Reading by syllables

This year I had the privilege of helping someone learn to read phonetically (by syllables). We didn't set out with this goal in mind -- rather to complete homework and papers -- but to get those things accomplished, reading better was necessary. When we started working together, the young man struggled to read simple words like "paragraph" which he might start by saying "preg." Every sentence for him was a chore. I began covering up parts of words and asking what a smaller piece sounded like such as "par" or "graph." The young man didn't know the sound of some letter combos like "ph" and often confused the vowel sounds of e, a, and i (eh, aa, aw, uh, and ih). But he is a person who doesn't give up, and I have developed patience as a tutor. I learned to wait as he struggled through his guesses and memory. I learned to not supply words (until he got so exhausted that he couldn't continue). I learned that persistence is an amazing thing to watch. And after nine months, I watched the young man read six syllable words in a magazine, sounding them out until he recognized them like old friends in mysterious clothing.