouTube

For years I have written about Baby TV and other children’s programmes that teach distorted sounds of letters. Charlie and the Alphabet, produced in the UK, has been viewed more than 70 million times and has over 20 million subscribers. That means millions of children worldwide are being taught the wrong sounds before they even enter school.

 

Teachers may later deliver Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) correctly. But what about the initial input already embedded in the child’s mind? Thorndike (1913) hypothesized that the degree of transfer between initial and later learning depends upon the match between what was learned first and what comes later. If the match is poor, transfer fails. That is exactly what happens here: early contamination blocks later clarity.

 

Institutional Avoidance

I raised this issue with the Reading Reform Foundation (RRF) in the UK. My emails to Debbie Hepplewhite explained that Baby TV was undermining SSP. Sue Lloyd admitted the sounds in the programme “are not that great.” Yet nothing was done. The programme continues to air in more than 100 countries.

 

When I tweeted about this, Geraldine Carter of RRF replied that there are “thousands of requests” and suggested I write my own programme. But the RRF itself claims to be “dedicated to campaigning for better teaching of reading in the English language.” If they ignore evidence of contamination at the very foundation, who is to be blamed for the poor performance of children in the UK?

 

The Fuss Over Dolch Words

Another misplaced debate is over Dolch words. Phonics advocates argue that most of these 220 words can be decoded phonetically, so memorization is unnecessary. But memorizing them is not harmful—it is a bridge to fluency. Chinese children memorize 600 characters per year for six years. By contrast, English children are asked to memorize only 220 words in total. The fuss is misplaced. The real harm is denying children usable language early, when their curiosity is strongest.

 

In my book Teach Your Child to Read, I introduce eight Dolch words per lesson. Children can read sentences from day one. This balance—decoding plus functional sight words—gives them confidence and meaning immediately. Rote memorization here is not passive visual memorization; it is active recall and reinforcement.

 

Context Matters Too

Some educators dismiss context clues as irrelevant to reading. I believe that is misguided. We use context clues constantly—not only for comprehension, but for pronunciation itself. Consider heteronyms like lead (to guide) and lead (the metal). Without context, the reader cannot know which sound to use. Or take words we have heard spoken but rarely seen in print—island is a perfect example. Children pronounce it correctly because they have heard it, not because phonics alone explains it.

 

This is why, in my book, I teach children to use all the tools available: phonics, decoding, memorization, and context. Together, they form a complete reading toolkit. To deny context clues is to deny reality—reading is not a single skill, but a layered process of recognition, recall, and meaning.

 

The Cost of Contamination

Early Childhood Education lays the foundation for all that is to come. If children start off behind, they spend years playing catch‑up. Many are wrongly placed in Special Education. The tragedy is not that clarity is unavailable—it is that clarity is drowned out by noise, embedded too early to be undone.

 

This is why, despite SSP being taught in the UK, many children are still unable to read. The Grail is clarity, but the Grail has been contaminated. And the most curious, intelligent minds—the very ones who could have become the Edisons and Tom Cruises of tomorrow—are the ones most likely to shut down.

 

Closing

In the next part of this series, I will shift from exposing systemic silence to offering a practical response: a clear, accessible path for parents and educators through my book, Teach Your Child to Read. Where institutions resist, this resource empowers—turning avoidance into action, and giving every child the chance to master the foundations of literacy.