Beginning Readers Have a 1 in 8 Chance of Reading "cat"

The math behind why Souns works…

cat

Traditionally, we teach children the alphabet first associating each symbol with the letter name.

Children first learn to recognize cat as /See/ /ay/ /tee/

Then, they learn the common phonetic sounds of the letters when they begin to learn to read.  /k/ /a/ /t/

When that child goes to read that word, she has a 1 in 8 chance of getting it right.

/see/ /ay/ /tee/

/see/ /ay/ /t/

/see/ /a/ /tee/

/see/ /a/ /t/

/k/ /ay/ /tee/

/k/ /a/ /tee/

/k/ /ay/ /t/

/k/ /a/ /t/

The solution to making literacy more attainable to every child begins with changing fundamental practice.  If we teach letter-sound association using the most commonly used sounds of each letter (hard consonant sounds and soft vowel sounds) that child has only one possible option when going to sound out the word, cat. This eliminates the unnecessary confusion caused by letter-name association. Increasing literacy and the odds that children will learn how to read is as fundamental as changing the way we teach children their abc’s .

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