Yahoo! News:
Phonics were being taught 350 years ago, one of world's oldest children's book reveals
6 March 2017
Research has shown that phonics can boost children’s reading age by an average of 28 months by the time they turn seven. Boys benefit the most from the back-to-basics system and actually overtake girls after just two years of school, according to a study by Dr Marlynne Grant, an educational psychologist, who analysed the performance of pupils taught to read using synthetic phonics from the reception year upwards. The school had high levels of special educational needs. However, a study by London School of Economics last year found that while phonics help children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who do not have English as their first language, it has had "no measurable effect on pupils’ reading scores at age 11".
Related links
Martina Viarengo webpage: http://personal.lse.ac.uk/viarengo/