Welcome to this independent, fad-free and no-nonsense website.

The site includes plenty of well proven, practical advice and information for any parent (or grandparent) whose children need help with the basics of reading, writing and spelling. Primary teachers, SENCos, tutors for adult basic skills, in fact anyone involved with teaching or remediating reading should find the content useful.

*Synthetic phonics is the evidence-based method recommended by the UK government for the teaching of early reading. Though not a simple panacea, it is usually extremely effective, as long as it is taught by well-trained and enthusiastic teachers who use phonically decodable books for initial reading practice.

Synthetic phonics is also the method recommended by Sir Jim Rose (Rose 2006 para153), and the UK government for use in all the 'waves' of remedial intervention (DfES 2007.PNS). Go to synthetic phonics to find more about this common-sense way to teach reading and spelling.

A page on this website provides information on elective home education (known as homeschooling in the USA) but I must emphasise that this is not an anti-school site. The content is simply the knowledge that I wish I'd had 'at my fingertips' many years ago when I first realised that my youngest son was having serious difficulties learning to read.

This website is an on-going project and the content is subject to constant revision. New information and weblinks are added regularly, much of it challenging to conventional and established beliefs concerning dyslexia and the teaching of reading.

*Synthetic, in this case, doesn't mean artificial or plastic, it means 'blend together'; beginning readers are taught to read words by saying a phoneme for each grapheme and then blending (synthesising) the phonemes all-through-the-written-word to arrive at a pronunciation for the whole word.

Susan Godsland
Independent specialist reading tutor
Uses the 'remarkable' (Dyslexia-SpLD Trust) Sound Reading System
Active member of the Reading Reform Foundation committee www.rrf.org.uk
Former Trustee for Devon Dyslexia Association
Trained in the Sounds~Write and Jolly Phonics programmes.
Part of the 2006 Caribbean Literacy Project team
http://www.senmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=113&Itemid=60
Mum to three, grandma to four.

Friendly correspondence always welcome:
susan at godsland dot net
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If you are interested in synthetic phonics or want to ask questions about any aspect of reading instruction, join us on the Reading Reform Foundation message board (you'll need to register before you can post): www.rrf.org.uk/messageforum/

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SEN Magazine (no.49. Nov/Dec 2010)- scroll down to read Susan's article:
'Six myths about dyslexia' www.rrf.org.uk/docs/SEN49_Dyslexia_myths.pdf

Did you know that many intervention programmes for children struggling with reading and basic skills programmes for adult illiterates consist, mostly, of activities that will not help them to learn to read and write? In fact, some of the most commonly used activities will actually damage the development of accurate reading skills. "A lot of existing approaches are founded on lies. There's no scientific evidence for their efficacy" (Phil Beadle. SundayTimes 20/07/08) See- What NOT to do

''There is an established, and very rewarding, dyslexia industry. There is considerable academic and commercial vested interest. There seem to be as many aetiologies for (causes for or origins of) dyslexia as there are researchers into it, give or take, and as many wonderfully special assessment methods, remedial schemes, dedicated schools and distinguished gurus as the market will carry'' (Kerr p89) See - Room 101

http://www.phonicsinternational.com/unit1_pdfs/The%20_Alphabetic%20_Code_phoneme_pictures_A4x4_chart.pdf
Alphabet Code chart.

Prof. Diane McGuinness: A brief guide to the English Alphabet Code
http://www.ourrighttoread.com/englishalphabet.html
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Dyslexics.org.uk receives the top 'five star' rating for educational content on Schoolzone: www.schoolzone.co.uk/ ''This was a great site. It was very easy to use and highly informative..."

''My own conceptions of dyslexia are completely wrong - along with the vast majority of the people that I know, both professional educators, research educators, and of course both parents and individuals categorised as dyslexics. My springboard into this is the fantastic site http://www.dyslexics.org.uk. Go right to the source here. In a nutshell dyslexia means: You can't read!'' (E. rubecula's Education Blog) N.B. 'E. rubecula' has a BSc in Zoology and a PhD in Psychology.

N.B. This website has no political or religious affiliations.

I have no commercial connection with any literacy programme or educational product. I am partial to the Sound Reading System as it's the intervention programme I use very successfully in my work as an independent tutor.

Many apologies for any mistakes which appear on this website. Having seen them, I do try to correct them as quickly as possible, but I'd really appreciate it if you let me know about any that you notice. Thank you.

COPYRIGHT. You are welcome to link to this website. You may also copy pages for personal or professional use as long as www.dyslexics.org.uk is clearly acknowledged as the source, content is not used out of context or altered in any way and it is NOT for commercial use. If you wish to copy several pages from the website for use in the public domain please contact me for permission first. Thank you.

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