Page 35 - SEN113 SEN Magazine July-August 2021-V3

Literacy / phonics About the author Ann Sullivan has been a SENCO, advisory teacher and SLE. Her seven book series: Phonics for Pupils with Special Educational Needs. @PhonicsforSEN @PhonicsforSEN phonicsforpupilswithspecialeducationalneeds.com “We all have roughly the same brain” Finding the answer The answer may be strikingly similar for both teachers. Let’s start by thinking about what the evidence from academic and educational research tells us about how we learn to read. An increase in the number of studies and the depth and range of research over the last 30 years, coupled with advances in technology, such as MRI scanning, has placed us in a much better position to say, with some certainty, how we learn to read at the ‘brain level’. The neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene, in his book Reading in the Brain, states, “It simply is not true that there are hundreds of ways to learn to read \\\\\\\[...\\\\\\\] when it comes to reading we all have roughly the same brain that imposes the same constraints and the same learning sequence.” The insights research gives us points to the best way to teach children to read, all children. Without a doubt, they all benefit from explicit instruction using a systematic, synthetic phonics approach (SSP), although some children will find it easier than others. Nancy Young’s excellent infographic, ‘The Ladder of Reading’ demonstrates this beautifully. We can see that for 50-65% of children (in the red and orange sections) a structured approach is not just advantageous but crucial and, even for those who find learning to read easy, this approach is beneficial. Additional challenges Now, let’s think about those children who have additional needs and learning challenges. According to the DfE census data, January 2020, 3.3% of the UK pupil population have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). In addition to these pupils, a further 12.1% receive SEN Support. Not all of these pupils will have difficulties with reading, but many will. This total of 15.4% of the pupil population corresponds rather nicely to the red section on Nancy Young’s ladder. As Nancy states, these children, including those with dyslexia, require code-based (phonics) explicit, systematic, sequential, diagnostic instruction. The majority of these children are educated in mainstream schools, with only 0.02% of children placed in special schools. This 0.02% of children have complex (and often multiple) needs and require specialist support and access to an adapted or alternative curriculum. In terms of learning to read, there is increasing research evidence that for this group of children, like all others, SSP is crucial. So, can we teach all of these 0.02% of children to read? There has been much debate around the idea of ‘reading readiness’ which suggests there are prerequisites to becoming a successful reader. For the vast majority of children, it is now generally agreed that the concept of reading readiness has no merit. It originated from the (now discredited) idea that learning to read is natural and the brain just needs lots of exposure to the printed word supported by an adult who reads out loud for them. Learning to read, unlike learning oral language, is not a biologically primary process and needs to be taught. With the ‘learn to read by osmosis’ approach many pupils were doomed to fail and, when they did, it was easy to classify them as ‘not ready’ rather than investigate the validity of the strategy. Now we know better, we understand that reading needs to be taught by explicit instruction and within the brain the processes 35 senmagazine.co.uk SEN113