Toe By Toe

You don't have to be trained in any field of Education to tutor with Toe by Toe.  In fact, the manual often works better with  non-professionals using it as they do not come to the task with any pre-conceived notions and thus simply follow the very detailed instructions to the letter.

The unique syllable division employed by Toe by Toe is very easy to use though it is not the syllable division generally used for the teaching of reading.  Once the sound of a phoneme has been taught using the 'polynons' (nonsense words), these rules can then be applied to any multi-syllabic word and  students find a whole new world of reading opening before their eyes. 

No matter what the nature of the student's literacy problem, they can be taught to read using Toe by Toe.  The severity of their problem may only be reflected in the length of time needed to get through the book.  Indeed, if the system is used with a 'non-dyslexic' child (i.e. one without learning difficulties) the rapid improvement in reading age is truly astonishing.

Read more at the parent website

I used this book with my daughter.  We enjoyed using it and were impressed with how well it set her up for reading any book. It teaches the principle of decoding very effectively.  A very reasonably priced reading programme!

There is a also a great support group available for teachers on Facebook that you can join here.

"This group is meant for parents in the USA and elsewhere who are teaching their own children how to read. We hope it will provide a useful platform for such parents to interact and support each other in this endeavour. Parents may be home-schooling their children, they may be concerned about their child’s lack of progress or may simply hope to give a child a head start in this vital area of education. The child may have an ‘official’ diagnosis of dyslexia or any other of the myriad labels used to describe struggling readers. It is our contention that all children should be able to learn to read using Toe by Toe and concerned parents need not rely on others to teach them. Toe by Toe, Keda Cowling’s life’s work, is all you need. You will also discover that the benefits flow both ways. i.e. Parents will gain as much from the process as you embark on the journey to literacy together. By providing this platform, our role will be to facilitate the interaction between parents but also to give informed advice whenever required."

Guidelines: This group is primarily for parents in North America teaching their own child to read with TBT. However, teachers, classroom assistants ('para-professionals' in the USA...), private tutors from North America or anywhere else in the world are also most welcome and will find the advice and support useful. All children are different and there are many approaches to the teaching of reading. We believe TBT is a very effective intervention but we fully respect other approaches and schools of thought. We are all trying to provide struggling readers with the precious gift of literacy, after all. Therefore, anyone using abusive, sarcastic or otherwise unpleasant language will not be tolerated. Similarly, anyone denigrating other people or other schools of thought will be removed from the group.

TBT is the distillation of decades of trial and error research done by Keda Cowling, a classroom teacher in the North of England in the 70’s and 80’s. As such, there is no theoretical underpinning to TBT but it is a supremely practical tool to help any struggling reader get a handle on reading skills. Anyone can act as a TBT ‘coach’ – if you can read, you can teach someone else to read using this little red book so parents are ideally placed to take on the role. TBT when it is done properly (i.e where the detailed instructions are followed to the letter) - will work in virtually every case - even with children diagnosed as ‘severely dyslexic’. The length of time it takes to get through the scheme varies depending upon the severity of the child’s condition and the frequency of intervention. Frequency is a very important factor so parents are ideally placed to achieve optimum results. With daily intervention, it is perfectly possible for a parent to take a child through the whole scheme in three months or less. It may take much longer with some children but you will get there in the end.

This group is meant for parents in the USA and elsewhere who are teaching their own children how to read. We hope it will provide a useful platform for such parents to interact and support each other in this endeavour. Parents may be home-schooling their children, they may be concerned about their child’s lack of progress or may simply hope to give a child a head start in this vital area of education. The child may have an ‘official’ diagnosis of dyslexia or any other of the myriad labels used to describe struggling readers. It is our contention that all children should be able to learn to read using Toe by Toe and concerned parents need not rely on others to teach them. Toe by Toe, Keda Cowling’s life’s work, is all you need. You will also discover that the benefits flow both ways. i.e. Parents will gain as much from the process as you embark on the journey to literacy together. By providing this platform, our role will be to facilitate the interaction between parents but also to give informed advice whenever required. Guidelines: This group is primarily for parents in North America teaching their own child to read with TBT. However, teachers, classroom assistants ('para-professionals' in the USA...), private tutors from North America or anywhere else in the world are also most welcome and will find the advice and support useful. All children are different and there are many approaches to the teaching of reading. We believe TBT is a very effective intervention but we fully respect other approaches and schools of thought. We are all trying to provide struggling readers with the precious gift of literacy, after all. Therefore, anyone using abusive, sarcastic or otherwise unpleasant language will not be tolerated. Similarly, anyone denigrating other people or other schools of thought will be removed from the group. TBT is the distillation of decades of trial and error research done by Keda Cowling, a classroom teacher in the North of England in the 70’s and 80’s. As such, there is no theoretical underpinning to TBT but it is a supremely practical tool to help any struggling reader get a handle on reading skills. Anyone can act as a TBT ‘coach’ – if you can read, you can teach someone else to read using this little red book so parents are ideally placed to take on the role. TBT when it is done properly (i.e where the detailed instructions are followed to the letter) - will work in virtually every case - even with children diagnosed as ‘severely dyslexic’. The length of time it takes to get through the scheme varies depending upon the severity of the child’s condition and the frequency of intervention. Frequency is a very important factor so parents are ideally placed to achieve optimum results. With daily intervention, it is perfectly possible for a parent to take a child through the whole scheme in three months or less. It may take much longer with some children but you will get there in the end.

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