As Jay Blades is such an erudite presenter and is a highly skilled furniture restorer, it's a surprise to discover that Jay came to reading very late in life.
In fact Jay concealed his lack of reading skills until he was in his 30s, after he struggled to learn to read as a child.
It's an unfortunate truth that Jay isn't alone. Because a staggering quarter of all children in England leave primary school like Jay, unable to read as well as they should.
Almost seven million adults in the UK have very poor literacy skills. And many of them are too embarrassed to come forward to ask for help.
An inability to read properly has an adverse impact on all aspects of daily life. For example, reading signs, checking bills, reading urgent letters, registering to vote, voting itself or even being able to grasp health information. It also makes it hard to support their own children’s learning.
In the programme Jay meets other people who are on the same journey with Read Easy. Viewers will meet Jacky Smith who began learning to read in her 60s. Why? The main driving force was her desire to read with her 7-year-old granddaughter and to help her sister who has become partially sighted.
Jay also meets Jeff George, who at age 32, said: "The most important thing for me is to be able to read stories to my son who has just started school. That’s my goal. I’d also like to be able to understand more at work, and have other options career-wise for the future. Reading will open those doors for me. If I have a chance of something better I’m going to take it”.
Read Easy UK has 50 affiliated groups around the UK with over 1,100 volunteers providing free one-to-one reading coaching for adults who are unable to read. Readers meet volunteer coaches twice weekly to follow ‘Turning Pages’ an adult reading programme originally developed to help prisoners to learn to read..
Says Ginny Williams-Ellis, CEO of Read Easy UK, “Research shows 2.4m adults in England can’t read at all, or can barely read. Not being able to read as an adult is excruciatingly embarrassing for most adults."
She went on to say: "It generally follows years of humiliation at school, when failure to learn to read in the early years will have brought about a lack of ability to take part in the rest of the curriculum as they got older.
“For the vast majority this wasn't their choice, or their fault. It was nothing to do with their intelligence. There are many different reasons why a child might not learn to read in their first years at school.
"For some, undiagnosed or unsupported dyslexia, or unidentified sight or hearing problems, may have stopped them from learning. Others lacked learning support from parents or carers, or problems at home may make it difficult to concentrate at school.
“Phonics wasn't taught in most schools for many years from the 1960s and consequently many children did not learn the crucial decoding skills needed to make sense of text. It is arguable this had an impact on literacy levels in the UK generally, but it was a particular problem for those who already faced other challenges. So, however difficult it may be, nobody should feel embarrassed to admit that they didn’t get the skills they needed when they were children.
“I would urge any adult who is unable to read properly to have the courage to come forward, like Jay, and ask for help. It really is never too late to learn.”
To find out more about learning to read as an adult with Read Easy visit www.readeasy.org.uk
Had my mother not stepped in and taught me to read and write I believe that my literacy levels would be much lower than they are. My teacher, who, it transpired, didn't even have a teaching qualification(!) couldn't cope with my dyslexia.
Jay Blades: Learning to Read at 51 will broadcast on Wednesday 26th January at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
Incidentally there are a whole tranche of adults in their 50s and 60s who were initially taught to read and write with the Initial Teaching Alphabet, which proved to be an utter disaster as the plan was for children to have to forget the ITA that they had learned and then to re-learn to read and write using standard English. Many grew up to have severe literacy problems which still negatively impacts on their lives as adults to this day.
You can learn more about the Initial Teaching Alphabet debacle here:-
https://theliteracyblog.com/2015/05/14/i-t-a-a-great-idea-but-a-dismal-failure/
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/ita-initial-teaching-alphabet-anyone-else-a-victim.94314/
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