Teaching Adults and Young Adults with Discover Intensive Phonics

The reasons for poor reading skills in adults are many and varied. They may stem from lack of education, transient lifestyles during the early years of schooling, learning disabilities, or dyslexia. For the most part, however, all older students have a need to improve in one or more of three areas: word attack skills, fluency, and comprehension.

No program surpasses Discover Intensive Phonics in teaching word attack skills. The presentations are concrete, sequential, and logical—they "make sense." Now, we all know that it's not an easy thing to "make sense" of the English language, but Discover Intensive Phonics presents the foundation for reading in such a way that it is understandable and logical. Through hands-on interaction, adults soon find that they cannot only read but spell!

The biggest problem you'll find with adult students is that they want to progress too rapidly. Each lesson needs to be practiced until it is internalized. The program is cumulative, so reinforcement of previously learned skills is automatic, but progressing too fast won't give students time to really understand the application of what they have learned. Make sure that adults receive adequate practice through the Mastery, Drill, and Practice offered on Reading Horizons computer courseware or through multi-sensory instruction at the board. It is vital that they thoroughly understand each step before they proceed to the next one.

Fluency comes automatically with increased word attack skills and through consistent practice. Understanding word patterns — the likely and unlikely sequencing of letters — allows an adult to comfortably move forward with confidence.

Adults – especially adults who are poor readers – are generally good listeners, and they already have an understanding of much of the vocabulary used in their workplace and in the media. So, even though Discover Intensive Phonics does not provide specific exercises for comprehension, you will see an automatic increase in comprehension as an adult's word attack skills improve.

Adults and youth can make tremendous progress in their reading skills through the use of Discover Intensive Phonics in a relatively short period of time—approximately five to six months. If you've never tried teaching this program to an adult, do it! You'll be amazed!