Development of the Neuro-Reading Method
As with most
“great discoveries," this one came by accident. It took years to
recognize. I began to realize that there was something unusual about
reading when I was a student at the Defense Language Institute (D.L.I.)
in Monterey, California. I had recently joined the U.S. Army and
was assigned for training as a Russian Intelligence Analyst. It was
at D.L.I. that I began to look at the English language. I quickly
realized that I actually knew very little about English grammar.
I had always been a very good reader and had never had the occasion to
examine my grammar skills. Since they teach Russian by referring
to its English counterparts, D.L.I. quickly became a serious challenge.
It required that I learn English grammar in order to apply what I was learning
about Russian grammar.
Something else
happened at Russian school to prepare me for a careful examination of the
English language. I managed to learn Russian quite well yet I never
ever learned the names of the Russian letters. I did not even know
this until years later when I went to work for the National Security Agency.
I asked a fellow employee about a military unit known as B Company.
When I said the Russian for B Company, my co-worker informed me that I
was not saying B but instead I was saying the phonic sound for B.
I had no idea! How could I ever have learned enough about the Russian
language to be able to read, write, and speak on an advanced level but
not have learned the "A, B, C's"?
Years later,
I became a teacher, an elementary school teacher. The schooling I
received glossed over phonics, they assumed that I was already accomplished
in this area. When I applied for a job, and later began teaching
no one ever tested or asked me about my ability to teach phonics.
It was only when someone asked me to teach phonics did I realize how poor
my knowledge of the subject was. I then set out to learn phonics
seriously. Since I had always been an excellent reader, I had assumed
that at least I knew the basics. The basics, it turned out, was all
I knew. I was surprised to find out that there was a soft and hard
"g". When I looked at words with a soft g and words with a hard g,
I knew how to pronounce them perfectly. How could that be?
Had I learned the phonics skills and not the name of the skills?
No, the simple fact was that I had not learned the skills, per se, but
somehow had found a way to pronounce words correctly. I found that
I could not distinguish between the soft sounds for "e" and "i."
Long sounds I knew well.
What did this
mean? I had no idea and did not ask anyone. I set out to learn
phonics well and I did. I now know and feel comfortable with all
of the phonics rules. This skill came AFTER I had received my second
master's degree. I never gave it a lot of thought but after I received
a Ph.D., I began to wonder how I had become such a good reader with
such poor phonics skills.