Stanford Professor Bruce McCandliss found that beginning
readers who focus on letter-sound relationships, or phonics, increase activity
in the area of their brains best wired for reading.
(May 28, 2015) Beginning
readers who focus on letter-sound relationships, or phonics, instead of trying
to learn whole words, increase activity in the area of their brains best wired
for reading, according to new Stanford research investigating how the brain
responds to different types of reading instruction.
In other words, to develop reading skills, teaching students
to sound out "C-A-T" sparks more optimal brain circuitry than
instructing them to memorize the word "cat." And, the study found,
these teaching-induced differences show up even on future encounters with the
word.