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Literacy levels jump in About Words pilot - read more!

Mother helping kids learn to read

^{About Words Director Maree Llewellyn, right, helps tutor Mary Orpin}

When Maree Llewellyn's 15-year-old son was seven, he struggled to read simple words.
In despair at his inability to learn to read, Mrs Llewellyn had days where she pictured him ending up in prison as an adult.

"It was irrational, I know, but you really do wonder what is going to become of your child," Mrs Llewellyn said.

"You start to worry that you have done something wrong."

Mrs Llewellyn learned of an Australian-based phonics programme and seeing the results her son achieved with a private tutor using the system, Mrs Llewellyn became convinced of the programme's worth.

"I literally watched him learn to read before my eyes and within four weeks he was able to read words which he had no idea of before," she said.

Her desire to help other parents avoid the same desperation has seen Mrs Llewellyn establish her own business: About Words, a phonics-based system designed to teach students to read and spell.

Completing a course in teaching literacy in Australia in 2002 before training with the Australian-based creators of the system, Mrs Llewellyn is now training other people to become literacy tutors. "This system used in many New Zealand primary schools, known as the Whole Word or Whole Language method, relies on students memorising whole words. An initial outlay of $250,000 setting up the business is yet to be recouped. However, Mrs Llewellyn has a vision, not necessarily of the monetary kind. "Of course you want to be paid to do something, but to me this is doing something that is going to change the literacy of New Zealand."

Her income stream comes from providing training and resources to the 14 tutors she currently has using the system. "Once they are tutoring, I don't make any money from that. They train with me, buy into the system and get resources but it is the students they work for."

- Waikato Times,  March 3, 2008

MAY PEOPLE - Maree Llewellyn

It's all about words

_{Maree Llewellyn with some of the resources she uses for teaching literacy using modern phonics.}

It is entirely unnecessary for any child to fail at reading, says Maree Llewellyn.

And, when they do learn to read, the difference in their confidence and self-esteem is amazing.

"It empowers them - they experience success...it gives them the courage to move forward," she says. "Success has its own momentum."

A mother of four, Maree, director of Cambridge-based company About Words, became involved in promoting literacy (reading and spelling) through modern phonics because one of her sons was struggling at school.

"We got him a tutor who used a modern phonics system and there was an almost instant transformation," she says.

"He learned to read and went on to do famously."

Maree subsequently began to question why her son had failed to learn to read at school and, in talking to other parents, discovered she wasn't on her own.

She decided there and then to train in the phonics-based programme so that she could help other youngsters (and the not so young) to discover the joys and empowerment that literacy brings.

In 2002 Maree headed to Australia where she completed a course in teaching literacy. She went on to train with the Australian-based creators of the Quantum Literacy course.

Maree then worked on a voluntary basis at her local primary school with children with reading difficulties and, as a result of her success, the RTLB (resource teacher: literacy and behaviour) employed Maree to teach selected students who had failed to learn through any other method.

Maree quickly became aware that children's struggles were the same...that some of the ‘building blocks' in their learning were missing.

"When they were taught using the modern phonics system, all of these students were successful in learning to read and spell," says Maree.

The system teaches a child to think, to decode a word, rather than simply guess.

She also became aware that there was a tremendous demand for tuition in the modern phonics system, this demand resulting in her establishing her private practice About Words.

And there was no shortage of clients, their parents tremendously excited by their children's progress and success.

Six years on, Maree is still just as enthusiastic and excited about the programme and is thrilled that she has been able to make a difference in so many young lives.

She is also now training tutors - 18 to date - with the programme widely used around the greater Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

"And they've all gone on to make a difference...they're giving children more choices for the future."

Modern phonics teaches reading through explicit instruction in the spelling of English sounds, using a logical and structured five level system. It teaches the 44 sounds of spoken English, and their spellings, in a logical and structured order. Maree Llewellyn says this system has proved effective for all students regardless of age or background, and including those with dyslexic tendencies or learning difficulties.

- Urban & Country , July 2008