Right Brain Phonics
Originally developed for children with dyslexia, this 30-45 minute-per-day phonics program may be exactly what your struggling reader needs. Popular "learning glitch" speaker and author, Dianne Craft, has created this valuable resource to enable struggling learners to become capable readers using right brain strategies. While left brain learners learn phonics best through a traditional program that uses black and white illustrations and multiple repetitious activities (including writing word lists and verbalizing sounds), right brain learners tend to learn best through color and visual stimuli. Color coding, pictures, emotion, and humor help them grasp concepts. They often "take a picture" in their mind, which allows them to quickly recall (and learn!) what is taught.
Recommended for children who are more than one year behind in reading, this book provides introductory pages that include an orientation to the program, a quick word recognition grade placement assessment, daily lesson plans (4 days per week with day 5 devoted to brain training activities found in the Brain Integration Therapy Manual), and word lists containing primary through intermediate words. While it is possible to use this without the above-mentioned manual, families will find valuable benefits from using both programs in tandem.
Also provided are phonetic sounds embedded in pictures to enhance learning for the right brain learner. Word lists are divided into two parts. The first part focuses on consonants/double consonants and blends with color-coded target sounds. Part two introduces multi-syllable words (2, 3 and 4 syllables). In the second part, students are expected to read the same word lists daily for 20 minutes to solidify learning. Each page is dedicated to one sound and provides ample white space to prevent an overload effect for struggling learners. This is a solid phonics program which will quickly become a favored resource for families of struggling learners.
Highly recommended to accompany the program are the Right Brain Phonics Flash Cards and the Right Brain Sight Word Flash Cards. Designed to be used with the program, they could also be a stand-alone resource for any child who struggles with learning their phonetic sounds or sight words. The Phonics Flash Card set contains 40 durable, 4" x 6" three-hole punched flash cards. Vowel, consonants and letter combinations sounds are superimposed upon a picture to represent the sound being learned. An instruction card is also included. The Sight Word Flash Cards set contains 36 sight words plus instructions. The glossy durable cards measure 8 ½" x 2 ½", are brightly illustrated, and most contain sentences on the back side which relate to the word illustrations. Words included are to, he, two, it's, use, she, say, are, was, all, one, any, put, city, what, here, tell, said, were, many, this, they, have, does, must, with, some, happy, which, their, there, after, about, through, little, and because. Three-hole punched for your convenience (see our colored book rings #35890). ~ Deanne