 Different than Ordinary Phonics Programs
Students learn decoding skills to unlock the 1,000,000+ words of English, learn fluency, and master comprehension. Critical reading skills are taught. Most read several books during the course and typically gain 2-5 grade levels (even many students who have been diagnosed with learning disabilities).
We do not use visual, “meaning-based,” or counterfeit phonics, which are so popular today. For example, we do not have students learn to substitute one consonant for another at the beginning or ending of words to make a new word (or by using whole word analogies in “cut and paste” style such as cat + mop = cop).
We do not use flashcards because that promotes memorizing rather than learning to read phonetically.
We do not use objects or colors to represent sounds because that generates informational overload and confusion.
We do not use pictures in teaching reading, because they prompt guessing. Students should never guess at reading words.
We do not incorporate writing into reading instruction. They are completely different mental activities which engage different parts of the brain.
The goal of many first grade reading courses is to teach 200-600 words. In our very first lesson, our students, including those with learning disabilities, read at least 300 words and are empowered to read thousands more.
 The Secret to Reading Success
Many teachers assume they are using a phonics-based approach simply because they teach children to use graphophonemic cues in word identification. However, teaching a child to use context, picture, syntactic, configuration or phonemic cues in order to “guess” at words is not the same as teaching intensive, explicit, systematic phonics, in which the child learns to read phonetically without the need for other cues. This is a critical difference for those who have been diagnosed with some kind of learning disability.
One of the “secrets” we at Academic Associates have discovered about teaching reading is that there are dozens of phonics sounds and rules that are never included in most phonics programs because they are thought to be superfluous or inconsequential. However, those students who did not learn to read well will never learn to read to their potential without being taught all 44 sounds and all the rules of phonics in a logical, sequential and explicit way.
A Reading Method that Cooperates with the Brain's Neural Architecture
The Academic Associates method cooperates with the brain’s own neural architecture. It streamlines the flow of data into the linguistic part of the brain, simplifying and accelerating the process of learning to read. The brain is retrained to read phonetically. This is one of the primary reasons Academic Associates has been so successful in teaching children who have failed with other programs to read.
“After two months in the program, my son has improved his grades by two letter grades. He has more self-confidence and greater self-esteem. This course has made a huge difference in my son’s life. No longer do I have to fight to get him to do his homework. Now he just sits down and does it. It takes half the time it used to. This program has helped my son in more ways than I can count.” Julie W., Roselle, IL
“My daughter is thirteen, and this fall I enrolled her in the Academic Associates Reading Program… I am extremely pleased with the results, and my daughter can now read much better than before… I think this program is very helpful for the dyslexic child, and, as you can see from my background, I have tried them all. My daughter is severely dyslexic, and this program is helping her.” Janet G. Hampshire, IL
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