Read, Write & Type! Learning System

Read Write & Type! Learning System is a computer application to provide support for children learning to read. It includes phonics, spelling, keyboarding and word processing. It also has features to help children who learn English as a second language or with learning difficulties. It is a research-proven program that emphasizes phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge and phonetic decoding in reading and spelling. Dr Joseph Torgesen, who is a distinguished research professor and National Reading expert, conducted a study at Florida State University with a group of first graders who were identified as at-risk for reading failure and evaluated them over a two-year period in a program using Read Write & Type. The study investigated the ability of word attack, word identification, passage comprehension, word efficiency, non-word efficiency, phoneme blending, phoneme elision and phoneme segmenting. The results showed that there were improvements in their reading skills, fluency, accuracy and reading comprehension.

The program provides explicit and systematic instruction for reading and spelling strategies in the context of meaningful and engaging non-judgmental and highly motivating writing and reading activities. It uses a multi-sensory approach to stimulate the learning and helps children with different learning styles. Children therefore use all the visual, auditory, speaking and kinaesthetic senses in learning.

By engaging in the motivating games, colorful characters, animations and music, children can develop phonemic awareness skills, fluency and reading comprehension skills. Throughout the program, children learn to hear individual sound in words and associate each sound with letter and a finger-stroke on the keyboard. They develop fluency by making thousands of letter-sound (phonics) associations. Children connect each sound with the keyboard storyteller which presents phonemes with stories and new words. They identify the sounds in each word by looking at the pictures, type the letters and sound out the words they type. In this case, they learn to type the sounds (the beginning sound, middle sound and the ending sound) they hear. It helps them practice sound recognition and phoneme-segmenting skills. Thus they build up words by typing the sound with correct finger placement as well. They will get instant auditory visual feedback for mistakes. They also learn to read and write simple stories. With further practice, they create their own stories with newfound typing and phonics skills and the Read Write & Type simple word processor and talking keyboard. Thus they think and practice phonics continually as spelling out meaningful words, sentences and stories. They can even send messages with stimulating e-mail features and receive actual stories from children from different countries. With all this practice, their typing and phoneme-blending skills will gradually increase. It also helps their reading comprehension by matching pictures to words and sentences. Their progress is assessed and tracked by the program and suitable level of activities are suggested to help their problem areas. Thus children get more practice on the individual needs and get prepared for the next level.

I am very impressed that it also focuses on ESL and children with dyslexia as I am teaching these students and have tried this program with them. Since some children with dyslexia may have difficulties with visual-motor integration, they experience difficulty in handwriting. By using this program, they develop keyboard skills when they write. The program uses neatly spaced, clear and larger fonts which help these children. Clear auditory and visual instructions meet the individual needs of the children with reading and writing difficulties. The children practice phonics with the motivating games which keep their interest and attention. With steady success their self-esteem increases. The children learn the correct syntax and grammar while hearing stories. They can sound out, spell new words and construct stories of their own.

W.T., Hong Kong

Read, Write & Type Learning System

Synthetic Phonics Software