Educator with 35 Years Experience Questions Traditional Phonics as Niels Hoven Unveils Less Confusing Method for GPCs and Digraphs

Niels Hoven, founder of the educational technology company Mentava, has highlighted a significant challenge within early literacy education, noting that even seasoned educators struggle with teaching grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and digraphs without causing confusion. Hoven, whose company focuses on accelerating children's education, pointed to a 35-year veteran educator's difficulty in this area, stating, > "Educator with 35 years experience can't imagine how to teach GPCs (grapheme-phoneme correspondence aka letter-sounds) quickly without confusing kids when they move on to digraphs."

Grapheme-phoneme correspondence refers to the understanding that letters or groups of letters represent specific sounds. Digraphs, such as 'sh' or 'ch', involve two letters combining to form a single sound, often presenting a hurdle for young learners transitioning from single-letter sounds. Traditional methods can sometimes lead to children guessing words rather than decoding them, a practice Hoven criticizes as a "disastrous practice."

Mentava, founded by Hoven, aims to address these educational bottlenecks by developing software designed to teach preschoolers to read at an accelerated pace, often reaching a second-grade reading level within months. Hoven believes that many existing educational practices are "incompetent" and that his methods succeed not by inventing entirely new techniques, but by "simply avoiding current awful ones." This includes focusing on effective blending techniques, which he describes as the hardest part of teaching a child to read.

Hoven's approach emphasizes clear, systematic instruction that avoids common pitfalls in phonics. He has publicly shared insights into his methodology, including a detailed post explaining how Mentava teaches blending using visual feedback to prevent children from pausing between sounds. This method seeks to streamline the learning process, particularly for complex elements like digraphs, which are often a source of confusion in conventional phonics instruction.

The discussion initiated by Hoven underscores a broader debate within education regarding the most effective strategies for early literacy. His work with Mentava positions him as a proponent of structured, explicit phonics instruction, advocating for methods that prioritize clarity and efficiency to prevent common learning difficulties in young readers.