Boys do better than girls when taught under traditional reading methods

The use of more traditional phonetics-based lessons helps boys catch up with girls - even doing better on some tests - and prevents some children from needing 'special' schooling, according to new research findings.

A study of synthetic phonics also found children from disadvantaged backgrounds do as well as those from better off homes.

The research, presented at the British Psychological Society's annual conference in York, has underpinned changes being made in the nation's classrooms.

They have been introduced after damning revelations that four in 10 children have failed to master the three Rs by the time they leave primary school.

There has also been concern about the growing gender divide in achievement, starting in primary schools.

Under the synthetic phonics system, children are taught the sounds that make up words rather than guess at entire words from pictures and story context.

Rhona Johnston, a professor of psychology at Hull University, and Dr Joyce Watson of St Andrews University, studied the results from 300 children originally given training using synthetic phonics when they were five.

The progress of the group at primary schools in Clackmannanshire was compared with 237 children using the more usual analytic phonics approach.

Boys taught using synthetic phonics were able to read words significantly better than girls at the age of seven, with all pupils ahead of the standard for their age.

Boys were 20 months ahead while girls were 14 months more advanced than expected.

At the end of the study, boys' reading comprehension was as good as that of the girls, but their word reading and spelling was better.

Children from disadvantaged areas who received synthetic phonics training kept up with children from well off areas until the seventh year at school, whereas those taught with usual methods fell behind five years earlier.

Prof Johnston said: "The results of this long term study continued to show benefits to children of using this particular technique of teaching.

"All children can get the most out of learning to read using synthetic phonics.

"We found children were performing well who might otherwise have ended up in special teaching arrangements," she added.

"Teachers told us they had fewer disciplinary problems and less trouble in the playground because boys were succeeding and had higher self esteem."

Professor Johnston's work has been influential in persuading the Government to re-write its national literacy hour - returning to a system that dates back to Victorian times.

Synthetic phonics fell out of favour in the 1960s and 1970s in favour of progressive 'child-centred' learning that was championed for decades by educationalists in the Labour movement.

Some primary schools have already introduced the system and the remainder are expected to do so this autumn, said Professor Johnston.