Step by step
A day-by-day programme
of systematic, synthetic phonics
for all ages
Mona's relationship with phonics began
after seeing the reading progress of her son, Tim, who has Down's syndrome, stunted
by ‘progressive' teaching methods. She took matters into her own hands and
found that, by using a simple, structured programme of phonics she could
teach Tim to read herself. Having previously been stuck on ‘Ladybird Book 2'
for two years, he began reading properly within 18 months and his room is now
packed full of books. She says, "It was teaching Tim, with a good phonic
programme, which taught me how to teach a child to read, as well as what
learning to read is really all about. It also raised big questions in my mind
as to why I could successfully teach when qualified teachers could not, and
that has fired my campaign ever since."
Her achievements with Tim led her to switch
from teaching Geography and Economics to teaching failed readers and dyslexics
using traditional phonic methods - and to great success. Recently, she taught
at a reception class of a school in an underprivileged area. At year-end the
class' reading age was 9 months above average and none had fallen behind -
even those who had previously shown signs of dyslexia.
- Mona helped to set up the UK branch of the (American) Reading Reform Foundation, whose sole aim is to bring phonics back to the teaching of reading. Her desire to get Britain's children reading properly was also shown as she twice ran for MP, literacy standards acting as an important plank in her platform. She believes that anybody can teach children to read, even without training: all you need is a simple phonic programme and some common sense
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