Pitman Alphabet

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31384, 1 June 1967, Page 10

Pitman Alphabet

The 44-character phonetic English alphabet gives school children a six-month lead over pupils taught to read with the traditional alphabet, educational experts claimed in London. Two thousand pupils, ranging from six-year-old Prince

: Andrew to children of Indusi trial workers have learned to i read with the new alphabet I It was invented by Sir , James Pitman, grandson of I the shorthand pioneer. London University’s read- * , -mg research unit found, i during three - year trials,

that the new teaching method accelerated the children’s progress in reading, writing and spelling by a sixth—and doubled their vocabulary. The unit’s director. Dr. John Downing, has recommended that all British schools should use the new alphabet to teach reading to classes of five to eight-year-olds. An estimated 10 per cent of American schools already use the new system. “The traditional English ■ alphabet in effect has 66 • characters to be learned when you count the capital, lower ' case and written versions," I said Dr. Downing. “Children find it easier to t link the word ‘once,’ for , example, to the phonetic spelling wuns than to the correct spelling which sounds more like ‘onky’ to them.” The changeover from phonetic spelling to correct spelling at the end of the second year of schooling was only a small handicap to pupils . taking part in the experiment when compared with their , difficulty in mastering the ' traditional alphabet immedi--1 ately, he said.