A program that teaches children to read at four times the rate of other reading programs - that's Rocket Phonics, according to a recent independent study evaluated by a UCLA professor.

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine spoke recently with Stephen Guffanti, MD. Along with his wife, Dr. Guffanti developed the exciting Rocket Phonics Program.

TOS: Welcome, Stephen! What is Rocket Phonics?

Dr. Guffanti: Rocket Phonics is a new and unique reading program that has outstanding results. In a recent study of homeschooled children, those using Rocket Phonics improved in reading nearly four times as much as the students using any other method, including Hooked on Phonics; Sing, Spell, Read, and Write; and Open Court.

Rocket Phonics combines phonics and sight words in a revolutionary way. Why does Rocket Phonics work so well? Kids learn to read by reading. And Rocket Phonics is the only reading Program that has cues that appear right with the word to show the child how to pronounce each word. We don't change the shape of the word, or the spacing or shape of the letters. And that's important. You want your child to practice reading the words as he will see them in later reading.

In fact, John Taylor Gatta, author and former New York State Teacher of the Year, was so impressed with Rocket Phonics that he endorsed it, saying "There isn't a better phonics around than Dr. Guffanti's Rocket Phonics. Follow these simple exercises and you will watch a miracle unfold before your eyes."

Our Method is so unique, that it has a patent pending.

TOS: Phonemic awareness is the number one indicator of reading success. Explain that term, please; how does Rocket Phonics create phonemic awareness?

Dr. Guffanti: Phonemic awareness is hearing the different sounds in words; in the word pat, it is hearing the /p/, /a/ and /t/. We use a variety of games to teach the 36 sounds of the English language - a comprehensive phonemic awareness. Most other reading programs use the 26-letter alphabet and show several sounds for each letter, or they drop or confuse some sounds, like ch or sh; Rocket Phonics' method ends children's confusion with reading. And because we use enjoyable games they like best. They are eager to do the Rocket Phonics lesson because it is so fun.

TOS: Including Phonemic awareness, there are five skills that every reader needs to master. Can you tell us, briefly, what they are?

Dr. Guffanti: Absolutely!

1. As you've noted, phonemic awareness is the first skill. It is the number one skill that predicts success in reading.

2. Phonics is taking the phonemic awareness and attaching it to letters, so the child looks at the letter m and says the sound mmm.

3. Sight words: words read in a second or less, not by blending each sound, but by recognizing the word itself. Research shows that memorizing lists of sight words is not helpful. Why? Because the words are memorized without meaning!

4. Fluency is reading smoothly at the speed that a person talks. Fluency allows the child to remember the beginning of the sentence or paragraph by the time he gets to the end; fluency is essential for comprehension.

5. Comprehension means understanding what is read. This is really the goal of reading.

These five skills are based on scientific research summarized in Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, developed by The Center for the US Department of Education.

Here's the key: we have 40 years of research, and multi-millions of dollars spent in research. None of it tells us how to get sight words. In fact, all the efforts to create sight words - whole language, literature-based, sight word programs, basal readers - have failed.

This is why 60% of the population has a hard time learning to read; no sight words, no fluency, no comprehension.

TOS: So how does Rocket Phonics help a child learn these other skills?

Dr. Guffanti: As the child sees the ea and thinks of the eeee sound (long e), then he is gaining the skill of phonics.

Our Play & Read Cards help children learn more quickly because the child associates the letter and its sound with the picture on the card. Children love to use the cards to play games like Bingo, Memory, Go Fish, and more.

Next, Rocket Phonics solves the problem of building sight words. This is what is unique about our method: we use the 36 sounds the children have learned through games as "helpers" to show the child how to pronounce each word. These helpers do exactly what mom does when she tells her child, "That e is silent."

A child as young as five years old may have a spoken vocabulary of 5,000-6,000 words. It can frustrate him to read stories with two or three words a page. He wants to read like he can talk! Also, the child may be independent, and may not want to ask for help. With Rocket Phonics he can read on his own. And as the child reads the words, they become sight words. Moreover, the child is reading jokes, and playing fun games like Simon Says or reading stories with depth to them, like Aesop's Fables.

Our method has two main advantages: your child is looking at the word instead of you, so he develops sight words faster. And your child is doing it by herself, so she develops confidence and is more willing to try harder words.

Much of the Reading in Rocket Phonics is done out loud, which is how children develop fluency, the forth skill. One of the side benefits of using games, jokes and riddles is that the reading material itself automatically tests for comprehension without the negative effects of testing - if they don't laugh at the joke, you know they didn't understand it.

Rocket Phonics includes comprehension questions, and discussing the stories develops comprehension, too. The beautiful thing about Aesop's Fables is that the stories have enough depth to discuss. What can you say about seeing Spot Run?

TOS: You are an M.D. What led you to your interest in reading?

Dr. Guffanti: In 1976 I was working in the emergency room of Los Angeles County Jail in East Los Angeles. I saw children killing children and despair in the eyes of their parents. These children were basically illiterate. About five years latter, I met similar kids learning math and English - and succeeding. This gave me hope that through education we can really make a difference. I said a prayer, "Lord, if I can help kids like these stop the killing, use me."

About ten years after that, I ran across the concept of the Initial Teaching Alphabet and all its problems. By then I had my own child and I started trying to solve the problems of the ITA. After homeschooling our daughter, my wife and I wrote the Rocket Phonics for children 5-9. (My wife is a former teacher, and besides being a medical doctor, I am a teacher and tutor.)

Several years later, I had UCLA test our products, and while I was waiting I said another prayer, "Lord, if the Rocket Phonics kids learn three times as much as the controls, then I will sell it to the public." The UCLA analysis showed that Rocket Phonics kids learned almost four times the traditional approach. So here I am.

TOS: Tell us more about the Rocket Phonics study.

Dr. Guffanti: In our study, UCLA professor James Catterall evaluated the pre- and post- test scores of 43 homeschool children who used a variety of reading methods, including Hooked on Phonics; the Phonics Game; Sing, Spell, Read & Write; Open Court - and Rocket Phonics. The Rocket Phonics children learned nearly four times as much as the children using any other method. Professor Catterall also found that no one who did more than one Rocket Phonics lesson failed to improve, while the controls (all other groups) had a 30 % failure rate!

TOS: What kinds of results are you seeing with Rocket Phonics students?

Dr. Guffanti: Tremendous results - one mom just told us that her son, who will turn nine in two months, used to cry when it came time to read. With Rocket Phonics, he actually took a book on his own and read it. Another mom said recently that her son, who used to hate reading, loves to read now; it's the first thing he asks for each day. Here's one more: a happy mom just wrote to us, "Since I purchased your program I have seen my daughter gain confidence and the ability, with no fear, to sound out words. We have covered an entire year of kindergarten in two weeks."

Dr. Stephen Guffanti is a medical doctor, teacher, and with wife Maureen, home school parent of Stephanie, age 14. Born with a passion for education, Dr. Guffanti, dyslexic and a kinesthetic learner, has focused on creating education that meets the needs of all children. Dr. Guffanti has served as the Medical Director of a rural clinic specializing in learning disorders.