How Children Learn To Read on the Internet
While one in five of our children still cannot read at 11, many are now fixing that on the Internet
That might horrify some people! But the Internet is actually an excellent literacy coaching medium for several reasons:
1 Children love doing things on the computer.
2 Teaching Synthetic Phonics normally takes a lot of training. But the Internet can be a fully trained individual coach for each child.
3 Children are very proud and do not like to get things wrong. It is less stressful to be working unaided on the computer than with an adult.
4 It is adaptable. The computer can sense the ease or difficulty that a child is having and adjust an activity accordingly. So, as the child improves he or she can stay within a narrow “challenged but comfortable” zone.
5 Delivery can be controlled. We have found that a child will learn faster by being given less to learn each day. That may sound strange, but six new things learnt thoroughly are worth far more than a dozen new things half-learnt.
The proof is in the pudding. Many children who were going nowhere with conventional approaches have learnt to read in just weeks with Internet coaching.
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