Diane McGuinness

  • Diane McGuinness is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of South Florida. She is the author of over 100 research papers and several books including:Why Children Can’t Read, Penguin 1997, Growing a Reader from Birth, W.W. Norton, 2004, Early Reading Instruction, MIT Press, 2004 and Language Development and Learning to Read, MIT Press, 2005.

    Her major contribution to the field of reading instruction is the first comprehensive analysis of the English alphabet code from a ‘sound’ base (1991).This has made it possible to greatly simplify the teaching of reading. In her recent books, which review over 100 years of applied research, McGuinness set out to discover a ‘Prototype’- a set of principles which reflect the features of literacy instruction that work versus those that don’t. Applied, they will guarantee success in learning to read and spell. This has made it possible to greatly simplify the teaching of reading.

    Diane McGuinness lives in Oxfordshire and is at present, chairman of the Our Right to Read Trust.