ABSTRACT
One of the main concerns for many primary school teachers is what to do with children who struggle with their reading. The ability to read gives access to so many areas of learning. For some children their difficulties may not be recognised early enough and this can make the job of catching up even more difficult. Some children start school already being able to read (Clark, 1976), many children become confident with their reading around age 6 or 7, but what is usually a small minority of children do struggle. There is growing evidence to suggest that nationally this minority of children are a problematic feature of education in England; this has been called a ‘long tail’ of under-achievement (Brooks et al, 1996:19). There is also evidence that the numbers of functionally illiterate adults in Western societies such as Britain is alarmingly high.
