Dr Marlynne Grant
BSc, Cert Ed, M Ed Psych, PhD, AFBPsS, C Psychol.
Registered as Educational Psychologist with HCPC (Health & Care Professions Council)
Dr Marlynne Grant practised for many years as a Local Authority Educational Psychologist. She conducted research into systematic synthetic phonics and created the programme Sound Discovery® and the ‘daughter’ programme Rapid Phonics using her extensive experience of working with children. Rapid Phonics was government approved and Sound Discovery® was re-validated in 2022 as a full systematic synthetic phonics programme.
Longitudinal research has shown Sound Discovery® to be effective with whole classes of children, and to be especially effective with vulnerable groups including the socially disadvantaged, English as an Additional Language, Special Educational Needs and dyslexia. No child was excluded from the research data, even those with complex Statements of Special Educational Needs. Over 11 years no child was diagnosed as dyslexic.
https://www.syntheticphonics.net/pdf/2014-Report.pdf
The study helped to inform government policy, as reported in Hansard (2004) and in the House of Commons report Teaching Children to Read (2005). The research results are referenced in the government policy paper, The reading framework, Teaching the foundations of literacy, (2021).
Marlynne was an Associate of the English Hubs Training Centre and provided English Hubs training, with her co-presenter Jackie Day, in some of the most disadvantaged areas of England. During the pandemic, she and Jackie wrote e-learning training packages to provide this training remotely. They also created child-friendly, active phonics lessons with decodable e-stories and printable e-booklets (Snappy Lesson® Videos). Samples of these lessons and booklets are available from the website: www.syntheticphonics.net.
Recently, Marlynne and Jackie have written a series of 24 decodable Bible stories, called Faith in Phonics™ with a Catholic publishing company, Redemptorist Publications. The Faith in Phonics™ series aims to complement a school’s existing synthetic phonics programme with decodable storybooks, providing a Christian faith focus. https://www.rpbooks.co.uk/faith-in-phonics
Dr Marlynne Grant
October 2022
Links to Marlynne’s on-going work in the field: