The initial attempt in that struggle, using pictographs, dealt with words as whole units. Later on, the idea developed of breaking up words into sounds and giving each sound a graphic image. In McGuinness's view, reading instruction should repeat this historical process by helping children to ''unglue'' the sounds in words and then match those sounds with letters. To make sure that children stay focused on the sound-based code, McGuinness insists on strict prohibitions. Do not refer to the names of the letters.
Names distract children from sounds.
Never encourage children to think of words as wholes. You will undermine the children's attention to the alphabetic code. Discourage youngsters from inventing their own approaches to reading. They will develop bad habits. She is not swayed by the argument that children need the stimulation of good literature unhindered by the constraints of phonetic regularity.