The findings were seized on by the Conservatives in Westminster, whowant to extend the use of synthetic phonics, as they unveiled proposalsfor all six-year-olds in the UK to sit a national reading test.
A series of investigations involving over 60,000 pupils, including allof West Dunbartonshire's 23 nurseries and 35 primary schools, found thatthe level of pupils leaving secondary school without basic readingskills has fallen from 20 per cent to virtually zero since the studybegun in 1997.
The study's author, consultant psychologist Dr Tommy MacKay, said, 'Inthe nurseries, children were given constant exposure to literacy throughnaming, labels and books. They were inculcated in the relationshipbetween the printed and spoken word.'
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