A pendulum swings on the grandfather clock 

                                Right is VISUAL 

When do we just ....

      STOP THE CLOCK!!!!!

When will we acknowledge that some  children are highly visual learners. Some children are highly auditory learners and some are in between with tendency to one side or the other. 

Auditory learners verbalize c-a-t as a means to decoding a word. 

Visual learners already see ‘cat’ or at the very least, see ‘at’ in ‘cat’. They have a wider visual span than auditory learners . These children see the word in their mind´s eye. 

Auditory learners hear the word in their inner voice. 

Every time the pendulum swings to its  extremities some child becomes a non reader and loses confidence. 

Confusion sets in as they are not working with their inate abilities. 

On the contrary, they are trying to use a strategy that may not be natural to them. It  is reinforced by their teacher and they find it difficult and it fails them . 

In a nut shell: 

If a child is a visual learner push the visual side and use phonics as the cross check or back up .

If the child is auditory use ‘sounding out’ and blending and use visual strategies as the cross check or back up. 

Yes , use both ! 

The reader will then decide which works the best as they unravel the mystery of the unknown word.