702 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 
(iii) How Children learn to Read. By Barpara Foxury, M.A. 
English children are taught to read in one of three ways :— 
1. The Spelling Method.—C-a-t, cat; d-o-g, dog. This method, banished from 
schools under Government inspection still flourishes in many other schools, and 
it oceasionally intrudes itself into most schools through the well-meant but 
mistaken efforts of parents and grandparents to supplement the work of the 
school-teacher. 
2. he Phonic Method.—The child is taught, not the names of the letters, but 
their sound-values, singly or in combination, e.g., o-x, ox; b-ox, box; f-ox, fox. 
This method is generally adopted in schools under Government inspection. 
3. The Look-and-Say Method.—The child is not taught to analyse the word in 
any way, but to use it in some practical connection. Z.g., a picture of a canary 
gives him the clue to the word printed under it; a command, ‘Geoffrey, feed the 
canary,’ is read and carried out. The child soon learns to ‘look and say’ the 
word or phrase in other contexts. Very often phonic analysis is introduced when 
the child can read fairly fluently. This method has long been used by some of 
the most thoughtful teachers; recently it has attracted much attention in 
America, and it is now being used in an increasing number of English schools. 
Individual children, and even classes of children, taught on any one of these . 
methods, learn to read quickly and well. This has usually been attributed to 
some variable condition, such as a zea!ous teacher or the child’s desire to learn. 
A good many attempts have been made to determine the average time spent 
in learning to read, but the results are very conflicting. The observations I 
have made have been directed, not to the results of the different methods, nor 
yet to the processes carried out by the teacher. I have tried to observe and 
record the processes carried out by the scholar. By the courtesy of various 
head-mistresses and class-teachers I have been able to watch the reading 
lessons and to record what took place; the result of my observations may be 
briefly stated. There are three ways of teaching reading, but only one way of 
learning to read. So long as the teacher says, ‘Spell it,’ or ‘Sound it,’ when 
the child is confronted with an unfamiliar word, so long as she writes its letters 
or syllables on the blackboard, the child follows her lead, though it is often clear 
from his look and voice that he does not get the sense of the word he pronounces 
correctly. Left to himself he scarcely ever uses either method of word-analysis, 
but falls back on the method of finding a clue in the context, and so soon as he 
gets into the habit of doing this, so soon does he really begin to read with under- 
standing and with fluency. 
At a later stage I have found children taught on the ‘ Look-and-Say’ method 
adopt a method of analysis, but not a phonic method. A child notices that 
two words, ¢.g., window and windy, look alike; he announces his discovery to the 
class, and it becomes a favourite pastime to look out for such likenesses; how 
far this is accompanied by attention to sound likenesses I cannot say. I have 
not observed any instance of spontaneous phonic analysis in connection with 
printed symbols, though children delight in the sound of rhymed words. i 
Tf my observations are correct it seems that children do not learn to read by 
means of analytical methods, but in spite of them. 
(iv) The Psychology of Writing. By Dr. W. Brown. 
See Reports, p. 337. 
(v) Movements in Handwriting. By Roserr R. Rusx, M.A., Ph.D. 
The demands which society makes on the schools in regard to the subject of 
handwriting have changed within recent times. A generation ago, the average 
member of the community was not called upon to do much writing, and what, 
writing was done was usually intended to serve some permanent purpose. At 
present the requirements of society in regard to the amount of writing demanded 
of its members are considerable. This necessitates that the writing should be 
executed with the least expenditure of energy and that it should be performed 
