1. Who is the program for?
2. At what age can I start the program with my child?
3. Till what age can the system be used?
4. How long does a session take each day?
5. How many sessions should there be in a week?
6. Where does my child start in the system?
7. How long does it take for my child to complete the Phonics Plus Five system?
8. What level of reading will my child achieve?
9. Can the program be individualized for my child?
10. How do I know if my child is making progress?
11. How does Phonics Plus Five fit with the program my child is using in school?
12. I am worried about my child's progress in learning to read, but my child's teacher tells me not to be concerned. She says I have been told that my child has a learning disability. Can he or she use the program?
13. It's wonderful that my child does not have to memorize all those sounding out rules. But without those rules, how is he or she going to be able to figure out new words?

1. Who is the program for?
Phonics Plus Five is aimed at children in the general school population, or those who will be going to the general school population. The program is designed primarily for three groups:

• young children who are 4 years of age and up whose parents want them to get into reading in a smooth, problem-free way and have a leg up in school. If your child has been attending preschool, or kindergarten, then the program is likely to suit him or her well.
  
• children in the early primary grades of school whose parents want them to attain the highest possible level of skill in reading, writing, and comprehension so that they shine in all aspects of literacy.
  
• children in the primary grades who are, often inexplicably, experiencing difficulty in learning to read.

2. At what age can I start the program with my child?
Dr. Blank recommends starting the program when your child is 4 to 5 years old. If you do, smooth patterns of reading are established at the outset and school performance is greatly improved. However, if your child is already in the primary grades and is experiencing difficulty in learning to read, you can begin using this program at any time.
The basic requirement is that your child should, without strain, be able to work on activities for 15 to 20 minutes at a time.

3. Till what age can the system be used?
Phonics Plus Five can be used with children of any age who need the skills it provides. However, it is best if the programs are used up through about 10 years of age.

4. How long does a session take each day?
Each day's session takes only fifteen to thirty minutes, depending on which lesson you are doing and your child's proficiency with that particular task.

5. How many sessions should there be in a week?
The more frequent the sessions, the faster the progress. Children who are not yet in first grade should use the program at least four times per week. Children in first grade and up should use the program at least five times per week, and, if possible, they should use it every day.

6 . Where does my child start in the system?
Phonics Plus Five is designed to start a child off at exactly the right level. You determine this by carrying out a short skills check with your child. As a rule, children who have no reading skills, or very limited reading skills, start with the first set of programs: the Get Set level which teaches visual sequencing and handwriting skills. Following this, there are five reading/writing programs: Boarding, Runway, Liftoff, Airborne and Soaring. Depending on their level of proficiency, children who already have some reading ability start with one of these programs.

7. How long does it take for my child to complete the Phonics Plus Five system?
The length of time your child will need to complete the Phonics Plus Five system varies depending on your child's skills. To complete the entire set of programs takes about fifteen months, assuming your child starts at the first level and completes about five sessions a week. Some children can take a little longer (up to one and a half years). Many children, who already have some reading skills, can often complete the program in as little as three to six months.

8. What level of reading will my child achieve?
With completion of the final program, your child will be reading at about third grade level. More importantly, he or she will have a broad set of skills that will improve learning in all other areas. Among these are the ability to read with total accuracy, to attain fluent decoding, to develop accurate writing, to use punctuation and to achieve full understanding. These skills not only supply reading mastery, but of equal importance, they supply the sense of confidence that effective reading requires

9. Can the program be individualized for my child?
Absolutely. That is another great feature of Phonics Plus Five. In the Get Set programs, which teach visual sequencing and handwriting, you are provided with clear criteria for determining when and how to move on to the next level.
Once you start the reading/writing programs (the Boarding, Runway, Liftoff, Airborne, and Soaring programs), there are a number of features that allow you to individualize the programs. For example, before any word is taught, you carry out a mini-skills check that tells you if your child already knows the word. If he or she does know it, you bypass it and move on to the next word. So all your child's time is focused on learning material not known, and not on what has already been learned.
In addition, at the end of each of the Boarding, Runway, Liftoff, Airborne, and Soaring programs, there are Progress Checks that tell you if your child needs any review. The program guide then tells you exactly how to carry out any review activities.

10. How do I know if my child is making progress?
You will notice obvious progress almost immediately. You will see your child easily completing and remembering many reading and writing tasks. As confidence grows, he or she will also begin to read signs and other new material. Further, the Progress Checks at the end of each reading/writing program provide you with a clear measure of your child?s increasing mastery.

11 . How does Phonics Plus Five fit with the program my child is using in school?
Phonics Plus Five works extremely well with any other program your child may be using. As your child masters the system underlying effective reading and writing, all their learning skills improve, and so classroom performance and grades are naturally improved as well

12. I am worried about my child's progress in learning to read, but my child's teacher tells me not to be concerned. She says
Should you be patient while your child has difficulty with the single most important skill he or she needs for learning in life? No, absolutely not! While the common, well-intended advice is to be patient, it is not wise to follow it. Even if your child's skills were to even out in a couple of years, during that lag, your child is steadily comparing himself or herself to peers and is coming up short. The damage to morale and self-esteem cannot be overestimated. Why not offer your child every opportunity for success? There is no advantage in waiting for things to clear up and every advantage in helping your child succeed right now

13. It's wonderful that my child does not have to memorize all those sounding out rules. But without those rules, how is he or she going to be able to figure out new words?
In English words, letters take on very different sounds depending on the letters that surround them. Consider the “s,”sound, for example, in sun and sand versus sure and sugar. If you want to “explain”these differences, you have to offer a child almost 600 rules just to get to third grade reading. And still, the rules are filled with exceptions. Even the “at”combination--a bedrock in early reading instruction—changes its sound in the majority of words in which it appears –as you can see in words such as watch, great, attack, bath, what. The variations in sounds do not trouble good readers because, from early on, their focus is not on individual letters, but rather on the patterns formed by letter combinations. That is why, even though they may have been taught that “ph”sounds like “f”they do not for a moment think that a word like “uphill”should be pronounced “ufill.”All the activities in Phonics Plus Five have been designed to lead a child to see key letter patterns. With that skill fostered in each session, figuring out new words becomes easy and appealing.

Questions about early readers

1. Is Phonics Plus Five good for children who are in preschool or kindergarten?
2. My four year old is starting to recognize words. Is that a sign that this might be a good time to start teaching reading?

1. Is Phonics Plus Five good for children who are in preschool or kindergarten?
Phonics Plus Five is ideal for young children.  You will not find anyone who is more eager to read than children in this age group. But most reading programs are not suitable because they call for skills that the children do not have. For example, memorizing lots of complex rules. Phonics Plus 5, on the other hand, has been specifically constructed to avoid having to learn any rules. The lessons are also designed to be short, generally requiring only about 15- 20 minutes. So a teaching session never drains their effort or attention. And they love the books which they are able to start reading after learning only 8 words.  By starting the system before first grade, the children become stars in their class. The end result is a level of confidence that sets them on the path to steady success.

2. My four year old is starting to recognize words. Is that a sign that this might be a good time to start teaching reading?
For many young children, reading is a magical world they would love to enter. The drive to figure out words on their own is one sign of this interest and it is great to do everything possible to foster it. So it's fine to teach your young child to read as long as he or she meets a few basic criteria. These are the ability: to sit and do school like activities for 15 minutes at a time: to express ideas in complete sentences, to match shapes, and to hold a marker or pencil for writing or drawing. If your child has these abilities, he or she is a good candidate to become an early successful reader.

Questions about learning disabilities

1. I have been told that my child has a learning disability. Can he or she use the program?
2. Can Phonics Plus Five work with children diagnosed with dyslexia?
3. Can Phonics Plus Five work for children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)

1. I have been told that my child has a learning disability. Can he or she use the program?
While Phonics Plus Five has been designed for children with typical abilities, children with learning disabilities can definitely benefit from it. As a prestigious government report acknowledges, 80 percent of children with learning disabilities are in special education "simply because they haven't learned to read." They are "instructional casualties and not students with disabilities." [A New Era: Revitalizing Special Education.(2002, p.25). President"s Commission on Excellence in Special Education, Washington, DC.]

2. Can Phonics Plus Five work with children diagnosed with dyslexia?
Phonics Plus Five is definitely useful for children diagnosed with dyslexia.  The system has been designed to teach a range of skills vital to reading but omitted from other programs. Many of these skills are precisely the ones that children with dyslexia need to develop. For example, the children often have problems with visual memory so that even when they have seen a word many times, they do not recognize it. From the start and in every lesson thereafter, visual memory is a key skill in the Phonics Plus Five system. Other features of the system address the specific language deficits associated with dyslexia, such as the notable difficulties they have with the "little" words that permeate each page such as "there, who, of") In combination, they work to steadily build the fund of skills the children need to become fluent readers and writers.

3. Can Phonics Plus Five work for children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)?
Children with ADD typically blossom with use of Phonics Plus Five. Central to the children's problems are difficulties in being diligent with “boring”activities. That's why their spelling is often so weak --and inconsistent. In a single paragraph, a child may write a word like night in several different ways (nite, knight, niet). As the name of the syndrome tells us, the kind of attention to detail that spelling requires is a Herculean task for them.  But if the children are to progress, it is vital that they develop a reasonable level of diligence. This can be done  -- but it must be achieved through small, clear, manageable activities that never leave the children feeling overwhelmed. That is precisely how the Phonics Plus Five sessions are constructed. They are also designed to minimize error so that the children consistently feel the success that keeps them willing to learn.