Our Origins
The Story
The Alphabet that forms the basis of the Gertrude (Kerrigan)Garrow’s AZRS was devised at her Montessori School in Dublin, Ireland, between 1976-79. Gertrude tells why she devised her alphabet.
“One day in 1976, having failed, over a six-month period to get five-year old Alan to recognise one letter of the alphabet, I drew a head and tail on the letter ‘h’ and said “Darling, this is a horse.” I then drew legs on the letter ‘o’ for octopus and a head and tail on the ‘s’ for snake. The next morning, Alan came to class, picked up the Montessori sandpaper alphabet letters, spread them out on the table, selected the three letters, brought them to me and said,“ This is horse. This is octopus and this is snake”. I was astonished. Alan could identify the letters when they were incorporated into pictures. As a result of this discovery, I created a picture-alphabet just to teach him. The letter-pictures were altered many times, for example: ‘c’ was a ‘cat’, ’cow’ and ‘caterpillar’ and ended up as ‘cup’ because the handle looked a bit like the letter ‘c’.
Later, I decided to try to find a better way of teaching the letter names and sounds, so with the help of my sister Jane, I composed simple songs to accompany the pictographic alphabet. The results from using this alphabet and songs were so dramatic that parents begged me to have the materials published. Consequently, in 1978, Jane and I had the songs recorded at the Communication Centre in Dublin, Ireland.
1978-83, We sent the alphabet, the audiocassette and a teacher-training manual to publishers. These included Folens, Fallons and The Educational Company in Ireland and Oxford University Press, Blackwells and Hamlyn Templar in the UK. The system was not adopted at that time as the ‘Analytic Phonics’ or ‘Look and Say’ teaching method had just been re-introduced into the schools to replace ‘Systematic Phonics’.
1984, Under the name Pathfinder Publications I self-published the alphabet, songs and number systems using the titles of ‘Laugh-a-Letter Visit Letterland’ and ‘Laugh–a-Number Visit Numberland. Encouraged by the feedback from parents and teachers using the alphabet, I combined the alphabet pictures to teach digraphs, trigraphs and letter clusters etc., and wrote stories and songs to explain why ‘sh’ made a ‘shh’ sound or ’ch’ sounded like a sneeze.
1987, I moved to the UK and discovered that Lyn Wendon and Richard Carlisle (a Hamlyn employee) had plagiarised my alphabet. I tried to stop this, but due to lack of money, failed. I made a number of attempts ot have the system published, but publishers assumed that I was the plagiarist and refused.
1989, Pic Toys Ltd, UK, a toy company,published the alphabet and the songs together with some of the letter groupings, which now included the letter combinations, as games. Sadly,shortly after, they went into liquidation.
2002, I continued tutoring internationally and in 2001 my husband Simon updated the illustrations and with son, Stuart animated and updated the now re-named AtoZeasy Reading System. Sons Mark and Warren both used their individual talents and skills to revamp layout in workbook and readers and build the website >> www.atozeasy.com.
The Documentary
You can watch our documentary filmed by West Films on the origin of the reading system ’Illiteracy Prison and a Key to Freedom’ below.
The Book
You can read all about the history of the AtoZeasy Reading System and how could put an end to the illiteracy epidemic. Buy our book in paperback, hardback or Kindle versions by clicking below.
