Sound-to-Symbol-to-Meaning

Phono-Graphix and Language Wise Dual Certification Course

The course content and materials for working with new and remedial readers draw upon theory and research in many fields. The developers of these internationally acclaimed methods understand that among the problems in education is a lack of cross-over from various areas of investigation and bodies of knowledge in Psychology, Linguistics, and Developmental Kinesiology. In 1993 they set the field of reading research and instruction on its side with their research published in the Orton Annals of Dyslexia (C. McGuinness, et al, 1993; Reading Reflex, Simon and Schuster, 1997) in which they demonstrated standard score gains in reading of six times that acheived by other reading methods, by addressing the true nature of the English written code and the three skills needed to teach such a code. In 2000 the McGuinnesses released their Language Wise Verbal Intelligence program (Yale University Press, 2000). The McGuinnesses latest work, From Sound to Symbol to Meaning, brings the two methods, courses, and materials together in a seamless format for teachers and students.

Our dual certification course gives teachers tools for teaching both Phono-Graphix and Language Wise. Just as Phono-Graphix demystified the sound-symbol relationship by addressing the true nature of the code and the three skills needed to read it, Language Wise takes teachers and their students one step further From Sound to Symbol to Meaning.

This page offers an overview of the four concepts that comprise the nature of the English written code and the three skills needed to use such a code. Page Two explains Language Wise instruction. Page Three is the Sound to Symbol to Meaning course syllablus. On page Four you will find a description of the materials for classroom or clinical instruction.

The Four Concepts

1. Letters are pictures of sounds:

b  oa  t

1 picture

3 sound pictures

2. A sound can be shown with one or more letters:

oo  ough  e  ey,  etc.

3. There is variation in the code. Most sounds can be shown in more than one way:

eeeaieeyey
meetteamchiefshehappyvalley
beepeatpriestwesunnytrolley
cheekpleasemewindydonkey
4. There is overlap in the code. Some sound pictures can show more than one sound:
team   great   bread

(the trick is figuring out which one fits)

The Three Skills

To read and spell a code with such a nature, children must be able to perform these three skills

1. Segmenting

The ability to separate the sounds in words, to literally peel off sounds as you spell words. The ability to isolate individual sounds also allows us to see the code within the word. This skill also correlates to oral and reading comprehension.

2. Blending

The ability to blend sounds into words allows children to blend sounds into words as they read them.

3. Phoneme Manipulation

The ability to pull sounds in and out of words allows us to manage the overlap in the code, trying the possibilities as we read words containing overlapping sounds. Phoneme manipulation corresponds to verbal and reading fluency.

Language Wise Overview >>