Children who are read to have better success in school. That is a generally accepted fact. So, when do you begin reading to a child? Well, try this: Find a baby. Make yourself comfortable on the sofa, prop up your legs, then prop the baby on your legs. Then, read a good beginning reading book to the baby. One of the rhyming story books is excellent, full of colorful and engaging illustrations. Read a page of the story, then show Baby the pictures. Talk about the images with Baby. Then, read the next page. Continue as long as you have Baby's attention.

This activity teaches Baby the sounds of words. Reading a book expands Baby's world of ideas and language. Looking at the pictures and talking about them with Baby teaches turn-taking skills. The pictures help develop Baby's imagination. By seeing and touching the book and its pages, Baby begins learning about the fun of words and books.

When you are sure you have Baby's attention for books, read Baby a cloth storybook. Follow the same procedures. Then, give Baby the book to take with her/him wherever he/she goes. Later, Baby will enjoy being given little board-baby books to read.

When Baby gets older and would rather crawl around and explore than be held and read to, make sure that Baby's books are easy to find during exploration. Teach Baby that books are not balls and are not made for throwing. Otherwise, explore them. This may be when Baby can see you read something while Baby plays. Then, when Baby gets tired from crawling, standing, running, exploring, and throwing balls, pick up Baby, hold Baby closely in your lap, and once again read to Baby. You are helping Baby learn to Love Reading.

Recent research using fMRI reveals differences in brain functioning between some pre-readers with a family history of dyslexia and pre-readers with no such family history. Two groups of children, average age of 5 1/2, matched for age, sex, and IQ, consisted of 36 at-risk pre-schoolers and 18 preschoolers with no known risk. Compared with the control group, some children at risk for dyslexia showed reduced activity in the brain's occipitotemporal and left temporoparietal regions. This is similar to older children and adults with dyslexia. High activations in these regions--in both the at-risk and control groups--correlated with better performance on tasks that predict reading ability, such as rhyming, knowing letters and letter sounds, and separating sounds within a word.

Early diagnostic markers could enable a child to receive early interventions to head off difficulties and frustration in school, say investigators Nora Raschle, PhD, and Nadine Gaab, PhD, researchers from the Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience at Boston Children's Hospital (PNAS, January 23). Developmental dyslexia, which affects 5 to 17 percent of children, has a strong familial component. Up to half of all children with a positive family history will have dyslexia themselves. This study reveals differences in brain activity even before children begin reading instruction.

Drs. Gabb and Raschle are conducting further research to see if the fMRI observations correlate with diagnosed dyslexia and EEG results.

Article: Research: Spotting Dyslexia In Pre-readers, Boston Children's Hospital http://www.childrenshospital.org/views/april12/spotting_dyslexia.html

Further details and pictures can be found at the address above.

Recent research shows that students frequently involved with texting are losing formal writing skills. So, how do teachers/parents help students improve their skills? It is important to help students learn to read and enjoy well-written stories and texts. It is also important that the teacher/parent insist on correct spelling and grammar in all written classwork.

Use The Sounds Of Words to help struggling learners develop reading, spelling, and writing skills. Encourage learners to enjoy reading and practice skills frequently. Then, help students learn to spell words correctly and to write using correct grammar. Notify students that texting language is informal writing and that all classwork should be formal. Then, remind them whenever they stray from the standard, and expect them to make appropriate corrections.

As the student develops reading skills, spelling and writing skills improve.

Once upon a time, a little first-grade boy had given up on reading. He came to class each day very reluctantly and wasted his time during reading class, moving about the room and exploring things. When he came to his desk and was handed a book to read, he threw it to the floor. When the teacher picked it up and placed it on his desk, he brushed it onto the floor. When the teacher picked up the book, opened it, and sat down next to the little boy to read it with him, he turned away. He had been unable to learn to read during the past year, so he had just given up on reading.

The teacher decided to leave his desk bookless and began to teach spelling to the group, using The Sounds Of Words. The little boy refused to look at the blackboard or attempt any words. But he sat in his seat, and he heard the lesson. Several days went by. Then, one day, the little boy watched and listened as the teacher helped the students decode and practice their spelling words. Then, he decided to attempt a word. The teacher helped him decode that word. The next time the teacher put the book on the student's desk, he left it there. Finally, he opened the book and began looking at it. At that point, the teacher started teaching him the information in the book. When he realized that he learned when taught with the universal word, explicit teaching, concrete, multi-sensory, applied phonics, and reading intervention, he slowly began reading, writing, and spelling words.

After a few years, the once little boy left that classroom and went to another school. The teacher hoped he was doing well. Years passed. Then, one day, the boy's mother met the teacher while shopping. "I just want to thank you so much for helping J," she said. "You taught him to read, and he graduated from high school this year!" More years passed. Then the teacher saw the mother again while shopping. "How is J doing?" asked the teacher. "Just fine," his mother replied. "He has a good job, is married, and has two children."

Hearing all that made the teacher's heart glad. She knew she had helped that little boy!

Recently, I was asked why I insist on teaching phonics to students who are having difficulty learning it. My answer is that I am providing the least restrictive environment (lre) for reading students. Experts in special education have proven that lre is best for these learners because it allows them to learn as normally as possible. So, lre is always set as a goal.

Brain science has confirmed that natural readers decode all novel words according to their vocabulary. They may follow all the decoding steps, such as sounding each letter, dividing each syllable, sounding the word, etc. Or they may decode by comparing the novel word to (an) another word (s) already stored in their recognition/comprehension center. They may use context to help them figure out the word. Yet, one way or another, all novel words are decoded, and phonics plays a role. Thus, decoding and phonics are essential to lre.

The Sounds of Words is a universal word, explicit teaching, concrete, multi-sensory, applied phonics, and reading intervention. It is a method that directly teaches decoding and phonics skills to students who are having difficulty learning phonics. So, whenever the teacher/parent uses The Sounds of Words to teach decoding and phonics skills, the parent/teacher is meeting the goal of the least restrictive environment.

Today, I helped a learner planning to sing a self-selected country song for a talent show this fall. He has listened to the music on the radio and already knows some of the words. He enjoys singing along with the parts of the lyrics he has learned. Since he wants to sing that song in the talent show, he must know all the words. So, this morning, I helped him decode, say, and type all the lyrics. He enjoys the song and will enjoy singing it in the show.

Because every word is concretely and multi-sensorily decodable, and because The Sounds of Words applies phonics, B is now able to learn to read every word of the lyrics. Because he is able to read every word, he is able to learn to sing every word of the song. He will eventually commit each word to memory, and then he will sing the entire song in the show.

Two years ago, B was not well-versed in the sounds of words. He sang along with a song in that year's talent show but had not memorized some of the words. He was unable to sing all the lyrics. He had difficulty with consistent focus. Now, practicing The Sounds Of Words, he has learned to focus on the words he needs to learn, to decode and read them. He will enjoy singing all the lyrics of this year's song!

Readers are writers, and writers are readers. Natural readers enjoy reading widely, often at an early age. They comprehend the words and the text, commit words to automatic recognition, and use the comprehension/recognition area to figure out words in context as they read. As they read increasingly more well-written texts, they learn the principles of English grammar. Thus they are able to comprehend and write well themselves.

The Sounds Of Words is a universal word, explicit teaching, concrete, multi-sensory, applied phonics, reading intervention. So, when struggling learners attempt to read widely, the strategy is available to help them be able to do so. Any unknown word is explicitly, concretely, and multi-sensorily decodable, for the text they are reading. And as they continue to read widely, they are able to use the same process as that of the natural reader.

So, in order to understand and learn the irregularities of English words and grammar, students should read widely. Then when taught grammar and spelling, they will have the foundation to learn and practice good writing. Increasing wide reading and writing practice will lead to good writing skills.

Struggling readers desire to communicate with their friends on social media, read, and post messages about their interests. The Sounds of Words strategy is helpful here since it is a universal word, explicit teaching, concrete, multi-sensory, and applied phonics. The parent/ teacher can choose any portion of social media text of interest and teach the student to read, discuss, and respond to it.

Teach the student to decode and read any word(s) that the student needs to know to read the text. Use the same strategy to teach the student how to spell and write words correctly so that the student can respond with her/his own idea(s) about the subject. The student is improving comprehension of written text and writing text while engaging in the social media that he/she enjoys!

Additionally, the student is adding to the words for reading, spelling, and writing stored in the comprehension/memory area of the brain!

Citizens of the world are interested in learning the English language. English-speaking countries generally value democracy and free enterprise. Because of this, freedom and innovation are products of those countries. English has become an important language of diplomacy and commerce. World citizens are interested in living and working in those countries, and they want to be able to speak the language.

The Sounds Of Words is helpful here. The book provides information and example words for the spelling and pronunciation of the vowel-consonant patterns for the 600 most frequently used words in the English language. It also has words to illustrate the variety of consonant sounds. It shows how to use the universal word, explicit teaching, concrete, multi-sensory, applied phonics, and reading intervention.

In addition, because the vowel-consonant patterns and consonant sounds are illustrated, specific comparisons can be made between the pronunciation of the letters of the learner's first language and the English sounds of the letters. So, world citizens can learn to speak more like a native English speaker.

Using The Sounds of Words, learners can increase their proficiency in reading, spelling, writing, and speaking English!

Many struggling learners of English have difficulty with phonemic awareness. They do not hear the sounds of words clearly enough to comprehend rhyming words and poetry. Jokes that involve puns, plays on words, are not funny to them. Although they participate in phonemic awareness pre-reading activities, they continue to struggle with the sounds of words.

The Sounds Of Words applied phonics reading intervention provides the opportunity for struggling learners to comprehend and master phonemic awareness and phonics. The process of listening to the usual sounds of the letters of a word, saying those sounds, writing those sounds, concretely and multi-sensorily decoding the word to read the sound spelling, and finally reading the written word, gives opportunities for the learner to find success with phonemic awareness and phonics.

Then, once the student is able to read the word, she/he is able to utilize automatic recognition and comprehension whenever reading that word, as well as using the information for decoding and comprehension of other words.

Today is a bright, blue sky autumn day in Southside, Virginia. The leaves of the trees are losing their green and are glowing with reds, oranges, purples, yellows, golds, and browns. Halloween decorations add the colors black and white. The Sounds Of Words helps the struggling reader learn to read, spell, and write color words. While learning those words, the reader practices many frequently used vowel and consonant sounds. The student also has the opportunity to note and practice tricky and less frequently used sounds.

"Red" is the most straightforward word to read, spell, and write. "Blue," "green," "black," and "white" are decodable using the usual rules. "Gold" is tricky because the "o" sound is different from the usual vowel-consonant sound for "o." "Yellow" is tricky because of both the "el" sound and the "ow." "Brown" presents the "ow" as yet another sound. The "ur" and "le" sounds in "purple" create tricks. Finally, the pronunciation of the word "orange" tricks the reader with its "or", "an", and "ge". In other words, the whole pronunciation of "orange" is tricky!

However, when the struggling reader is helped to use the universal word, explicit teaching, concrete, multi-sensory, applied phonics, Sounds Of Words, and reading intervention, the tricks are decoded. The words make sense, and the student comprehends words that describe the colors of autumn!

My reading students chose to participate in their annual talent show recently. They chose to sing along with songs they liked. Once they selected a song, I copied the lyrics for them. Then we used The Sounds Of Words to read and learn the lyrics. After learning all of the words to the song, they learned to sing each word as we played the selection. When they became comfortable singing along with the selection, they added costume and movement.

The students selected a variety of songs and styles of music. They worked hard to read and memorize the words correctly, and to learn to sing along with the melody. One student even chose to learn to use sign language to "sing" the words to one song. All of them practiced and learned to sing along with "God Bless The USA" for the finale.

The night of their performance the students said they were nervous. However, when each one stepped onto the stage, the practice and learning was evident. They sang along with the selections, correctly hitting every word, every note. The audience of parents, support professionals, team leaders, and directors thoroughly enjoyed each individual performance at the annual talent show!

P has been reading, spelling, and writing Level One words well. Level One words include the most frequently used words in speech and writing. P had mastered the words in the controlled text she had completed. Whenever she was present for the group lesson, she would help me lead the group, reading poems and song lyrics with me, singing, and answering my questions. She had also been bringing Bible verses for me to help her learn and was beginning to be successful at reading many of those words.

P was very interested in the stories of the Bible, so she chose a student Bible as her next book to learn to read. The stories were short and used primarily Level One vocabulary. However, the sentences were more complicated, and each story included some instances of higher-level words as well. So, as P read through the book, she would have many opportunities to increase her reading skills using The Sounds of Words.

P has been enjoying reading the stories in the student Bible and adding many words to her vocabulary. She is continuing to read through the Bible. Recently, she asked me if I would get another copy for her to keep and read. So, she will now have her own student Bible, and she will learn to pronounce and comprehend every word of each story in her Bible!

P and I had a two-month break from reading lessons.  Then, we had the opportunity to read together again.  She chose a little book and began reading it aloud to me.  I helped her with some of the words she had difficulty with.  However, she correctly pronounced most of the words and read entirely through the book!  She was so happy and so excited to be able to read that little book! I was delighted to learn that she remembered all the words she had previously learned using The Sounds Of Words!

I re-posted a challenging text to my Facebook page, so that my Friends could try to read it.  The text was composed of scrambled words, where the first and last letters were the only letters in the correct place.  I received this comment from one of my former students:  "Wow!  I read it with ease!  Thanks to you, Mrs. Landoll, I developed a true romance with the English language.  Thank you!"  T was another reading student who benefited from using The Sounds Of Words to make sound sense of English words!