Is Your Child Finding Learning to Read a Challenge?

FUNetix has the solution…

Written by Janell Randolph, Kindergarten Teacher

According to the U.S. Department of Education (2020), 54% of U.S. adults 16-74 years old lack proficiency in literacy, which means approximately 130 million people read below a sixth-grade level. From research, we know that children do not develop their reading ability naturally.?How to teach children to read?has been researched and examined over several decades, and though we know that every child learns through their own mode of learning, and in their own unique timeline of progressing through the skills of reading?(phonics), not much has changed in?how?children are being taught to read in quite some time, whether they are learning at home or in school.?

Traditionally children are taught the names of the 26 letters, and then move on to learning the sounds produced by each of the letters?(phonemic awareness).??Yet, in the English language, it becomes more complicated, as?each letter not only has its own sound, but there are many more combinations of letters that produce many more unique sounds, which can quickly become confusing?for a child, especially in the beginning stages of learning to read!??

So to compensate for learning how letters work together to form unique sounds, children are asked to learn *digraphs?(two letters that spell one sound),?*diphthongs?(the vowel version of blends),?*graphemes?(a written symbol that represents a sound, be it a single letter, or a sequence of letters, such as ai, sh, igh, tch etc.), and many more “rules of reading.”?If you are becoming a little overwhelmed, imagine how someone learning to read feels throughout the process. Because there are so many rules of the letters and combinations of letters that must be followed, reading instruction began adding “sight words”?(familiar words that appear in simple sentences and books, that children need to memorize to help with reading fluency).??

Learning to read is a long process that can be very difficult for some children. People become skilled readers by learning that?written text is a code for speech sounds. The primary task for a beginning reader is to?crack the code.?Even skilled readers must be taught directly and systematically how to decode; and, sadly, some of our best educators have not been taught the science of “how to teach reading.” The new reading app, called FUNetix has developed a quicker and easier way for children to learn how to crack the code of reading, and become fluent readers!?

FUNetix can help?crack the code of reading! FUNetix has launched a 100% free, “Learn-to-Read” app, called?The?FUNetix 12 Hour Reading App, available in the App Store and Google Play, for immediate download and use by families with 5-9-year-old children. The FUNetix app has combined the decoding of reading into an easy-to-use tool that can boost your child to a 2nd-grade reading level. The phonics-based reading app teaches all?44 sounds of the English language?through a simulated, 1-on-1 tutoring experience.?FUNetix uses a science-based, patented way to teach reading by “showing the sounds” of words. Using diacritics (pictures to help represent sounds) children can more easily master the pronunciation of words.?

Diacritics?are symbols placed above words to help with pronunciation. For example, the Acorn symbol looks like the top of an acorn and represents the long /ay/ vowel sound, while the Apple symbol looks like an apple and represents the short /aa/ vowel sound. The Eagle symbol looks like an eagle for long /ee/, and the Elephant symbol represents an elephant’s trunk for the short /eh/vowel sound, and so on.?

Combining the symbol with the sound helps the brain reference the sound. Amazingly, once your child learns the 44 kid-friendly, easy-to-learn diacritic symbols,?they can decode any English word!?As they become familiar with English words and improve their reading fluency, then the diacritics are removed, and children continue to read fluently without them. The app has a 2,000-screen?(40 learning module)?gamified reading curriculum that will have your child reading confidently in just 12 Hours of engagement! Learn more about FUNetix at FUNetix.org

When children are able to hear the 44 sounds of English and can use diacritic learning tools to “crack the code” of new words… reading becomes faster and easier to learn!