Computers Can Make Phonics Fun

The Los Angeles Times contained an editorial recently supporting the Science of Reading approach that has proved so successful in restoring reading proficiency scores to schools where this curriculum has been adopted. The editors are correct in seeing this as a step that should be more widespread.

I would like to offer a second suggestion that will build on this more widespread restoration of phonics instruction to schools. It involves the additional employment of computers in the teaching of basic phonics to four- and five-year-olds. There are now multiple versions of such programs that provide the kind of one-on-one tutoring that makes phonics learning easier for many children, as well as being enjoyable.

The Utah state bboard of education has published results of their research on the effectiveness of four such programs in Utah school populations. All of them were shown to be effective in helping kindergarten-age children acquire skills in the code that connects printed symbols to English speech sounds, which is the heart of phonics learning.

I had the positive experience of being involved in one of these programs being introduced into the Santa Barbara city schools 15 years ago. At that time, two-thirds of the children entering kindergarten were failing their test of reading proficiency. When we discovered that the district owned one of these computer-based programs, we first placed it in mobile vans for neighborhood distribution, and then in all the district preschool classrooms. Within five years of gradually expanded use, the district found that almost 90 percent of the children entering kindergarten were passing their reading proficiency test.

One reason for combining the use of computers with Science of Reading curricula is that many children coming from homes where reading in English is not so well established do not easily acquire phonics skills from classroom instruction, for a variety of reasons. Giving all preschool children the use of computers with a phonics educational program is a way to ensure that 90 percent of them will find it much easier to learn phonics in the Science of Reading programs they will subsequently encounter in kindergarten and beyond.