Assessing reading development through systematic synthetic phonics

Differing effects of two synthetic phonics programmes on early reading development.

BACKGROUND Synthetic phonics is the widely accepted approach for teaching reading in English: Children are taught to sound out the letters in a word then blend these sounds together. AIMS We compared the impact of two synthetic phonics programmes on early reading. SAMPLE Children received Letters and Sounds (L&S; 7 schools) which teaches multiple letter-sound mappings or Early Reading Resea...

Synthetic phonics and the teaching of reading: the debate surrounding England’s ‘Rose Report’

The Rose Report, commissioned by the Secretary of State for Education for England, recommended in March 2006 that early reading instruction must include synthetic phonics. This paper evaluates the extent to which research evidence supports this recommendation. In particular, a review of international research into the teaching of early reading shows that the Rose Report’s main recommendation on...

Phonics Based Reading Interventions for Students with Intellectual Disability: A Systematic Literature Review

Teachers require interventions for students with intellectual disability (ID) that are simple, efficient, and can be implemented in the classroom versus interventions requiring isolation. The purpose of this review was to update the prior review by Joseph & Seery (2004) and to serve as a resource for parents, practitioners and researchers interested in the reading education of students with ID....

Synthetic Phonics and Learning to Read: A Cross-language Perspective

Arguments about how to teach initial reading are once more in the news. Proponents of “synthetic phonics” argue that there is only one effective way to teach a child to read. In this anniversary issue, it is worth taking a step back from the polarisation of the “synthetic” versus “analytic” phonics debate, to consider the evidence base for reading acquisition across languages. Most children wil...

Assessing Reading