Diane McGuinness · Early Reading Instruction · linguistic phonics · visual phonics

Graphemes and phonemes, or how NOT to teach reading and spelling

Although I’ve written about the differences between linguistic and traditional (graphemic) phonics a number of times to date, I’m often being asked for further clarification. This I am more than happy to give because it’s in the detail of what we do at Sounds-Write that makes it so effective. So, how do the two orientations differ from… Continue reading Graphemes and phonemes, or how NOT to teach reading and spelling

Diane McGuinness · linguistic phonics · visual phonics

Sound to print: the appliance of science

‘Phonics,’ wrote Diane McGuinness, in her superb book Early Reading Instruction  ‘is a problematic word.’ Never was there a truer thing said! Why? Because ‘phonics’ is an umbrella term for all kinds of approaches, some good and some fair-to-middling-grim.  According to McGuinness, the ‘classification is unsatisfactory because it does not identify the critical difference in… Continue reading Sound to print: the appliance of science