READING METHOD: LOOK AND SAY

The Look and Say, or Whole Word, teaching method teaches children to read through pattern recognition, rather than decoding the word into letters. Flashcards are often used with individual words written on them, sometimes with an accompanying picture. The flashcards are shown repetitively to children until they memorize the pattern of the word. They therefore build up an extensive ‘sight vocabulary’ – words which are recognized on sight.

The look and say teaching method, also known as the whole word method, was invented in the 1830s and soon became a popular method for teaching reading. By the 1930s and 1940s there was a very strong focus on teaching children to read by this method. In the 1950s, however, it was fiercely criticized in favors of phonics-based teaching. The debate still continues today.

The look and say method teaches children to read words as whole units, rather than breaking the word down into individual letters or groups of letters. Children are repeatedly told the word name while being shown the printed word, perhaps accompanied by a picture or within a meaningful context.

Eventually children learn to ‘sight read’ the word, recognizing it through pattern recognition without any conscious attempt to break the word down into its parts. Over time children build up a larger and larger vocabulary of whole words which they can recognize.

Teaching Principles

• New words are systematically introduced to the child by letting him see the word, hear the word and see a picture or a sentence referring to the word.
• Flashcards are often used with individual words written on them, sometimes with an accompanying picture. They are shown repetitively to the child until he memorizes the pattern of the word.
• Progressive texts are used with strictly controlled vocabularies containing just those words which have been learned.

Initially the child may concentrate on learning a few hundred words. Once these are mastered new words are systematically added to the repertoire. Typically a child would learn to recognize 1,500 to 3,000 words in his first three or four years of schoo

Advantages

• Ultimately all children need to be able to recognize whole words to become fluent readers, even those taught initially by phonics-based methods. Whole word recognition is used by literate adults to read all familiar words.
• A child can learn to recognize any word using the look and say method. In contrast, numerous words in the English language are not phonetically regular and cannot be learnt using a solely phonetic approach. These ‘tricky’ words are often also high frequency words which children encounter regularly when reading and writing.
• This teaching method is easy to grasp for the parent as it is based on words rather than individual sounds. It can also be more interesting for the child than learning sounds and their blends, as required in phonics-based methods.
• This method particularly lends itself to teaching infants and young toddlers to read. They have been seen to enjoy such activities.
• Children taught with the look and say method initially show higher reading levels than children learning phonics, because they learn to automatically recognize a small selection of words. However, later tests demonstrate that the look and say method performs less well when children start to learn longer and more complex words.

Disadvantages

• In many cases if a child is faced with a word he has not already been taught, he will not be able to read it.
• The child is limited to reading books which contain words he has already memorized. If he wants to read even a simple book, he could be disappointed because it could contain many words he has not yet been taught.
• It is estimated that the human memory cannot memorize more than around 2,000 abstract symbols. The number of words that are in everyday use is about 50,000. Therefore memorizing whole words as abstract symbols, as is the case with the look and say method, will eventually fail. When this occurs it can be harder to ‘re-train’ the child in a different reading methodology.

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Examples of Programmes

• Flashcard system Large flashcards with one of more words written on them in big, clear letters are shown to the child in rapid succession while the words are read aloud to the child. The method was highly publicised by Dr Glenn Doman, Founder of ‘The Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential’. Dr Doman wrote a book on his methods called ‘How to Teach Your Baby To Read’. It was first published in 1964 and has since become a bestseller. In Dr Doman’s system:
• The child is taught to associate the written word with how it is pronounced, but is not specifically taught the meaning of the word. When the child can speak he is able to say and read the words aloud.
• Very short teaching sessions are recommended which should be dispersed throughout the day. You should stop before your child wants to stop.
• Five words are shown to the child in one session. They should be shown as quickly as is physically possible and in a very enthusiastic and ‘joyous’ manner. Speed is essential to stop the child getting bored, since he can absorb the information very quickly.
• A group of five words should typically be shown three times a day for five days. They are then considered to be ‘learned’ and should be retired and new words introduced. The child is therefore exposed to a large number of words in a relatively short space of time.
• Although there seem to be plenty of stories of success from parents who have taught their children to read using this method, there is still a lack of evidence for a number of assertions made in the book (eg ‘beyond two years of age, reading gets harder every year’).

Word Recognition

The following literacy games focus on familiarizing your child with special words which are important to her. She will learn to recognize these words and identify them by their appearance.

First introduce your child to new words using the Label Mania and Word Cards games. Keep track of the known words using the Word Box game. Then reinforce and practice the words using the other literacy games in this section.

• Word Cards Choose some words which are important and special for your child, such as dinosaur, car, princess, chocolate and print them clearly on index cards. Look for relevant opportunities to introduce her to the first word. For example, when she is playing with her princess toy, show her the ‘princess’ word card and tell her what the word says while following under the word with your finger. Talk a little about the princess and then leave the card next to the toy. Review the same word card several times in the day. Repeat with the other special words, introducing them also at relevant opportunities. Continue introducing new words as long as your child is interested.
• Word Box Create a word box for putting the learned Word Cards into. You could also make copies on index cards of the labels in the Label Mania game which your child is familiar with and add these to the box. Put your child’s name on the box and ask her to decorate it. Every few days ask your child to read you her cards and tell you about the words. As the collection of cards increases, help your child to sort the words alphabetically or into subject categories (eg food, toys, body parts), perhaps illustrating the subject dividers or the cards themselves.
• Word Action Choose around eight of the Word Cards from the Word Box and spread them out on the floor. Give your child fun instructions to follow which involve the words. For example, “Jump to the word dinosaur. Put a toy car on car. Pretend to eat the chocolate. Put the hat on your head.”
• Word Set When you have several cards in two or more categories in the Word Box take these cards out, shuffle them up, and ask your child to sort them back into their appropriate categories.
• Word Match Choose around eight Word Cards and gather together objects or pictures which represent the words. Spread out the Word Cards on the floor and ask your child to match the object or picture to the appropriate word.
• Word Scrapbook Print a word on the top of a piece of paper and help your child to fill the rest of the sheet with things representing that word. She can cut and glue pictures and words from magazines, stick in pictures found on the internet (try a Google image search), make her own drawings or take a photo and then print it and stick it in. She could also include other words related to the main word (eg ‘dalmatian’ for the word dog, or ‘joy’ for the word happy). Keep the pieces of paper in a binder and add new pages regularly. When you have around 20 pages you can start to sort them with your child alphabetically or into subject categories.
• Charades Write words which can be acted out, and which your child has already been introduced to, on index cards. Or use appropriate Word Cards from your Word Box. Put them in a bag and ask your child to pick one and act it out. You have to guess what the word is.
• Make a Menu Cut out pictures of food from magazines or print them from the internet (try a Google image search). Write out the names of the foods on small pieces of paper. Ask your child, if she is able, to write the word ‘MENU’ at the top of a piece of paper, or else write it yourself. Then ask your child to stick the pictures of the food down the left hand side of the paper. Help her find the name of each food and stick it (or copy the name) next to the relevant picture. Pretend you are in a restaurant and order food using the menu.

Building Sentences

If words are read in the context of a sentence they can be easier to learn because they become more meaningful. Here are some literacy games to play with your child to help her start to make simple sentences with her special words

• SimpleSentences Write the beginning of a sentence on a piece of card and let yourchoose words from her Word Box to complete the sentence. For example, “I love...”, “I eat...”, “I can...” ,“I see the...”. A variation of this is to just write “eat” or “can” on a piece of card, and let your child make sentences such as “dogs eat bones” or “Daddy can run”.
• Simple Sentence Books Create a simple book made up of the sentences your child creates in the Simple Sentences game. For example, a book entitled “What I love to eat” could have on the first page “I eat strawberries” with a picture of strawberries, and on the second page “I eat chocolate” with an photo of your child eating chocolate etc. Ask your child to read the book aloud.
• Silly Sentences Ask your child to compose a silly sentence from the Word Cards in her Word Box by laying out the words in a line. Make new Word Cards as necessary for needed words. You can then make a silly sentence from the Word Cards for her to read.
• Sentence Snipping Write a sentence using words your child is familiar with. Cut out the words and mix them up. Ask your child to put the words back in order.
• Magnetic Words Buy a magnetic word kit, such as one of those from Magnetic Poetry, and encourage your child to make up silly sentences on the fridge.
• Interactive Chart An interactive chart is a large piece of card or laminated paper which you hang on the wall with repetitive or predictable text written on it in large letters. Use from one or around six lines of text depending on the age of the child. Illustrate the chart using pictures, drawings or photos. The text has one or more gaps where different Word Cards can be attached to change the meaning of the sentence. Choose nouns which mean something to your child to put on the Word Cards. Your child can fix the Word Cards to the chart with blu-tack, changing the cards when she likes to make different sentences. Ideas for interactive charts include:
• A recent trip to the zoo or a farm. “I went to the zoo and I saw a ...”. As well as putting the name of the animal in the gap, your child could also attach a picture of the animal below the text.
• A chart of friends and relatives’ names. Draw an outline of a bus and write the following text inside “I looked inside the bus and who did I see? I saw ... looking back at me.” Your child can attach a name in the gap and also a picture of the person below the bus.
• A food chart based on Eric Carle’s ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. “One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and - pop! - out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar. On [insert day of week] he ate through one [insert food]. But he was still hungry.”