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Ann Robinson of the Early Childhood Unit, National Children's Bureau
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Developing young readers through the linguistic phonics approach This study reports findings from a large-scale evaluation of the linguistic phonics approach (LPA) on young children's reading. LPA is a systematic and applied programme (designed and developed for use in Northern Ireland) that differs from traditional phonics programmes. A three-stage test and re-test approach was used to examine reading performance, and children were examined after a two-month summer holiday break to judge the sustainability of the LPA. Findings indicate that the LPA does significantly raise standards and that the gains made by pupils last over time. The study concludes that LPA, in contrast to non-systematic phonics approaches, positively affects the attainment of high, middle and low-level readers.