Nursery World - Reading rights and wrongs

By Alan Davies, educational psychologist and author of TeachingTHRASS This month, education secretary Ruth Kelly stated on Sky News, 'We should have a systematic approach to teaching synthetic phonics, that should be taught first and foremost to all children, certainly by the age of five and then, yes, other strategies should come in after that to help and support those readers for whom a variety of methods is appropriate.'

This month, education secretary Ruth Kelly stated on Sky News, 'We should have a systematic approach to teaching synthetic phonics, that should be taught first and foremost to all children, certainly by the age of five and then, yes, other strategies should come in after that to help and support those readers for whom a variety of methods is appropriate.'

I strongly disagree. It is madness to believe that you should start the literacy process by first focusing only on the letters of the alphabet. The best thing parents can do to help their young child to become literate is to put them on their knee and turn over the pages of a favourite book to anticipate the story and the pictures. It is wrong to believe that synthetic phonics is the 'best route to becoming skilled readers', as stated in Jim Rose's review.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included