Comments on: Is Whole Word Reading Bad for Your Child?

By: liz

liz — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:11:55 +0000

just came across this, it’s a very interesting discussion, thank you all. My son has ASD and learning difficulties and he is (I think) gonna do much better with whole word recognision, we have been doing phonics for single sounds and he is getting those (he starts school in Sept) but I think blending is gonna be an issue for him. (his speech is only just starting, altho he has been signing for quite a while.) I understand that whole word recognision is used sucessfully for kids with ASD and also for kids with Downs.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:47:15 +0000

This whole reading concepts are so new to me. I am a 58 years old grandmother. I raised three children and feel I must have missed 10 years of their lives and my own because I honestly cannot remember them learning to read. Maybe its because they had no problems not sure, but now I have a seven year old grandson that I am helping my son (single dad) raise and he is having a hard time in school with reading. I am trying to help him with it. He sounds everything out (phonics). and he is having a difficult time of it. I didnt learn to read that way 50 years ago. We had Dick and Jane. I never had a problem with reading, however I knew kids that did. I am an excellent reader and writer and speller . I am assuming Dick and Jane was the whole word method. I don’t know. A lot of people today, come out of school not being able to spell at all. Perhaps the teachers should be using a combination of methods.

By: Anne

Anne — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 21:11:45 +0000

I was taught in the UK using the whole word method back in the late 70s. I currently have a 6 yr old child who is being taught via Letters and Sounds (DfES Phonics system). Yes he can read proficiently, but his spelling is atrocious. This is a big failing of the Phonics system. The general misconception that the decoding and encoding are fully reversible = they are not. The English language has a plethora of sight words that need to be taught – not phonetically spelled out. I believe that there has to be room for both systems to work concurrently.

By: Alenka

Alenka — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:42:23 +0000

What an experience!!! I couldn’t agree more – different learners need different tools. We just have to try and see what works for our kids the best! I guess, the mix of techniques works quite well for my older one, Sunshine: he remembers a lot of words visually, we read regular books and he is picking up the new, unknown words very fast, but when the word is new he’ll actually break it down into phonetic units (often getting lost some of them along the way)… Yet I am amazed how many words he just figures out by himself!

By: Maeve

Maeve — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 04:43:26 +0000

There are different types of learners and readers. Some are able to sound out words like with phonics, some look at the whole word and others use a combination when learning to read. Myself I could not read completely and fluently until I was 9 years old. My mother who has an advanced degree in educaiton was frustrated because I did not learn to read phenitically like my brother (who was reading at 4 years old). Long story short, At 9 years old I went to a “reading clinic ” at the University, and they told my parents that I read by looking at the whole word…. and I was able to learn to read with the right tools. As my brain matured I was able to “figure out” phonics, but I still basically read the same by looking at the whole word. I read normally and have achieved at a very high level (I have two degrees, BA and an ADN).

My point is that there is not ONLY one right way to learn to read, there are many different types of “learners”. I think most research supports this statement.

(Both my brother and I are horrible at spelling, and we read differently, so I dont know that they have much to do with each other)

By: Alenka

Alenka — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:58:19 +0000

This is a very interesting perspective! Thank you very much for sharing it!!! It must be really frustrating…

I am very curious: do you struggle only with spelling or with other subjects as well? I am very sorry to hear that whole word reading turned out into such a negative experience for you…

On the other hand I have quite a few kids around me, who “figured out” how to read all by themselves and their spelling seems a lot better then kid’s who learned phonetically. My guess, it might depend on what type of learner these kids are: visual learners, probably, are more suited for it.

Yet, there is me – a visual learner, who was taught using phonics as a child… and I am terrible-terrible at spelling, even misreading some words as I go! Go figure…

I’d love to hear about more experiences with it. Please drop a line and all of us can benefit from adult’s perspective after years of learning left behind!

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:42:17 +0000

I disagree with your article. I was taught whole reading as a child and now as an adult find it increasingly difficult to function. If there is a world I have spoken and know the definition of but have never seen it written I am almost unable to sound it out and it can be extremely frustrating. My spelling is atrocious and this is because of whole word reading. To me, growing up, it never seemed to matter the exact spelling as long as I was conveying the right word. This causes me many problems in the work world and often makes me seem dyslexic to others (although I am not). The comments above by reading_is_a_skill mimicked my experience as a child but no one ever stepped in to counteract the way I learned. I quickly went from being hand picked for a gifted class, to middle of the road despite how hard I tried. I only wish my parents had recognized the situation while I was still young enough to alter it. At my age my brain is now hard wired and I can’t seem to overcoming my reading difficulties no matter how hard I try.

By: Alenka

Alenka — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:21:29 +0000

Absolutely fascinating! Thanks for sharing!!

By: Kevin O'Neill

Kevin O'Neill — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:46:06 +0000

I teach English to Japanese students in Japan. I’ve been doing so for over 16 years and the fact is Japanese need phonics to learn to read English. My students come an average only once a week for a 50 minute English class. It is phonics which has enabled them to read in less than 2 years time. Unlike native English speakers, Japanese kids don’t hear or see English words everyday. In addition, because the Japanese language has been romanized, Japanese kids will not decipher English correctly without proper phonetic training.
For those who haven’t been taught phonics they will read this sentence (Do you want to eat a hamburger?) as
Doe yoh-oo wantu toe eato ah hambaga? or something like that. Japanese is closer to perfection phonetically than is English and when Japanese see English they naturally try to read it according to how romanized words appear in their language. The only way to teach them to properly read English is through a phonics system that distinguishes how English must sound when it is read or spoken.