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Summary: A Method to help every child or adult learn to read.
Review: As a mother of 5 with 2 children who have struggled to learn to read, I have been pleased with the help I have found in Reading Reflex. For those of you who have children who have difficulty reading this is the book and method for you. Before finding Reading Reflex I researched many other reading methods and never was able to find any answers as to why some children can learn to read with relative ease and why others struggled so. This book answered those questions by explaining what skills a child needs to be a successful reader. Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness have done the research to develop a way to help make sense of the English code so that parents can assist their children to learn to read. It is well written and gives all the materials anyone would need to help individuals become confident, fluent readers. It is also a great resource for teachers.
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Summary: A Preschool Teacher has a different view....
Review: Despite some five-star reviews, I do not think this book is good for reading.While this book does have a method which could help children to read, the philosophy for it is flawed. There is much misinformation. The book talks about the "failure" of Phonics and Whole Language in teaching schoolchildren how to read. That is just plain wrong. Phonics ONLY instruction produced children who could read but not understand what they read. But phonics must be a part of effective instruction in reading. Part, not all. Whole Language instruction did produce excellent when it was used properly; with all of the components used according to the model. But many times a "whole language" program did not fully follow the model and so children could not read well. Whole Language died a political death but an effective systems, a "Comprehensive Literacy Program," does work. If your school system uses it you'd be better asking your child's teacher for things to do at home to help your child rather than buying this book.
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Summary: It works!
Review: I am in the process of using this method with my child who is in the first grade. We have completed the first three chapters and my child is making real progress--the improvement is amazing. The methods layed out in this book and the reasons behind them make sense to me. I strongly reccommend reading through at least chapters 1 through 3 before starting any of the lessons. I also went to the readamerica.net website and bought the lessons that go with the book so that I didn't have to cut them out of my book. I also bought a wipe-off board and dry erase markers which makes the word mapping a snap. I think it's a good idea to buy some stickers to reward your child's efforts. At first, I was a little confused about the order of the lessons, but I hadn't read through them completely. That is why it is so important to read before you do. It is also helpful to highlight and bookmark important points about the "how to" information. I write these points on notes to refer to while teaching the lesson. But, after awhile, you get the hang of it and it is very easy to do the lessons. My child looks forward to doing the lessons with me. It doesn't feel like "work" and my child is gaining self-confidence while learning how to read! I agree with some of the other comments about the stories being dull, but they are intended to reinforce the lessons that have been learned. The lessons enable your child to read the books they enjoy, and that is what is important to me. I am a single parent with a full-time job and do not find this to be difficult to do or too time consuming. I am very pleased so far and feel that this method works.
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Summary: Nothing New in this Book
Review: I bought this book largely on the strength of the glowing reviews it received at Amazon, so I'd like to add my comments so other potential purchasers don't get the wrong impression about the book. There is nothing new here, except the lingo developed by the authors to make you think they have developed a revolutionary approach to teaching reading. All they've done is take the old phonics --which I recognize is "new" to a lot of people who are only familiar with the "look-say" method of teaching reading -- and given it new vocabulary, e.g. "phono-graphix" (read "phonetic"), "sound picture" (read "phoneme"), "auditory processing" (read "reading" or "sounding out") and my personal favorite, "mapping", which simply means "writing". Besides the unnecessary and confusing renaming of standard phonics terms, the book includes some very unfortunate errors which got me to wondering exactly what the "decades" of research behind this book actually meant. One of the most glaring problems lies in the word list for the "sound picture | ", which includes "thug, "with", "bath" and "math" interspersed with "the", "then", and "that". Is it possible that the authors don't recognized that the | in "bath" is pronounced differently than the | in "the"? There was no explanation to the parent/teacher nor to the student as to the differences in these phonemes, nor when one or the other is used. As my six year-old began to read this word list with all the same | sound, I found myself backpedalling in my instructions, saying, "Oops! Sometimes | is pronounced this way and sometimes it is pronounced another way!" I felt his confused eyes upon me as he tried to figure out how to guess which way it should be pronounced for each word on the list. In the same vein, there was no explanation as to when a final "s" should be pronounced "ss" ("yes") and when it should have the "z" sound ("as"). In a list of so-called "made-up" words (some of which were made-up --"glot", "bot"-- and some of which were not --"sot", "got") appeared the word "tis", which my child proceeded happily to pronounce "tiss", and frankly, I didn't know if I should correct him or not! Obviously, if the word is a "made-up" word, there is no way to tell how to pronounce it. On the other hand, if you read the word as a "real" word (which it is: "'tis the season to be jolly") then the correct pronunciation becomes clear. In the end, I corrected him. I found the games difficult to use: cutting out all those little letters, of which there were often two or three times more than you needed, got old, and they kept sliding out of the envelopes in storage. Plus, you couldn't always tell one letter from another: "n" upsidedown looks like "u", "d" upsidedown becomes "p", etc. Finally, the strictly phonetic stories are so very stupid as to be nonsensical, and actually hindered my child from being able to read them. The pictures (also very stupid) were necessary in making any sense at all out of the stories, and once you start to teach a child to depend on the illustrations to figure out the meaning of the words, you are on the road to producing a bad reader. Believe it or not, I am not saying you should not buy this book. I am glad that it has helped some parents,teachers and students. And who knows, it might be just the thing for you. But the Explode the Code series by Educator's Publishing Service is probably better, as are any number of phonics-based programs, and I would recommend Why Johnny Can't Read by Flesch as the most useful, understandable review of phonics, with progressive word lists which will get most students reading quickly. This is the old standby I used to teach my first child to read, and I think I made a mistake in ever trying the "new" approach.
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Summary: An excellent book for teacher reading AND SPELLING
Review: I discovered Phono-Graphix through Reading Reflex and have sense then become certified in the method. I use it with my students at school and work with private clients as well. I love the program and feel it is the best possible way to teach a child to read and spell. I disagree with the reviewer who says that Diane McGuinness's Allographs is a good supplement to Reading Reflex. My students found it very confusing and I feel it goes against the principles set out in Reading Reflex. The best supplement to Reading Reflex is the 'parenTeacher Magazine', a free publication written by the authors of Reading Reflex - Carmen & Geoffrey McGuinness. I also recommend frequent doses of the website readamerica.com where you can get advise on how to help your child or students in your class from the authors and from other parents and teachers. Tiffany, Alabama teacher
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