ABOUT THE AUTHOR : Dr Julia Solomon
After training as an early childhood and primary school teacher, Julia Solomon took a first degree in English, a second in education and a third in clinical psychology from Australian Universities. She has taught at all levels, from early childhood to tertiary students and in adult education. She was appointed to inaugurate the first early childhood teacher training course at what is now Edith Cowan University.
As a teacher educator her endeavours acquainted her with the many facets of the educational field, including children with special needs and the indigenous population. Through her doctoral research, specialising in the processes that underlie the development of children’s thinking in their first eight years, she wrote “Learning to Think” and “Encounters – A Schedule for Early Childhood”. She would later apply this knowledge, together with her experience in clinical psychology and research into neuro-psychology, to the problems of reading failure in primary school pupils.
In 1990, while in private practice as a clinical psychologist, Dr Solomon launched her new system for teaching reading under the title Reading for Sure™. Her method takes into account children’s brain development as an essential element in effective reading instruction. The training course ‘Reading for Sure’, under the heading The Solomon Method is a nationally accredited course in literacy education listed on the National Training Information Service.
Dr Solomon continues to conduct a literacy and learning centre in Western Australia and to train teachers in her method. She has completed a number of teaching manuals to guide and support those who deliver the program. Her texts include “Teaching Literacy from the Beginning”, “Start Reading”, “STEPPING AHEAD!”, “Dialogue Rhymes and Jingles” and “The Alphabet Song” , as well as a continuing series of graded phonologic early reading books based on her system.
A discussion “About us” would not be complete without reiterating something of the author’s continuing concerns and wishes in regard to present and future English literacy. Those concerns are reflected here.