Personalised reading recovery boosts skills
A scheme giving 30 minutes a week of individual tuition to six-year-olds struggling to learn to read has succeeded in improving children's reading age by nearly two years.
The three-year, £10m Every Child A Reader programme involved 5,000 children in 31 local authorities in England and is being extended to all primary schools in the country.
An evaluation by the Institute of Education found that on average the six-year-olds who took part moved from a reading age of four years ten months to six years seven months after 41 hours of one-to-one tuition over 12 to 20 weeks.
The programme, targeted on the 30,000 children who leave primary school each year without basic language skills, is run by the DCSF with business and charitable trusts.
Reading recovery can start at any age but is used after a child has been in formal education for a year.
Jean Gross, founder of Every Child A Reader, told Nursery World, 'We're not trying to rush children into reading. But some children find reading hard and we want to help those children before their confidence is dented.'
She added, 'It's a very personalised approach based on an in-depth knowledge of the child.'
Having a daily and regular session also contributed to success, she said, with 'opportunities to practise the same things woven throughout the lesson.'
Children in the programme read familiar books they know well, with the teacher introducing new books, as well as sensory learning, such as tracing words in sand and using magnetic letters on a board. Children also write their own sentences and stories. These are then cut up into separate words or phrases for the child to put back in the right order. Parents and carers regularly sit in on lessons and children take work home.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.everychildareader.org
