From coloured shapes to words: an experimental initial reading method

Abstract

This article describes a method of initial reading used with an eight-year- old boy who had severe difficulties in expressive spoken language and in learning to read. He was introduced to written and typed words via the shapes of words colour-blocked in colours which code word-classes. He was given 50 hours' individual tuition in half-hour sessions, two or three times weekly. At the end of the year he could infallibly decode the 95 words with which he had worked, both when they were produced at random and when they were set in context.