Visual Phonics Survey- Project Website

Rachel Friedman Narr, California State University, Northridge
Stephanie Cawthon, University of Texas, Austin

VISUAL PHONICS SURVEY

 

The purpose of this study is to gather and describe data from professionals in education who use See-the-Sound/Visual Phonics (also known as Visual Phonics) in teaching and educational settings.

Visual Phonics is reportedly used by teachers to teach reading with a wide variety of children, including those who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, those who have Learning Disabilities, Autism, or Cognitive Disabilities, and with children who are just learning to read or perhaps struggling with reading process. Several experimental and quasi-experimental studies have shown that Visual Phonics is a valuable tool for teaching the phonological and phonemic aspects of print with students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (Narr, 2008; Trezek & Malmgren, 2005; Trezek & Wang, 2006; Trezek, Wang, Woods, Gampp, & Paul, 2007). There is no other published information related to the efficacy of Visual Phonics as a tool to teach reading and despite the call to use evidence-based practices in reading instruction (National Reading Panel, 2000), only strong andecdotal evidence and word-of-mouth has propelled Visual Phonics into the gamut of reading strategies used with struggling readers across the country.

Critical information about HOW Visual Phonics is implemented in the classroom and perceived outcomes of its use have not been reported in the literature.

Questions guiding this study are:

1. What is the professional background of teachers who use Visual Phonics?

2. In what ways do teachers use Visual Phonics to teach reading to their students?

3. What are the characteristics of students for whom they find Visual Phonics most beneficial?

4. What are teacher’s perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of Visual Phonics?

No hypothesis is currently proposed because this is an exploratory study.