Replies

Question:

When did you teach the alphabet, before or after you did this?

“Through imagery and audio input.”

So you taught her phonics. :)

“The way I did it was to write out the word (starting with personal words like Mommy, Daddy, hand, arm, leg nose, etc.) in large letters (about 4”) on poster board.
Or you can buy flash cards like I did with my son and cover up the picture while they learn the word. Then you use the image and the word together.”

What you are doing is teaching the child that the word “bird”, when you say it is the same as the letters on the page. If you took the picture away from it, the child learns the sound and associates the sounds with the word.

I suspected as much.

“It was easy for me. It did require patience and knowing my children well. So no matter what anybody says it worked for me and my children and I’ve been proud of them as a parent when others stated how well read my kids were. “

I am not saying that your approach was unsuccessful. I am arguing that your approach was not ‘whole word’.

?I guess the mileage varies for different folks, but saying outright that it doesn’t work at all is BS.”

It doesn’t. Whole word takes away the audio and leaves you just the pictures.

When did you teach the alphabet, before or after you did this?
With my daughter I did that mostly afterwards. Keep in mind I started with her at about 3 years old.
With my son I did it at the same time. (started him out at 4.5 - 5 yrs old)
(in all honesty I pushed him too hard and too fast...he wasn't his sister and I was both too slow and too busy with work and such to pick up on it)

So you taught her phonics. :)
Eventually, yes. It's necessary, IMO, to reading and writing.
Look, I'm not knocking phonics as a means of teaching reading. I'm just saying that those who say "whole word" reading (as I understand it) doesn't work are full of it.

I am arguing that your approach was not ‘whole word’.
Whole word takes away the audio and leaves you just the pictures.
Well thanks for that. I'm not quite sure that yours is an accurate description, but I'm always willing to learn. If you've got any helpful links explaining the differences I would appreciate it. It might help get this "sheepish grin 'cause I'm wrong" off of my face quicker.

Meanwhile, doing a little looking around shows me that what I was using is probably holistic word recognition instead of whole word reading. Even after all of this time I find that I'm still in need of refresher courses in some things.