6
2009
Learning to read – Phonics vs Whole Word Approach
2,493 views
I am sure most of us would like to teach our little precious to read as early in their lives as possible. But not many knows what method to use. Generally there are two methods most commonly used in teaching/learning reading, the phonics way and the whole word approach way.
The phonics way is reading by making sense of the spelling and sounds of the word while the whole word approach way is reading by making sense of the word itself without bothering the spelling of the word. Now that you know, which would you choose?
I chose the whole word approach way to teach Ethan to read. Why? Because by using the WWA way, a child can immediately read without the need to master the ABC’s. How cool is that? When it comes to teaching/learning reading, I have this conclusion to make, if a child is 4 years and below, use the whole word approach way while use the phonics way for children the age of 5 years and above.
Ethan read his first word at 12 months old. By 16 months old, he has managed to master the complete sets of A-Z and numbers 1-10.
Here, I would like to share a short backdated video (about 10MB) of him reading at 16 months old. The reason for the delay in publishing the video is because my dial-up could not support the upload. This recording is an achievement I am most proud of because most of the time he would get distracted by the camera and stopped reading. This time I manage to record something… 
Cheers!
About Me
Home is where MY heart is.
I am a mother to Ethan boy, a wife to Darling William. I'm a stay at home mum who blogs to break the monotony of life and to avoid feeling jaded. Would love to get to know all the Super Mommies and Daddies and Babies or Singles out there with the hope that we can learn more from each other. Most of all, I am a happy person, and I hope YOU are too.
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[...] Reading Sentences @ 20 mths old 21 Comments Ethan has finally started to read sentences. It was quite tricky getting him to focus one word at a time and proceed to the next word and on and on. Initially he was overwhelm with all the words in a sentence that he just look at them and kept quiet! But now, he finally understood what reading sentences means and is slowly getting used to the concept. The whole-word approach is based on research findings that 65% of the words that a child encounters in his reading materials consist of some 400 words. If a child can master these 400 words, he/she can read and make sense of most of his/her text. Ethan has now managed to master around 50 words. Whoa! 350 more words to go! But before he reaches the 400 words, most children will already master the phonetic method. So, no worries. Even now when Ethan sees words beginning with ‘F’ for instance, he will go “fer” “fer” trying to sound out the word. What matters most is getting the child to recognise the words and not memorise it. Memorising and recognising is a completely different story! By recognising, Ethan is able to read the word no matter what font it is printed in. And then he got distracted by the page number…. Older post here. [...]