CHILDREN who are taught to read and write using the sounds of letters are three years ahead of their contemporaries by the end of primary school, researchers claimed yesterday.

The results of a study about “synthetic phonics” showed that 11-year-olds who learnt literacy skills using the technique made faster progress in reading and spelling than children taught using conventional methods.

The programme, introduced in 19 primary schools across Clackmannanshire in Scotland, was part of a seven-year pilot study by academics at Hull and St Andrews universities.

The report said: “The children in this study have achieved well above what would be expected for their chronological age.

“We can conclude that a synthetic phonics programme, as part of the reading curriculum, has a major and long-lasting effect on children’s reading and spelling attainment.”

The pupils who participated in the study were taught synthetic phonics throughout primary school.

Veronica O’Grady, the head teacher at Menstrie primary school, one of the schools involved, said: “This gives children strategies for reading and writing that they wouldn’t have had at the early stages using other methods.

“We are seeing children in Primary 1 beginning to read and write independently much earlier than before. They have no fear of attempting to read new words or write a simple sentence.

“These early gains seem to last. The boys are reading and writing as well and as enthusiastically as girls.”

The experimental teaching method, developed by the educational researchers Dr Joyce Watson and Professor Rhona Johnston, is based on the sounds that letters make.

Children are taught the sounds that letters make which helps them to make simple words very quickly while also learning a strategy to form sentences, the study showed.

According to the report, the technique allows children to work out unknown words without having to rely on memory or guesswork.

In the early stages of learning, children use a variety of senses to learn by touching, singing and moving colourful magnetic letters around.

The pupils were introduced to letter sounds before books and shown how the sounds can be blended together to build up words.

Ms O’Grady said that the method was very different from previous reading and writing techniques. “Before the most common method of learning to read was look and say.

“Children were taught to look at a word, an adult would tell them what the word said and they had to recognise it using initially just the shape of the word and the context of pictures around it. In the past I often felt that some children learnt to read in spite of what we were doing in the classroom rather than because of (it).

“The way it is being done now, more children are being given a bigger opportunity to learn effectively.”

The technique was also backed by Peter Peacock, the Scottish Education Minister, who said that he wanted schools across the country to consider adopting the synthetic phonics method.

“So encouraging are the results that I am going to make sure that every local authority knows about this and that in turn every school knows about it,” he said. “They can make the choice to use this system if they think it is going to benefit their children.”

Currently half of all pupils in Scotland fail the national writing test for 14-year-olds.

The findings of the report show that by primary 7 pupils are more than three years ahead in reading and almost two years ahead in spelling.

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