A new survey shows that the controversial phonics check, a test for five and six year olds is is making children cry and confusing good young readers.
The survey from researchers at Newman University, Birmingham, and Leeds Beckett University is based on interviews from teachers and head teachers and it shows that the test is having a detrimental impact on young students.
Teachers wrote on the questionnaires that: “Children who are competent readers are becoming anxious and tearful over pseudo words,” and “Children are stressed. Some cry. It also results in an overuse of phonics when reading.”
Teachers and heads were particularly concerned about the inclusion of pseudo words: words such as "reb", "wup" and "meft", which are included to ensure that pupils are using phonic knowledge rather than memorisation to read.
One teacher noted, “I think that they [the pseudo words] just trip up the good readers who have to be coached into reading them as alien words and not to try and make sense of them as they would normally when they come across a word that they do not immediately recognise.”