I got an email that had the middle letters of the words all mixed up, but the first and last as they should be. It said that my mind automatically corrected the order of the middle letters since I knew the words by sight.
It was interesting.
That being said, I learned phonetically and taught both of my kids before kindergarten the same way. They are both excellent readers.
I teach a class at my church and sometimes I have the kids(teenagers) read aloud. It is brutal to listen to them struggle over the simplest words.
As in learning anything, the foundation is what counts.
RE: “I teach a class at my church and sometimes I have the kids (teenagers) read aloud. It is brutal to listen to them struggle over the simplest words.”
Yes, that is what Whole Word has done to us for 75 years. Those kids will never read for pleasure. They are basically illiterate. The next question is: how do we help these kids?
All the phonics people I ask about this say the same thing: they have to start over and learn to read properly. No matter what the age!
Sue Dickson has taken her Sing, Spell, Read, Write program into prisons, and taught convicts to read as if they are age six. They have lots of bad habits (guessing, etc.); so it’s simpler just to say, “Forget everything you have learned about reading. Now you will do it right.” They can’t be helped in any other way.
Churches are well positioned to give remedial help. The kids are there. You are an authority figure. A class at church might be their last best hope.
There are a dozen good phonics programs out there. Find somebody who is gung-ho about one of them; and let that person loose.
Even more basic, just start at the beginning with the alphabet. I’ve tried to boil down the essentials in “54: Preemptive Reading”—meant for children but entirely valid for adults. http://www.improve-education.org/id81.html