Linguistic phonics makes the relatively complex English alphabetic system simple. The approach teaches from sound to print: in other words, it starts from what all children learn naturally – the sounds of their own language. This is what cognitive psychologists call biologically primary knowledge. John Sweller, Professor Emeritus at the University of New South Wales,… Continue reading Learning to read: primary and secondary knowledge

This post is the first of four where I share with you the presentation I gave at the recent ResearchEd conference in Auckland, New Zealand. I spoke about what research in cognitive architecture has to offer phonics instruction. But before I tackle that, let me start by explaining what writing is about, as that underpins… Continue reading The roots of writing