I write extensively about education and literacy. That's the reason I signed up on this forum. I thought I might be able to help some parents. (Most local papers refuse to touch the subject.)

 Here is all I've got to say in a few words. Children have to learn the alphabet, then the sounds, then the blends, then they will be reading. This is called phonics.

But there are many public schools which insist on sending home lists of sight-words to be memorized. This will be fatal to fluency. Intervene as soon as possible so that your children don't get into the habit of trying to identify words visually from memory.

 English words must be processed left to right, relentlessly, a letter or syllable  at a time. Whole Word readers develop the dead-end habit of examining words the way we examine a car or a face. Once the eyes start to skip forward and backward, up and down, the child will never be a good reader. And the school will tell you, untruthfully, that your child has dyslexia.

Here is an article on American Thinker about reading in general: http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/06/reading_the_con_continues.html

Bruce Deitrick Price

Improve-Education.org

#54 on this site is called "Preemptive Reading" and is intended to help parents start the reading process before schools can mess up their children.

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