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Frequently Asked Questions &Research Supporting Reading Movies™
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EDUCATOR & READING SPECIALIST  "Any student who is sitting and watching these Reading Movies, even though they think that they are just watching a movie that is entertaining to them, their brains are seeing words, they are comprehending words, they are reading whether they realize that they are or not. Think about it, if they sit down and watch a couple of these movies each week, they are spending ten hours a week reading and of course that’s going to benefit any child. These Reading Movies are absolutely revolutionary, by combining education with entertainment."   "Reading Movies makes the student read with the fluency that he understands spoken language. This is the power of this program which excites me like no other I have known in over 30 years that I have studied and taught Reading and Language Arts and Sciences. These Reading Movies takes the language as it is spoken and written and integrates it fully into the entertainment. So as the students are enjoying the movie and following along with the spoken words, the written words are right there and become identified in the minds of the students, with the spoken words, and that is the thing that makes for a good reader and for a good reader to become a master reader.”  "I have seen a big change in my daughter’s and even in my life, because no matter what language you speak at home, Reading Movies gives you the skills to read better"  "..After they watch these movies they want to read and they want to do it on their own. I have already seen it improve my daughters reading level. As soon as she finished watching 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, she went to the school library and took out the book and read it. This was the first book she took out."  DJ went from a C, D, F average in school, but since we got Reading Movies, DJ has been averaging B’s and sometimes A’s. He surprised even me, because now he just wants to read and read and read. |
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| “Who is to blame when children do not read enough?” |
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| In researching the question of “Who is to blame when children do not read enough”, Specially For Kids made special note of Department of Education statistics which state that children spend an average of 4 to 6 hours daily, watching TV and movies. | ||||
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According to "BECOMING A NATION OF READERS" – the report of The Commission on
Reading, there is a negative relationship between the amount of time children
spend watching TV and movies, and their reading achievement. Additionally, education experts, at the state and national levels, tell us that children as young as 5 years of age need to have 4-6 books read to them each day, and older children should read 25-50 books per year, of increasing complexity, in order to become fluent readers and literate adults. How can concerned librarians, parents and educators reconcile these seemingly opposite realities? This is a dilemma. Our children’s time, which should be available for reading, seems to be locked in a losing battle with their ‘entertainment viewing’. Imagine how much easier children could develop their reading skills if, while they were watching a movie, the words being said streamed out of the mouths of the actors in printed form, at the exact moment they were speaking . Imagine this concept also as a methodology for learning a new language. Well, imagine no more, Specially For Kids has reconciled the dilemma with READING MOVIES™: With the Reading Movies™, made Interactive with WordPlay Dictionary and Games™ the way our children develop and improve their reading and language skills has been revolutionized. As we know, reading is a complex skill requiring the coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information. The latest research has shown that: 1. Children need explicit instruction in letter-sound relationships (phonics) 2. Reading is a constructive processes - children draw upon their store of knowledge to interpret what they read and to extract meaning from it (whole language). Reading Movies™ combines Phonetics and Whole Language learning in a highly motivational and fun way. Reading Movies™ connects children to the broader purposes of printed language, which is, that words and written language can serve the functions of entertaining us and informing our world. |
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| READING IS FOR LIFE. | ||||
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By Dr. Bernabe Feria Ph.D. Oxford University Authority in Reading and Learning Sciences Advisor to READING MOVIES™ In order to succeed not only in school but throughout their entire lives, children must develop good reading skills. In school, reading is the essential tool for success in every other subject. In the early years of nursery school and elementary school, by far the greatest amount of time and effort are devoted to reading (and writing) and arithmetic—and a good part of the early studies in arithmetic actually are learning to read and write the numbers and symbols for numeric operations. After all, “2 + 2 = 4” is nothing more than the numeric form of a sentence. To succeed in school in these years is to succeed at reading. When children start third grade, at the age of seven or eight, the curriculum expands considerably. In part, this reflects the rapidly developing intellectual capacity of the child, but mostly it happens at this point because children can now read—their textbooks are now real “text” books, not just picture books. Children are now expected more and more to learn on their own, by reading, with only books as their teacher! From this point on, reading is the essential tool for success in every subject and every academic pursuit, all the way up to university level education. In daily life as well, reading is probably the single most important skill that helps a child mature into an adult. There is hardly a task—no matter how mundane—that is not made easier by reading; and, sometimes, even the simplest task is impossible without reading! Success in life hinges on the ability to earn a living. What job today can be done without reading? Even a car mechanic has to consult a stock sheet or catalog to by able to order a part or run a computer program to help diagnose a problem. Virtually all of us, from clerks to CEO’s read (and write) constantly—and technology has only increased this trend, at a staggering rate. E-mail, for instance, has made written communication instantaneous and ever-present. Advancement in a career—or merely keeping up—depends heavily on reading. It is the means by which the accountant keeps abreast of changes in the tax laws, the doctor of the latest advances in medicine and the securities investor of the latest market fluctuations. Finally, and not least importantly, reading should be a source of pleasure, of wisdom and of inspiration for a lifetime. Children learn to read and write in three stages. In the first stage, typically lasting until the age of five or six, children learn: • to recognize and write the letters of the alphabet in their various forms (printed and cursive, lower and upper case); • to use the commonly used marks of punctuation as well as to follow the conventions that govern ordinary written texts, such as the use of spaces between words, capitalization to mark the beginnings of sentences and so on; and • to “sound out” clusters of written letters that form short, simple words; • to write clusters of letters that are correctly strung together to “spell out” such words. In the second stage, typically continuing for a couple of years until the age of six or seven, children learn... • to recognize immediately on sight an ever growing stock of a few hundred words; • to write these words readily; • to read in phrases and even whole sentences, when the sentences are short enough; and • to give attention not just to individual words, but to the thought of the text. As early as age eight or nine and, in any event, no later than ten, children should reach the third stage in which they learn: • to read with the facility and fluency with which they use spoken language; and • to recognize, appreciate and emulate finely crafted language. Parents may help their children learn to read not only by encouraging them and following closely the children’s progress in their studies, but also—very powerfully—by their own example. Children are much more likely to read if they see their parents reading, and especially if they see their parents reading for pleasure. In order to prepare infants and toddlers for reading, parents can ... • talk to the children and encourage them to use words as the children are learning to speak; • provide picture books; • choose toys such as blocks or puzzles that feature letters of the alphabet, numbers or short words; call the child’s attention to these letters, numbers and words casually from time to time in play; and • start introducing the children orally to nursery rhymes, songs and stories which in due course they will read. With three and four year olds, parents can ... • begin reading to the children regularly; • familiarize the children with the letters of the alphabet and the sounds associated with them as well as with the spelling of short simple words that the child knows (“CAT,” “DOG,” etc.); • encourage them to draw with crayons or other safe implements and casually teach them to form letters and short words; and • reinforce these first steps toward reading with books, games, puzzles, recorded songs and educational television programs. While their children are in the first stage of learning to read, parents can ... • systematically and regularly help their children to practice “phonetics,” i.e., the relation of various speech sounds to their graphic representation with letters of the alphabet, combinations of letters or letters occurring in specific patterns (e.g., Long Vowel / Single Consonant / Silent Final “E”); • Use the child’s text book and homework assignments as a guide to what to work on. • When possible, cast the practice as a game or recreational activity such as solving a puzzle. For these activities, educational toys and learning aids such as flash cards are available, though elaborate, expensive items are not necessary or even helpful. • review a child’s homework daily; • ask the child what she or he learnt in school that day; • read to (and with) the child daily, choosing high quality material that the child enjoys; • if there seems not to be enough time for these activities, make time by foregoing television, video games, etc. - Or find materials which uses television and video games interactively to encourage and teach reading. • Teaching priorities is an important part of educational and moral development. While their children are in the second stage of learning to read, parents can • continue to practice “phonetics” if a child still regularly sounds out words or has great trouble with spelling; • play simple word games in order to practice spelling; • review a child’s homework daily, with a careful eye to correct spelling and proper usage; • continue to ask the child what he or she learnt in school that day; • read to (and with) the child daily, choosing high quality just beyond the child’s current reading level. Once their children begin the third stage of learning to read, parents can ... • continue to check homework and monitor progress in class, discussing with the children and their teachers what could be done to help with any difficulties; • continue regular, daily reading sessions, encouraging the children to do the reading or to take turns with parents and older siblings in doing the reading; • encourage the children to read widely for pleasure and to discuss in the family circle what they have read. • encourage the children to write for pleasure, either creatively (original stories and poems, contributions to a school paper, keeping a diary, etc.) or socially (thank you notes, get well notes, holiday notes, letters to friends or family members, letters to pen pals, etc.) |
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| READING MOVIES™ HAVE BEEN PROVEN TO HELP | ||||
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READING MOVIES has been proven to help children develop their reading skills no matter at what stage they may be in their reading skills. In fact, a single Interactive READING MOVIE can be used profitably again and again over a period of years to develop different sets of skills as the children progress from one stage to the next. Reading Movies™ is an interactive product which is proven to encourage, teach and improve reading, vocabulary and comprehension skills by its use of a patented media technology which activate the cognitive elements of the brain, so that the development of both reading and spoken language skills takes place as a natural by-product of watching these movies: made even more powerful by virtue of being an integral part of the child’s ‘entertainment viewing’. The Journal of Biological Psychiatry has published a remarkable 2004 study, which every parent should immediately be aware of. It read that: “… after a one year study of children with poor reading skills, who received a variety of interventions commonly provided within the school setting, including remedial reading, resource room, special education, modified classroom, speech and language and tutoring…….” … and after studying also, a separate but similar group of children also with poor reading skills who were specifically given only reading lessons built around sound – symbol associations, couched in evidence based narrative which appealed to a sense of enjoyment….( such as that which is found in Reading Movies™) …. before and after MRI of the brain, of both groups, showed that the second group of children…(using learn to read principles similar to those found in Reading Movies™ ), showed a remarkable increase in the Occipitotemporal regions of the brain responsible for skilled reading and had a dramatic improvement in their reading skills and fluency. In the first stage, READING MOVIES™ help children learn ... • to associate spoken language with its written representation; • to recognize more readily individual written words which they have learnt in school; and • to recognize on their own words that they know, but have not yet encountered in written form. In the second stage, READING MOVIES™ help children learn ... • to recognize immediately on sight words drawn from the reading vocabulary that has been taught at school; • to recognize on their own words which they know, but have not yet encountered in their reading; and • to read in phrases for meaning. In the third stage, READING MOVIES™ help children learn ... • to read with facility and fluency at the same rate as language is spoken; • to widen their vocabulary naturally, as they encounter new words and deduce their meaning from context; • to use a dictionary and develop the habit of consulting reference works on their own; • to learn more difficult vocabulary by using a reference work; • to read with pleasure and for pleasure. Patented ReadSpeak™ is used under license from Readspeak Inc. US. Patent Nos. 5,741,136,5,938,447,6,062,863 and 6,273,726B1 • Reading Movies™ © 2003 © 2004 SFK Media Corp. • All rights reserved • No unauthorized copying of this site without written authorization from SFK Media Corp Home | Testimonials | For Educators | All About Reading | Order Now | Previews | About Us |
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