Trugs: Teaching Reading Using GameS

What is trugs?

Trugs is a high quality systematic phonic reading resource. There is no need for prior teaching experience.

A parent, carer, school or college can help their children learn to read simply by playing the card games.

If required, progress can be monitored/assessed using short text at each reading stage within the Monitoring Booklet.

These multi-sensory phonic card games enable children of all ages, including secondary, to progress with their reading. All slow readers, not just those with dyslexia, can improve their reading ability by playing trugs - the educational card games.

Box 1:

This box covers the first five stages of reading, progressiong from words like 'cat' and 'win' to words like 'target' and 'standard'.

Box 2 & 3 Available now!

An overview

• All the card games take a very short amount of time to play and so concentration is maintained
• There is a competitive spirit adding a bit of fun but, with some of the games requiring luck, the games are not taken seriously but reading is achieved
• Match it, Take it and Use it can be played with more than two players
• There are no pictures on the cards to affect peoples reading skills
• The games are ageless, to the extent that teenagers are more than happy to play the card games
• Because there are 4 styles of card games at each stage reinforcement of each reading stage is inevitable
• The card games can be played over and over again

Each of the trugs reading stages builds on the one before, taking the learner through the structured phonic resource with ease. All the learner has to do is play the games, which are quick, fun, easy to play and stress free. Progress with reading is inevitable - the learner picks up the phonic patterns easily and then reinforces them every time they play the games.

There are 44 phonemes generally recognised as those of British Received Pronunciation. 29 of the phonemes are introduced within Box 1 and are grouped into 5 easy Reading Stages.

Reading Stage 1
Consonant - Vowel - Consonant. (21 phonemes)
Reading Stage 2
Consonant blends – Initial (4 phonemes)
Reading Stage 3
Consonant blends - Final. (1 phoneme)
Reading Stage 4
‘ar’ - ‘or’ - ‘er’ (3 phoneme)
Reading Stage 5
Two Syllables closed (0 phoneme)

These reading stages are practiced and reinforced by playing the card games and then learning how to read is reinforced using a multi-sensory approach which is:

• Visual – seeing the words
• Auditory – hearing the words read by the individual and by others
• Kinaesthetic – actually playing the card games

There are Three TRUGS games

Each of the 3 Boxes provides:
20 sets of card games (5 reading stages with 4 different styles of card games)
1 Reading Booklet (master booklet for pupil – extra copies available)
1 Monitoring Booklet (individual pupil’s record booklet – extra copies available)
1 Instruction Booklet 

Box 1 (Stages 1-5) progresses from words like ‘cat’ to words like ‘target’. (out now)
Box 2 Stages (6-10) progresses from words like ‘brain’ to words like ‘fantastic’. (Out now)
Box 3 Stages (11-15) progresses from words like ‘success’ to words like ‘celebration’. (Out now)

The card games are highly structured and progressive, resulting in learning to read whilst having fun.  Decoding becomes a manageable and understandable task that leads to the fluent reading of text.

The psychology behind each of the 4 card games which ensures the fun and success that is so vital in the process of learning to read.

Guess it

• The master card ensures that the 'reader' can always see the words. This helps mastery since they read the words over and over without realising.
• When a word is not guessed and put to the bottom of the pack the 'reader' learns to read that word in their head since they need to remember it for later.
• The 'helper' can choose to read difficult words so that the 'reader' can then read them later!
• It is the quickest of all the games to play.
• The 'helper' always goes last so the 'reader' will always win the last cards. This boosts their confidence!
• Guess it can be used for single consonants and isolated vowel sounds before whole word reading.

Match it

• Match it can be played with 2 or more players.
• There is skill in deciding which card to play
• The players are unaware how much reading they are achieving as they are so intent on playing the game.
• The delight in getting a 'TRUGS' card to change the colour and confuse the opposition brings in the laughter and takes away reading stress.

Take it

• Take it enables over learning, by re-reading the whole set each time cards are 'taken'.
• The 'reader' will also learn to listen to the 'helper' when they read a complicated word.
• There is a hysterical atmosphere since there is no skill in the game and the cards are constantly being 'taken'!
• A player soon learns to listen to other players reading words, since they know they may well have to read the same words if they ‘take’ them later, thus maintaining interest.

Use it

• Use It begins to develop their skills in sentence construction.
• The 'helper' can encourage good use of language and award a bonus point at their discretion
• The 'reader' can be helped with sentence construction i.e. only use ‘and’ once, and suggesting using linking words like 'because' etc.
• It gives the 'reader' an opportunity to demonstrate their sentence construction skills without the constraints of having to write.