Certainly, by the time they have reached Part Four they should be reading something which matches their interests away from the scheme itself. From decades of experience, we believe it is more natural and far easier for struggling readers to discriminate between the various sounds by using the schwa. Keda realised very early on in her research that struggling readers need to make a clear distinction between sounds. She found it is NOT a problem for them to transfer these more distinct sounds to words later. Non-trained staff or parents find it much easier (more natural, perhaps?) to demonstrate the sound in this way. For example, the precise sound of the letter ‘L’ causes much confusion for student and tutor alike. However, if tutors prefer to follow the conventional wisdom that’s OK – Toe By Toe will still work its magic!

Non-dyslexic people are more likely to be unaware of the rules and skills Lewis Carroll applied when he wrote the poem. A. Toe By Toe is a finely structured programme. A list of contents might tempt some coaches to begin coaching part way through the text. Please follow the programme as presented in the manual. The diagnostic system encounters and highlights weaknesses as the student works through the book. A. Both manuals can be used in the same lesson. However, we recommend alternating between a reading lesson one day and a spelling lesson on the next. Alternatively, some people prefer to finish or partially complete Toe by Toe before starting Stareway. A. We consider that a child should be 7 years old before starting the Toe By Toe. That said, don’t consider 7 years old as the absolute minimum age to start Toe By Toe. As a parent or teacher you will know the child best. You will know when the child is capable of studying Toe By Toe. It may astonish you to know that just 300 words form 72% of the all the words that we regularly use in day to day English.

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Stareway To Spelling can help both children or adults who struggle to spell and read non-phonetic words (that is, words that are not spelt as they sound, for example, words like 'enough'.) Over 25 years of fieldwork went into the development of the system and it is this research that makes the method so easy to use. You don’t have to be trained in any field of education to coach with Toe By Toe. In fact, the manual often works better with non-professionals as they do not come to the task with any pre-conceived notions and thus simply follow the very detailed instructions to the letter. A. It is difficult to be specific. So much depends on the severity of the student’s spelling problems together with the frequency of lessons. Basis on four 20-minute lessons per week, most students will complete the manual within six months. Keda’s ‘Little Red Book’ has now taught literally hundreds of thousands of struggling readers how to make some sense of the world they live in. Toe By Toe is used in more than 20,000 schools around the UK and Ireland, as well as gaining converts in more than a hundred different countries all around the world. This includes primary and secondary schools, Higher Education colleges, basic training institutions, prisons, young offenders’ units and military camps. A. The methodology underpinning the manuals is exactly the same. Both are equally effective at improving students’ reading ability and their confidence and self-esteem. Toe by Toe USA has been altered slightly to reflect differences between British and American English with regard to vocabulary, spelling and the use of certain idioms.

However, for children without significant reading difficulties, Toe By Toe can be used effectively at a younger age, even from the age of 5. If for example, you want to support or accelerate progress or give children the best start in learning the English language, Toe By Toe is an ideal tool. We have seen many cases of children who have started Toe By Toe in year 6 (11 years of age in the UK) who have then consequently met their end of year curriculum targets. Toe By Toe schemes in the majority of schools in the UK are run by teaching assistants. Most teachers, of course, do not have the time to give 20 minutes of individual attention to one child so most schools use TAs in the role of Toe By Toe tutor. It is important that the TA carefully follows the instructions as laid down in the manual but - as long as they do so - no formal training is required. As a result of this offer, Keda’s house was soon overflowing with struggling readers. Keda even designed an extension to her house to include a custom-built classroom and persuaded her doting husband Albert to build it. A. Our aim is to establish high frequency words in the long-term memory. Just because a student spells a word correctly on one occasion is no guarantee that it will be known the next time. However, years of our research have established that if a student is able to spell a word successfully on FIVE consecutive occasions - with a gap of at least 24 hours between testing - this indicates that it has been stored in long-term memory. As a tutor, you are not going to succeed without the active co-operation of students. Inspire them and ensure they never lose heart.Every target should be met, BUT (and this is very important to remember) it is not necessary to reach every target time in sequence.