NIGHTINGALE MONTESSORI
Reimagining Education Since 1978
Learning to read as a young child can be relatively easy for those of us who have a mind for it. But for some, learning to decode the complex English language can be a daunting task, particularly for children who are at risk for dyslexia and who may learn differently. Failure to master the basics early can seriously handicap subsequent learning. What if we could design a rigorously conceptual approach to preschool literacy that engages the greatest potential of every child, regardless of learning challenges, and strengthen their critical reasoning skills?
Our paradigm-shifting preschool literacy program engages the greatest potential of every child – regardless of learning challenges – and at the same time strengthens their critical reasoning skills. During the 48 years of pioneering this approach to teaching pre-school children how to read, this program has been particularly effective in facilitating the reading skills of children who are predisposed for dyslexia, thus reducing the cost of remedial intervention.
Sound Shapes Precision PhonicsTM is a breakthrough Montessori-based pre-school reading program that has been developed and tested at Nightingale for over four decades. Having recieved funding for its early development from the Turner Foundation in Springfield, it will soon be ready for publication and dissemination through your contributions to the Nancy Nightingale Schwab Memorial Fund,.
The method integrates the latest brain science with Maria Montessori’s foundational concepts of "isolation of difficulty" and "control of error." Building confidence in the child’s inborn “mathematical mind,” the program boosts their innate capacity to wonder, to inquire, and to think logically. It empowers their agency in learning.
How does Sound Shapes help children who are predisposed for dyslexia? Case studies and ongoing evaluations point to the program’s unprecedented success with all early learners, particularly those who may be at risk for dyslexia. In fact, it serves as an early diagnostic test allowing teachers to intervene proactively before dyslexia becomes more difficult to overcome. Interestingly, the child who has a predisposition for dyslexia is particularly strong in outside-the-box thinking skills, pattern recognition, and puzzle-solving. They typically strive to compensage for their cognitive differences by activating the reasoning part of their brain. If we boost their ability to access the inherent abilities in both dyslexic and typcial learners, we can leverage every child's agency in learning and empower them to become fluent readers!
How does Sound ShapesTM set itself apart from traditional phonics programs? Instead of requiring toddlers to memorize long lists of phonograms as the basic key to decoding words, we build on the toddler's inborn ability to discriminate the primary sounds of their mother tongue. The reading protocol begins by introducing them to a carefully selected lexicon of single-syllable phonetically-regular familiar words (cat, pup, tin, fog, net) before introducing the rules for the more unruly spellings of the English language. In other words, Sound ShapesTM uses a Sound-to-Print as opposed to a Print-to-Sound strategy for teaching literacy. Whereas traditional phonics programs begin with the alphabet letters on the page and asks the child to translate the letters into speech sounds, Sound ShapesTM reverses the order. It shows kids how to translate speech sounds into letter shapes. Having raised the child's awareness of speech sounds, how the mouth articulates each different sound, the teacher will ask, "How do we write that sound on paper?" This reversal of order follows the more natural sequence of human development: We all learn to talk before we learn the alphabet letters.