A Time For Phonics: Level One

By Dana Merritt

"A Time for Phonics" goes into great detail about neuroplasticity, how to use the Socratic Method, how to assess your student's motor processing skills, how to systematically improve the student's mastery of proper motor skills, how to teach each Step of Phonemic Decoding Skills (Steps 1 through 10) how to use the "eye gate", the "ear gate" and the "motor gate" to maximize the Hebbian Learning Rule, how to phonemically decode words on a white board, how to use Weekly Work lists, how to present the information in a quicker manner or slower manner to best fit the needs of your student and extensive word lists that follow the perfect phonics. Plus more....

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781640280793

Book preview

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A Time for Phonics

Level One

Teaching your student the first ten steps of phonics

to improve reading, writing and spelling skills.

Dana M. Merritt MS CCC-SLP

Merritt Speech & Learning

ISBN 978-1-64028-078-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64028-079-3 (digital)

Second Edition Copyright © 2018 Dana M. Merritt

First Edition: 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Scripture quotations marked NKJV taken from the New King James Version ®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, by Biblica, Inc ®. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

I dedicate this book

to those who give

their time, energy and resources

through a loving heart

to help those individuals

overcome

the struggle with reading, writing and learning.

Love never fails.

1st Corinthians 13:8 NIV

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We love because He first loved us.

1st John 4:19 NIV

Acknowledgements

I give thanks to Jesus, my Lord and Savior, who gives me faith, hope and love everytime I read and meditate on the Word of God.

I give thanks to The Thomas Kinkade Company for the privilege of including his three gates, The Open Gate, Spring Gate, and The Victorian Garden as the pictorial representations of the three gates that are critical for learning new information. If you like to see these paintings in greater detail, please go to www.thomaskinkade.com.

I give thanks to Timothy Merritt who kept his foot in my back to write this book. I give thanks to Teresa McLean who did all the graphics for the whiteboard examples in this book and for the next book to come. She is also the one who had me rewrite information to make it easier for a parent/tutor to be able to understand the concepts. I give thanks to Jalene and Luis Bermudez, who inspired me to realize that this information is important enough to distribute to a worldwide market. To my parents: Walter and Justina Sikes, my sons: Thomas Merritt and Timothy Merritt, my brother: W. David Sikes, DC and to the parents of my patients Thank you for your words of encouragement. Thanks also to Reg Taylor and CCI Graphics for the production of A Time for Phonics Photo Flashcards. Thanks to Wesley Taff who helped design www.TheMerrittWay.com. Thanks to Jennifer Yantiss who proofread the book and made valuable recommendations, but if there are any typos they belong soley to me. Thanks also to Kristin Wall who proofread portions of the book and encouraged me to include an Introduction. Thank you to my husband William V. Choisser, MD, who proofread the neuroscience chapter and supported me whole heartedly in the production of this book and the books to come.

Blessings to all,

Dana M. Merritt

Introduction to the First Edition

A sundial is on the cover of this book. The sundial represents several truths that will become apparent as you progress through the pages of this book, on a week-by-week basis. The sundial is a device that is used to measure the passage of time, but one that needs to be fully understood in order to use it properly. It is not an intuitive device; specific guidelines need to be followed to benefit from this device. The sundial must be pointed due north. The notches on the dial designate the passage of specific increments of time. The gnomon is the vertical shaft on the sundial that casts its shadow. When the gnomon is casting its shadow straight down, that is the true 12 o’clock. If you live in an area that has Daylight Savings Time, a calculation must be made to adjust the reading of your sundial. If the numbers on the dial are written in roman numerals you must be experienced in translating that into your native language. Finally, do not expect to use this device to set your digital clocks; it is not that finite. Once you learn how to use a sundial you will love the beauty and the simplicity of it. You may even incorporate the rules you learned so well into your life that it will feel as if reading the sundial has become an automatic, easy endeavor.

So in asking the question again, how does one learn how to use a sundial? Another person teaches you or you do some research and learn the basics yourself. I chose this symbol as the cover of my book to indicate to you, the reader, that to instruct another person in phonics it will take time. It will take about 45 minutes a day and should be done five days a week. This program will progress week by week, and in just a couple of weeks a person will be reading and writing and enjoy learning.

Going back in time, I do not really remember learning how to read. It seemed easy to me. My mother taught me the alphabet and I saw and heard my family read. It seems like I just picked up my reading and spelling skills by osmosis. But when it came to my ability to speak clearly, well-enunciated speech that was a different story; I was significantly speech delayed. I could not say my r’s and was in speech therapy from the first grade through the ninth grade. I was not language delayed. I had a good repertoire of vocabulary. I used sentence structure correctly. I even became proficient in reading, spelling and writing, and I enjoyed learning. I just could not pronounce the sound of /r/ in any location, in any word, correctly.

I attended all the speech therapy sessions and played the games I was supposed to during therapy. I looked in the mirror and tried to copy the speech therapist. My mother and I did all of the speech homework that was assigned to me, including tongue exercises and worksheets to color. But it did not make a difference.

I was picked on and made fun of because of my speech impediment, and I was becoming withdrawn in social settings. People who did not know me treated me as less intelligent than a normal child because of my speech. It was a very frustrating time in my life. But finally I was examined by a different speech pathologist who gave me an oral peripheral examination (looking at muscles and structures in the mouth), and she concluded that my frenulum was too short. The frenulum (see picture) under my tongue was limiting the back of my tongue from reaching its full range of motion, thus inhibiting my tongue’s ability to reach the desired positions necessary to roll my r’s. She thought I was tongue-tied and recommended I see my family doctor to have my frenulum snipped, which would allow for better movement of my tongue. That procedure was done during the summer of my ninth grade. I then had two months of speech therapy. That therapy was directly beneficial to my acquiring the /r/ sound correctly, then it into all locations: initial position (IP), final position (FP), medial position (MP) and then generalizing into conversational speech. My life changed dramatically as a result of that one woman’s knowledge.

Advance to the present time. I have become a speech language pathologist. I specialize in working with individuals with processing disorders. I have worked with children who are speech delayed/disordered and language delayed/disordered. Most children are speech and/or language disordered due to some combination of visual processing disorder and an auditory processing disorder. This is not a book about those subjects. I have acquired knowledge about neuroplasticity, the Hebbian Learning Rule, and the rules in phonics. I want you to help that child (or that struggling adult) learn how to read and write. I believe not being proficient in reading is as debilitating to a young person as having a speech impediment. I hope that you will take the time and put forth the energy to learn the steps delineated in this program. This is not just a phonics program, this is a reading, writing, and spelling program.

As a direct result of writing this book, I learned that the word gnomon is of Greek origin and it means interpreter or discerner. Will you be the person to interpret the squiggly lines on the paper into distinct unique letters and numbers for a struggling child? Will you be the person who dramatically changes an individual’s life by learning these steps of phonics and then teaching him/her to recognize the distinct similarities and differences of letters and words? It is exciting. It is fun. It is life changing. When a person knows how to read and write, they can learn any subject they want to learn—it will just take a little time and energy.

Sincerely,

Dana M. Merritt MS CCC

Speech Language Pathologist

Preface to the Second Edition

I am pleased to announce that we have sold out of our First Edition of A Time for Phonics Level One, even though we self-published the book. Christian Faith Publishing Company will be publishing this new revised edition and hopefully all of my future books. They will also be making a digital version of these books and will manage press releases. This is truly an answered prayer for me.

Any book that refers to scientific research is, as Dr. Stanislas Dehaene so aptly states in his Preface to his Second Edition of The Number Sense, an unintentional time capsule. I have read so much research that supports my unique approach to the instruction of teaching a person to read or the remediation of a dyslexic person’s ability to read that it will necessitate a complete addition of a chapter. In this book, Chapter 1, The Neuroscience That is Foundational for A Time for Phonics is still solid, so I will not revise it. Instead, when I publish A Time for Phonics Level Two, I will build a solid case that the ideal way to activate the Visual Word Form Area of the brain is through the approach that I teach you, here. Furthermore, in the time since I have written the First Edition of A Time for Phonics Level One, I have phonemically decoded the 1,000 most frequently used words in the English language. I have separated them into the various steps of phonics and I will include those in A Time for Phonics Level Two.

I have also designed A Time for Phonics Photo Flash Cards for Steps 1-10, which are balanced in its usage of vowels and consonants. I have designed sentences that coincide with the eighty cards in each deck. The manner in which they coincide will bring laughter, awareness, and even novelty to a student. If you have a young student then the simple sentences would be appropriate. If you have an older student, who either cannot read or reads without good understanding, then the original sentences would be ideal. Those sentences can be purchased directly from my website www.TheMerrittWay.com

On December 6, 2016, Interactive Metronome published a Case Study that proves the effectiveness of my technique. I had a 17 year old girl, who could read, But did not remember what she had read. The testing that I completed on Megan proved that she had nearly a five year gap in her expressive vocabulary. So she could read a story, but did not have the underpinning of an age appropriate vocabulary to help her make sense of what she had read. Megan used my A Time for Phonics Photo Flash Cards, she used my sentences, she learned the first ten steps of phonics to phonetically decode the majority* of the most commonly used words in only eight weeks of time. We post tested her in her visual processing skills and to her father’s insistence tested her expressive vocabulary skills. We were all pleasantly shocked to see that she had made 4-years, 10-months of progress in her expressive vocabulary skills and was then actually above her chronological age. Megan’s story can be found under the Publications link on my main website: "I really get it!" http://www.merrittspeech.com/wp-content/publications/Merritt_Speech_and_Learning_I_Really_Get_It_Megan’s_Case_Study.pdf Megan’s life has changed dramatically as a result of the application of the knowledge from this book.

I continue to be in private practice as a speech language pathologist and a vision therapist. I specialize in working with individuals with processing disorders. I have worked with children as young as 2 years old to adults who are speech delayed/disordered and language delayed/disordered. Most individuals are speech and/or language disordered due to some combination of visual processing disorder and an auditory processing disorder or trauma to the brain that caused a loss of those skills. This is not a book about all those subjects. I have acquired knowledge about how to drive experiences to enhance positive neuroplasticity, the Hebbian Learning Rule, and the rules in phonics. I want you to help that child (or that struggling adult) learn how to read and write. I believe being proficient in reading enables a person to continue to learn new things, no matter how old he or she is.

I used to think that a person who does not know how to read would be limited in the kinds of employment he could obtain. Now I realize that being proficient in math is even more critical than reading to being gainfully employed. Why is math so difficult for some people? Part of it is that there is confusion between symbols in math, 6, 9, +, -, <, >, and magnitude (the actual quantity.) So I have developed my own Math Made Fun Playing Cards http://merrittspeech.com/math-made-fun-through-playing-cards/ that reinforce these concepts while playing card games. I have even developed my own YouTube videos that teach others how to use these cards. http://merrittspeech.com/videos/ Once both of these phonics books are published I will devote myself to my next writing endeavor: BrainStorming Math. There I will teach you how to activate the ideal areas of the brain for math, working memory, and eye hand coordination skills. It is exciting. It is fun. It is life changing. When individuals know how to read, write, and do math The Merritt Way, then they can learn any subject they want to learn.

Sincerely,

Dana M. Merritt MS CCC

Speech Language Pathologist

Majority* = 89% of the most commonly used 300 words are phonetically decoded through the first 10 Steps of my A Time for Phonics Level One program. There are only 33 words not trained. Those skills to decode even those 33 words, along with the remaining 1,000 most commonly used words are taught in Steps 11-20.

Words: 1-100

the of and a to in is you that it he was for on are as with his they I at be this have from or one had by word but not what all were we when your can said there use an each which she do how their if will up other about out many then them these so some her would make like him into time has look two more write go see number no way could people my than first water been call who oil its now find long down day did get come made may part

--> have, people, call, find<

Words: 101-200