Personalized Reading Lessons
for Children, Parents, and Adult Learners
for Children, Parents, and Adult Learners
The Literacy Challenge
To many emerging readers, English can seem to be a frustrating jumble of exceptions. For nearly a century, many students have been taught grossly oversimplified phonics that generate thousands of exceptions. That approach works for some students, but many struggle - especially rule-following, logical, literal students. Indeed, nearly two thirds of 4th and 8th graders read below grade level.
Hope and PROOF
Thankfully, English follows a deliciously rich and robust code with remarkable consistency - and indeed, fully 98% of English words are phonetically regular. Functional MRI studies have shown that with as little as 80 hours of instruction on this essential but often overlooked code, the brain activity of many struggling readers begins to resemble that of strong readers.
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Cindy is helping my 2nd grade son to really learn how to write and spell. He has always had a very very hard time completing any written work at school. I believe he never learned how to put together the sound of each letter to form a word, even though he knows all letters, knows how to read very well and has a good vocabulary. Cindy has used a method of teaching that has clicked with my son. He liked her very much and we are so excited with his progress.
- Debora A., Marietta, GA
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Sample Content
Reading lessons from Neuskills cover the 30-40 spelling rules and 74 phonograms that explain 98% of English words. Lessons are tailored to the student's age and ability, from preschool through adult. Lessons can be taught directly to the emerging reader or in a train-the-trainer format for parents and caregivers. You'll learn the simple yet powerful rules that explain questions such as these:
- Why C says /k/ in CALL but /s/ in CELL.
- Why HAVE does not rhyme with GAVE.
- Why O says three different sounds in COVE, LOVE, and MOVE.
- Why the E is dropped in CHARGE + ING = CHARGING but retained in CHARGE + ABLE = CHARGEABLE.
- The most common way vowels get permission to say their names (long sounds) - and it's not silent final E.
- Why there is a silent E after short vowels in words like APPLE and DANCE.
- Spelling implications for the four letters that cannot be used at the end of English words.
Emerging Readers
Imagine if you could see words through the eyes of an emerging reader. The words that use only the primary sound for each letter would make sense, like “cat” and “dog.” But other words, even short ones, like “is” and “was” might not quite make sense to an observant, rule-following child who has been taught only partial phonics. Such struggles can be unsettling for literate adults, who often find it hard to see words as a child does. And even when we can understand the source of the frustration, many adults were never taught the explanations, making it difficult to provide the child with meaningful assistance.
Foundational Sight Words
Many early reading programs require rote memorization of approximately 315 high-frequency words which are commonly referred to as Dolch sight words. Those programs claim that rote memorization is necessary because many of these words are considered to be exceptions. However, only 5% of sight words are true exceptions. The rest are phonetically regular.
So why the misunderstanding? Only about 18% of sight words can be decoded with just the knowledge of each letter’s primary sound. The rest require additional instruction beyond the primary sound of each letter. To decode these words, a child needs 66 bits of additional information, many of which are no more complicated than 26 sounds already learned.
A Lifetime of Dividends
Once the child has the skills necessary to decode the sight words, the child will have over half the tools needed to decode 98% of the roughly 2 million words in the English lexicon.
Meet Your Instructor
Your literacy instructor at Neuskills, LLC is the co-author of a book on teaching the Dolch sight words through phonics. The content is derived from the Orton Gillingham approach, which is highly recommended for students with dyslexia.
Content is delivered in a multi-sensory format that respects the student’s dominant learning style, whether kinesthetic, auditory, or visual.
Book a Lesson Today
Click “Contact Us” to get started with customized reading lessons today!
