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I'd like to tell you a story

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about a boy named Sven.

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He was in the fifth grade, autistic,

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and he couldn't read a single word.

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Not "it," "me," "the" - nothing.

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His teachers told his family
that he may never learn to read.

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With my simple reading program, 
I taught Sven to read.

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My story begins when my daughter
was in the first grade.

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She was a challenged reader.

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At that time, I didn't know
about challenged readers.

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"Everyone can read, right?"

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Wrong.

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According to the U.S.
Department of Education,

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last year, 19% of high school
students in America

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graduated unable to read
above a third grade level,

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which is considered
functionally illiterate.

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That's nearly 1 in 5 students,

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or half a million new graduates,

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each year.

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How can anyone graduate high school
not knowing how to read?

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Teachers are doing everything they can
to help these kids,

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but the traditional way
of teaching reading

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does not work for many students.

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According to the National
Assessment of Adult Literacy,

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"In America, 85% of juvenile delinquents
and 70% of prison inmates

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are functionally illiterate."

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Illiteracy is the number one predictor
of future criminal activity.

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There is a solution,
and this is how it came about.

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In my 20's, I went to Japan 
to teach English.

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I needed to learn Japanese, 
and I was told to learn to read first.

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I discovered that the Japanese
have developed a system called hiragana,

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which makes reading so easy,
I learned in a week.

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I didn't know the meaning 
of the characters at first.

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The point is that I could sound out
and correctly pronounce Japanese.

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Ten years later, when my daughter's 
reading challenge opened my eyes,

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I decided to take what I learned in Japan
and adapt it to English.

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With the help of a reading specialist,
I wrote down all the sounds of English.

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Then, I analyzed our alphabet.

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I discovered that of our 26 letters,

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12 make only one sound,

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but these other 14 letters 
make multiple sounds.

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The "A" makes four sounds, 
the "C" makes three.

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The "O" makes eight different sounds!

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I believe this is why English 
is so difficult.

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Let's take "C" as an example.

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The three sounds of "C"

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are in "cat,"

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"face" and "ocean."

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I was also surprised to discover

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that these 17 letters
are sometimes silent,

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meaning they do not make a sound

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in many words.

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Think for a moment
about these four examples:

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there is no "B" sound in the word "doubt,"

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no "G" sound in the word "sign,"

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no "S" in "island,"

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and no "W" in "who."

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The program I developed
is called "nardagani."

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I found a way to expose 
all the sounds of the 14 letters.

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Underneath the letters 
is one of these symbols.

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These symbols let the reader know 
what sound to make.

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They also guide students
in learning to sound out words.

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I'm going to teach you 
two of these symbols.

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First, everyone's favorite symbol.

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The square is your lips,
the line is your finger,

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and the sound it makes is "shhhh."

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The "shhhh" sound can be made 
five different ways.

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With one "S" in "sugar,"

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two "S"s in "mission,"

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and "S-H" in "sheep,"

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a "T" in "vacation"

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and a "C" in "social."

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The triangle symbol lets the reader know
the "ooo" sound is needed.

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The "ooo" sound can be made 
four different ways,

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with one "O" in "move,"

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two "O"s in "school,"

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an "E" in "flew" and a "U" in "super."

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How about those silent letters?

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They're underlined and easy to see.

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Here is an example 
of our symbols in action.

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Notice the three different sounds of "U."

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We hum a tune for you.

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Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm,

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distinguished professor
of English education

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at Boise State University

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and a nationally recognized
literacy expert,

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conducted a small scale
teacher research study

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with our program.

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He concludes that it works

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because it reduces
the cognitive overload

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that is typically experienced
by those learning to read English.

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We have conducted several pilot programs
in detention facilities,

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which were highly successful.

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Nardagani has been approved
by the Idaho State Department of Education

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for use in Idaho schools.

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Using nardagani, Sven, in 5th grade,

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learned to read with our symbols
in eight one-hour lessons.

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(Applause)

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He was elated to be able to read books
coded with our symbols.

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(Video) Sven: It was pretty hard,

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but when I started to work with them,

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it is now easy.

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I'm going on safari.

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(Laughter)

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I see zebras graze on safari.

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Wow!

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I see animals all around me

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on safari.

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(Applause)

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I did it!

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Narda Pitkethly: You did do it!

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(On stage) So Sven learned
to read our coded books

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in eight one-hour lessons.

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Several months later,

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he no longer needed the symbols.

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Last year, in high school,

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Sven became a proud member
of the National Honor Society of America.

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(Applause)

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Sven says,

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"I once thought reading was impossible;

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now I know all things are possible."

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Thank you.

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(Applause)