Summary of Phono-Graphix Research

Summary of Clinical Research Published in the Orton Annals of Dyslexia in 1996

 Eighty-seven children six to sixteen years of age, with reading and or spelling difficulties were trained in the Phono-Graphix method at the Read America clinic in Orlando, Florida. Training focused on phonemic awareness, phonemic processing, including segmenting, blending and manipulation, and code knowledge. The children received twelve or fewer hours of one-to-one training, supported by parental practice with Phono-Graphix materials designed to support the clinical activities. The clients included four children whose IQ scores were below eighty, thirty-five children who had been diagnosed by the school, or a private psychologist, as 'learning disabled' and four who had been diagnosed with severe vision problems. Thirty-one of the clients received three to six hours of Phono-Graphix reading therapy. Fifty-five clients received twelve hours of therapy, and five children had more than twelve hours at the parent's request, though the results mentioned here reflect their progress after twelve hours. The clients were pre-and post-tested using the four tests included in this manual, the Read America Segmenting Test, Blending Test, Phoneme Manipulation Test and the Code Knowledge Test. The clients were also pre-and post-tested on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Word Identification sub-test and Word Attack sub-test. The Woodcock is considered to be the definitive test of word recognition and nonsense word decoding among researchers and diagnosticians alike. The data were analyzed separately for three different age groups.

Gains on the Woodcock Word Identification Sub-Test

All data on the Woodcock sub-tests were converted to standard scores allowing the reader to compare gains across ages and tests, with one hundred representing the norm. At intake the six-to-seven-year old group, of which there were thirty-one children, had an average standard score of eighty-nine. After completion of therapy they had an average standard score of one hundred three. At intake the eight-to-nine-year old group of which there were twenty-seven children, had an average standard score of eighty-six. After completion of therapy they had an average standard score of ninety-nine. At intake the ten-to-sixteen-year old group of which there were twenty-nine children, had an average standard score of eighty-two. After completion of therapy they had an average standard score of ninety-seven. These gains, an average of fourteen standard score points, were phenomenal, representing gains that equaled and surpassed other methods that took seven to fourteen times longer to achieve.

Gains on the Woodcock Word Attack Sub-Test

The Woodcock Word Attack sub-test is a test of pure decoding, because it employs made-up words, words that the subject cannot have seen before. For this reason it is very revealing. At intake the six-to-seven-year old group had a standard score of ninety-two. After completion of therapy they had an average standard score of one hundred six. At intake the eight-to-nine-year old group had a standard score of eighty-eight. After completion of therapy they had an average standard score of one hundred eight. At intake the ten-to-sixteen-year old group had a standard score of eighty-four. After completion of therapy they had an average standard score of one hundred seven.