Mar 2, 2017 | DM News Blog
DM News Blog Latest news in literacy, child development, and all things DM Ed Get a 10-Lesson Easyread TrialRead Our Backstory...Archives October 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July...
Apr 21, 2016 | DM Case Studies, DM News Blog, Parent Reviews
Sapphi was struggling at school because she just didn’t get on with the traditional method of teaching phonics at all. From a struggling 5 year-old who took great pains to sound out every word on a page, only to forget the word on the next page, to reading (and...
Mar 30, 2016 | DM News Blog
“Many of these children are bright and have compensated up to this point by memorizing words, but have never learned to read fast enough to comprehend what they’re reading. Understanding that these developments are nothing more than brain differences that can be...
Mar 21, 2016 | DM News Blog, Parent Reviews
“I have to say I am amazed how fast she can read through the “text” with the decoding pictures only…I am so impressed. She got me today, she sounded out the word “tongue” and I said no way that’s not right. Yup as usual I was...
Dec 2, 2015 | DM Case Studies, DM News Blog
Mark enrolled on the Easyread programme at the age of 11. A difficulty in understanding phonics meant that both his reading and spelling were affected. Mark would often miss words out and replace them with substitute words. For example, “in” or “the” would often...
Jan 8, 2015 | DM News Blog
A new report by the vice-chancellor of one of Australia’s leading universities – the University of Sydney – has recommended an overhaul of how teachers are trained to teach reading. He points out the lack of emphasis on phonics. Many teaching...
Aug 14, 2014 | DM News Blog
While the sun is out and the weather warm (or mostly warm, if you live in Britain like we do!), get into the great outdoors and practice… phonics. Yes, phonics! The wonderful blog, Living Montessori Now, has 20 fantastic suggestions for building phonemic...
Jul 18, 2014 | DM News Blog
Gordon Askew has written this open letter to the new Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, pleading with her to maintain the current phonics push in primary schools: http://ssphonix.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/an-urgent-message-for-nicky-morgan.html The danger that Gordon...
Jul 24, 2013 | DM News Blog
The kids are jumping up and down. The whole family is about to leave on vacation. Maybe you are flying to a famous amusement park. Perhaps you are driving several hours or days to visit with Grandma and Grandpa. You can make the trip more fun, AND educational as well,...
May 8, 2013 | Child Reviews, DM Case Studies, DM News Blog, Parent Reviews
Closing the literacy gap: how artistic Alice’s reading went from stop to go, go, go! The Problem Alice loved stories. From a very young age, mum and daughter started the routine of sitting down together each evening to devour a bedtime story. Katherine, Alice’s...
Feb 7, 2013 | DM News Blog
Soon my first book, Helping Children Learn to Read Through Multi-Sensory Reading Activities – A Handbook and Resource for Parents and Teachers, will be published. Since this week marks the Fifth Annual Celebration of Literacy week, I want to share a...
Jan 24, 2013 | Child Reviews, DM Case Studies, DM News Blog, Parent Reviews
Easyread was as much of an education for primary school teacher Christine as it was for her daughter… The Problem Phonics was a walk in the park for Catherine at age 5. She was in the top half of her class and had an all-round superb first year at school. However,...
Feb 8, 2012 | DM News Blog
The government have been testing a check on the progress 6-year-olds have made with their phonic understanding. We are in total support of the principle behind this test. The sooner that a teacher/parent team sees that a child is heading down a sight-reading path...
Feb 6, 2012 | DM News Blog
There are a few simple games that will guide your child down the path to becoming a confident and happy reader when he or she is first learning to read. We regularly come across very bright children who are really struggling with their reading, but only because they...
Sep 16, 2011 | DM News Blog
Here is an article about the new tests being introduced: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14930193 We are generally in favour of this direction because it is essential that children develop a decoding and blending ability. However, the difficulty still comes when...
Jul 10, 2009 | DM News Blog
Sir Jim Rose has reported his findings on dyslexia. What he says makes great sense. He makes 19 recommendations, but his two main points are first that dyslexia is related to reading difficulty and should not be expanded into other areas. Here is his definition:...
Nov 26, 2008 | DM News Blog
Day by day one begins to see more Real Books and Whole Language articles.  Here is another: Phonics or Whole Language Debate As phonics fails to deliver the target of full literacy again, one can feel the pendulum beginning to creak into motion. The truth is that...
Nov 25, 2008 | DM News Blog
We are indeed very pleased with Paul’s progress, (as are his tutors), we have seen a real leap in his skills and confidence. However, Paul is educated outside of the school system ,as we were frankly dismayed at what was on offer in our area for those who did...
Oct 23, 2008 | DM News Blog
Here is another article describing the decline in literacy standards in Australia, despite the budget being tripled over recent years: Literacy Skills Shock for New South Wales Public Schools More evidence that just throwing money at this issue is not the answer....
Oct 3, 2008 | DM News Blog
Here is an interesting post about the influence of genes on dyslexia: Faulty Gene “is the link to dyslexia” Of course, I think this view of the world misses the point really. We know that our genes have a big influence on these things.  So to find an...
