Develop. Men. Child Nerrrol. 1968, 10, 200-205

The Initial Teaching Alphabet and Educationally Sub-nornial Children

John Downing

Advantages of i.t.a. for ESN Pupils The Handicapped Pupils and Special

Schools Regulations, 1959, define ‘educa- tionally subnormal pupils‘ as ‘pupils who, by reason of limited ability or other conditions resulting in educational retarda- tion, require some specialised form of education wholly or partly in substitution for the education normally given in ordinary schools’. Thus the definition includes the retarded and pupils of limited ability as well as the innately dull. Pupils of this kind seem likely to be helped by i.t.a.* in three ways:

(a) The total burden of’diflculties of ESN pupils may be reduced by i.t.a. i.t.a. reduces the volume of learning which is necessary before the reading of continuous English IS possible:

(i) Each English word has only one print form in i.t.a.-e.g., dam only, not Dam, D A M , etc.

( i i ) The phonemes (sound units) of English have fewer representations in i.t.a.

( h ) i.t.a.’s greater regulurity may reduce the confusion of the ESN pupil. Vernon (1960) found that the major cause of backwardness in reading is ‘general cog- nitive confusion’. i.t.a. seems likely to reduce this confusion through its more

regular coding of the phonemes of English --e.g., i.t.a. does not contain gross irregularities of spelling such as are found in words like gone, done, bone, one and women. The different vowel phonemes represented by ‘0’ in these words are given different code signs in i.t.a.-thus, gon, dun, bm, wun and wimen.

i.t.a. also reduces the complexity of the code-e.g., the grouping operation to be done in words like char, chop or much. In cases where in traditional orthography (t.0.) the letters to be grouped are not even adjacent-e.g., lane, mine-this simplifica- tion in i.t.a. seems even more important in reducing the confusion of the ESN pupil.

(c ) i.t.a. provides a really.fresh start for ESN pupils who have jailed in t .0 . For ESN pupils who have failed to learn to read with t.0. the new characters of i.t.a. are visible proof that i.t.a. is different from the medium on which they experienced failure. When, however, ESN schools begin to receive pupils taught by i.t.a. in ordinary schools this ‘novelty’ effect will disappear.

One may anticipate some possible problems in the use of i.t.a. in ESN schools. For example, some ESN pupils will have learnt some t.0. previously and this may

* For a detailed description of i.t.a., see, for instance, Downing (1967).

Senior lecturer in Educational Psychology, University of London Institute of Education, London, W.C. I .

200 1967-68 Visiting Professor of Educational Psychology, University of California at B-rkeley, U S A .

JOHN DOWNING

interfere with learning i.t.a. Older ESN pupils with low IQS often have difficulty in unlearning and some may rigidly adhere to previous t.0. learning. Another problem with older ESN pupils is that, although more than 500 i.t.a. books have been produced by more than 40 different publishers, few of these have a content designed to interest the older backward reader.

Results of a Survey of ESN Schools using i.t.a.

In October 1965 a letter was sent to head teachers of special schools with ESN pupils in England, Ireland and Scotland where i.t.a. was reported to be in use. Each head teacher was asked to send in a report on the work being done with i.t.a. in his school. An open-ended approach was deliberately chosen to provide a picture of the head teachers’ spontcrneous reactions to their experience with i.t.a. It cannot be claimed that the 32 schools approached are rep- resentative of special schools with ESN pupils, and it is possible that some schools using i.t.a. have not been included in the survey.

Three of the schools had not in fact begun to use i.t.a., and four of the head teachers felt that they had been using i.t.a. for too short a time to judge its effects. The remaining 25 schools all gave favourable accounts of the effectiveness of i.t.a. for teaching ESN pupils. No school evaluated i.t.a. negatively.

Most of the schools were for ESN pupils below the age of twelve years but some had pupils up to the age of sixteen.

Eleven teachers stated that their pupils appeared to be more confident, self-reliant or independent as a result of using i.t.a. Thirteen teachers stated that i.t.a. had increased pupils’ interest and enthusiasm for reading or that the pupils had become more purposeful in their approach to reading and writing.

Three teachers stated that these improve- ments in attitude towards reading spilled over into other activities. One head teacher wrote: ‘They make a social adjustment more readily, and there is much less aggressiveness.’ Another comment from a headmaster was: ‘Behaviour in class has improved as children do not need so much individual help once the sounds have been learnt.’

Ten teachers specifically mentioned i.t.a.3 effectiveness in improving reading skills. Some of these teachers made only subjective assessments, but others gave objective data in support of their pro- fessional opinions. Five teachers expressed this observed improvement in terms of reading standards in their schools-for example: ‘The speed and standard of the reading in this class is faster and more accurate than in t.0.’

Nine teachers gave a more general response indicating that i.t.a. had proved a useful or effective aid in teaching ESN pupils to read.

Insight into the manner in which i.t.a. helps ESN children is provided by comments from three teachers :

‘i.t.a. also helps to overcome some of the difficulties experienced by some back- ward readers, in particular an unsystematic attack on unknown words and poor analysis and synthesis of words.’

‘We are most impressed by the all-round improvement and the reduction of guess- work, confusions and reversals.’

‘They are able to retain i.t.a. symbols more permanently than t.0. even after holidays or a period of absence.’

These phenomena observed by the teachers seem to indicate that i.t.a.3 chief value may be in helping ESN children to understand the task which they are being asked to undertake. In other words, i.t.a.’s simplicity and regularity provide the i.t.2. pupil with a chance to see that there is a systematic relationship between the written

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and the spoken language. It seems likely that what has been observed by these teachers are examples of n reclitction itz ,char Vernoii terms ‘general cogriitive COII-

*firsion’, and which she shows to be a prime cause of failure in learning to read.

The Transfer from i.t.a. to t.0. Reading Man); teachers indicated that this pro-

cess is not difficult and some had even found it ‘natural’ or ‘easy’.

Several head teachers provided objective data on reading attainments i l l 1.0. as a measure of i.t.a.‘s overall effectiveness, including the transfer to t.0. For example, the head of a Midlands school commented : ‘Of this group, those who had made a start at reading (in i.t.a.) were re-tested in t.o. Their average gain was 104 months.’ This was after six months on i.t.a.

A head teacher of an ESN school in the south-west of England reported that before the introduction of i.t.a., average progress was estimated at 0 .23 years of reading age per annum, as compared with 0.31 years since i.t.a. was used.

A headmaster of an ESN school on the south coast provided objective data on an experiment with i.t.a. he had conducted. Before the experiment began. in September 1962, 8 of a group of 9 children scored nil on Schonell’s Graded Word Reading Test. The other pupil could read only one test word on that same test. At the end of two school years. in Ju ly 1964, these pupils were tested on the Daniels and Diack Standard Reading Test ill 1.0. The poorest reading age was 5 years 9 months. The highest was 8: years. The other seven reading ages were 7, 8, 6, 7, 7 $ , 8: and 6 years 11 months.

Another group in this school who have used i.t.a. also began with very low reading ages. Five of these children have been tested in t.o. after the transfer stage. When they began i.t.a. their chronological ages

were between 6 and 8 years. Their scores on Schonell’s Graded Word Reading Test indicated reading ages of 5 years 1 month, 5 years 2 months, 5 years (nil score), 5 years 5 months and 5 years 4 months. After three terms the Daniels and Diack Standard Reading Test iii 1.0. indicated reading ages of: 7 years 5 months, 6 years 1 1 months, 7 years 4 months, 7 years 1 month and 7 years 1 month.

N o comparison is made between the beginning and later reading ages i n this experiment because the tests used were different. However, the reading ages measured by the second test-Daniels and Diack-provides a guide to the status achieved by these children after 2 school years for the first group and one school year for the second group.

Several schools tested the children on i.t.a. versions of the t.0. tests to find out whether their attainments would be superior if they were allowed to continue to read i.t.a. instead of transferring to t.0. In all cases the i.t.a. reading scores were superior to the t.0. scores on the same test. Thus, although a common judgement of the teachers seems to be that the transfer from i.t.a. is ‘not difficult’ or is even ‘easy’ or ‘natural’, in fact the objective data show that reading achievement as measured by standardised tests is set back when the test instrument is printed in t.0. instead of i.t.a. This confirms our findings i n the research on transfer from i.t.a. to t.o. with normal young children at the end of the Infants’ School or beginning of the Junior School. Although children gain in t.o. reading ability from a prior use of i.t.a., nevertheless they do not read a\ well a5

they could if allowed to continue to read in i.t.a.

Two headteachers remarked that some pupils showed a desire to make the transfer from i.t.a. to t.0. A teacher at an

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Approved School,* however, suggests that it may be a mistake to respond too eagerly to these requests to return to t.0. He wrote: ‘Here must be recorded our first major mistake, for within two weeks-that is, six weeks from commencement-two of the three boys who had transferred were back using i.t.a. symbols. The period of transference had not been long enough. Learning from this, we have found it better to “artificially” prolong this period.’

This confirms the experience of teachers in our infants’ schools experiment (Down- ing 1967). When i.t.a. is first introduced into a school a common error is to make transfer the goal, and, even though this may not be explicitly stated to the children, an ‘atmosphere’ develops among teachers and parents, and the children detect that t.0. reading and writing is desired by the adults they want to please. Teachers have become increasingly aware of this danger, and the general tendency is to postpone transfer until later when the children have become really fluent in reading i.t.a.

Effects of i.t.a. on ESN Pupils’ Writing and Oral Behaviour

Five teachers stated that i.t.a. had led to improvements in the writing of their ESN pupils. Three other teachers, however, stated that i.t.a. did not help children’s free writing. The headmaster of an Irish school reported: ‘The children’s creative writing did not seem to benefit from the use of i.t.a. . . . They were rather self- conscious about using ‘‘baby’’ reading and writing and in particular were anxious to conform with traditional orthography in their letter-writing.’

Little was said by these teachers about

* ‘Approved schools’ are residential establish- ments for the education and training of boys and girls ordered to be sent to them by the Court. A Court may order a boy or girl to be sent to an approved school if he or she has not attained the age of 17 and has been found guilty of an offence punishable in an adult by imprisonment (The Sentence ofthe Court, London: H.M.S.O., 1964).

the transfer to t.0. writing and spelling. One headmaster stated that there was ‘no indication that spelling is affected either way’.

However, one teacher had reservations about the effectiveness of i.t.a. because of difficulties in transfer to t.0. spelling: ‘We notice a perservation of i.t.a. in the third year children’s free written work. The ease with which the children express themselves more than compensates. for this small handicap.’

The teachers in these 25 schools have probably not been using i.t.a. long enough to be able to judge its general effects on the spelling of ESN pupils. It may be noted that normal children who begin with i.t.a. in the Infants’ School seem to be superior in spelling in the fourth year of school, according to the experience of the original i.t.a. experiment.

The oral responses of ESN pupils who were using i.t.a. were said to have improved by three teachers.

Teachers’ Criticisms of i.t.a. A number of criticisms were made of

i.t.a. However, these appeared to be reservations to otherwise favourable im- pressions, and in no case were such criticisms made as a purely negative evaluation of i.t.a.

It was remarked that some of the i.t.a. symbols were difficult for pupils to write. Two critical comments were made on the i.t.a. system from the point of view of reading: ‘There was no evidence that the ‘‘8’ and “b” sounds as written in i.t.a. help the ESN child to distinguish between the two.’ The same headmaster also commented that the i.t.a. characters for ‘th‘ and ‘wh’ created difficulties for many boys.

Four teachers’ responses indicated that not all ESN pupils are helped by i.t.a. One said ‘i.t.a. is a useful teaching aid but not a panacea . . . As a means to an end, i.t.a.

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has its place in a reading scheme in the f-sN special school but cannot be said to meet the needs of all children.’ This head- master had been using i.t.a. for 2; years. He indicated that intelligence level might separate off those whom i.t.3. might help. ‘With children of IQS below say 65, and those who have difficulty in associating the sound to the symbol, there appears to be little value in i.t.a. over any other system.‘ He added that ‘children who are “look and say’’ learners do not improke greatly as compared with the “phonic“ learners.‘ However, several of the tables of data sent in by other schools did shoLv improve- ments in children with IQS below 65. Also, another headmaster suggested that ‘there could be a case f r x the use of i.t.a. with the slower learners rather than with those ‘already making average or above average progress using other methods’.

A perhaps typically practical comment is the following: ‘There are, of course, exceptions and a feu of these children do not succeed, but as they would not have succeeded by any other method nothing is lost.’

The common difficulties of ESN children were often mentioned as making it hard for i.t.a. to succeed:

‘They do not know the names of some of the pictures.’

‘i.t,a. did not help any child to read and remember words such as “his”, “said” and “the“. for which there are no concrete images. Words such as these hinder the progress of all ESN children.’

‘This method suffers from the difficulty of many children to synthesize sounds in word building.’

‘The senior class objected to the “baby- ishness” of the early books . . . they reacted to the criticisms of some of their parents who thought the new alphabet was stupid.’

Conclusions The professional opinions of the teachers

i n the 25 ESN schools in this survey present a generally favourable evaluation of the effects of i.t.a. with such slow learners. Improvements in the pupils’ motivation and self-confidence were most frequently reported, but a number of schools provided test data showing actual improvements in t.o. reading after a period of instruction and practice in reading in i.t.a. Generally these teachers have found no obvious difficulty when children reach the stage of transition from i.t.a. to t.0. However, some objective test data provided by some of the schools show that on transfer the children read less well in t.o. than they can in i.t.a. Thus the overall improvement in t.0. reading attainment seems to occur in spite of some loss on transfer from i.t.a. to t.0. Perhaps such loss could be reduced if teaching methods were geared more to the needs of the transition phase. In particular it seems likely that transfer might be more effective if transition were postponed until the children were more fluent in reading i.t.a.

The transition might also be easier if the 1.t.a. system itself were improved. Evidence from the study of the use of i.t.a. for normal beginning readers (Downing 1967) indicates that improvements in the design of the i.t.a. characters and the i.t.a. spelling conventions may be desirable. This might lead also to easier writing for young beginners and slow learners-as is witnessed by some of the criticisms of i.t.a. made by the teachers in this present survey.

However, while i.t.a. has received general approval from the teachers in this survey of ESN schools, i t has been noted that i.t.a. is not a panacea. There is as yet insufficient evidence to determine which slow learners are likely to be helped most by i.t.a. and which will find it least helpful. ‘The only suggestions made by teachers in this survey are that it may be less helpful to the least intelligent and to those with poor auditory ability.

Many problems of the ESN child are, of

JOHN DOWNING

course, unaffected by the use of i.t.a. However, perhaps the chief value of i.t.a. is in reducing the total burden of difficulties from which ESN children suffer. For the

majority of them who have poor mental ability it represents an important reduction in the overall level of complexity and ambiguity in their environment.

SUMMARY The results of using the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) with educationally subnormal

(ESN) children are considered in the light of comments by 25 head teachers of ESN schools who have been using i.t.a. The results are generally encouraging. The pupils’ motivation and self-confidence is often improved, and some measurable improvement in reading standards is reported.

RGSUMB L‘alphabet spkcial d’apprentissage de lecture (Initial Teaching Alphabet) et les enfants

anormaux du point de vue de la pddagogie Les rtsultats de l’utilisation de l’alphabet specialis6 (Initial Teaching Alphabet ou i.t.a.)

dans l’tducation des enfants anonnaux sont Ctudits B la lumibre des commentaires faits par 25 directeurs d‘koles spkiales pour enfants arribrks, qui ont utilist l’i.t.a. Les rtsultats sont en g6nCral encourageants. L‘ardeur au travail des enfants et leur confiance en soi sont souvent amtliorkes, et on rapporte des progrbs objectivement apprkciables dans la qualitt de la lecture.

Note complkmentaire: L‘i.t.a. est un alphabet spdcial sans Cquivalent franGais, qui tvite la prononciation varide pour la m8me lettre. Chaque signe graphique correspond a un son et un seul.

REFERENCES Burt, Sir C. L. (1947) Mental and Scholastic Tests. 2nd ed. London: Staples Press. - (1948) Handbook of Tests for Use in Schools. 2nd ed. London: Staples Press. Daniels, J. C., Diack, H. (1958) The Standard Reading Tests. London: Chatto & Windus. Downing, J. A. (1963) ‘The augmented Roman alphabet for learning to read.’ Reading Teacher, 16, 325. - (1964) The i.t.a. Reading Experiment: Three Lectures on the Research in Infant Schools with Sir

James Pitman’s Initial Teaching Alphabet. London : Evans Bros., Chicago : Scott Foreman. - (1964) The Initial Teaching Alphabet, Explained and Illustrated. London: Cassell; New York:

MacMillan. - (1966) Evaluating i.t.a. London: Cassell. - (1966) ‘The initial teaching alphabet.’ I n Downing, J. A. (ed.) Proceedings of the First International

Reading Symposium. London: Cassell. - (1967) Evaluating The Initial Teaching Alphabet. London: Cassell. - Gardner, W. K. (1962) ‘New experimental evidence on the role of the unsystematic spelling of English

in reading failure.’ Educ. Res., 5,69. Georgiades, N. .I., Downing, 3. A. (Eds.) (1964) Report on the Uses of the Initial Teaching Alphabet in

Remedial Reading Classes in Primary, Secondary and Special Schools. London : Reading Research Unit, University of London Institute of Education.

Labon, D. (1966) ‘The initial teaching alphabet: a survey of its effectiveness in special schools.’ Bull. Brit. psychol. SOC., 19, A23. (Abstract).

National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales, Research Unit. (1967) The i.t.a. Symposium: Research Report on the British Experiment. Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research.

Schonell, F. J. (1945) Psychology and Teaching of Reading. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. Vernon, M. D. (1960) Backwardness in Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vernon, P. E. (1938) The Standardisation of a Graded Word Reading Test. London: University of London

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