Interchange 57 (Watson and Johnston, 1998) reported on a study of around 300 Primary 1 children in which the effectiveness of a synthetic phonics teaching program was examined. The synthetic phonics program was by far the most effective. A study described the progress the children have made from Primary 1 through to the end of Primary 5, focusing on comparing the attainment of boys with that of girls, and examining the extent to which children underachieve when taught by synthetic phonics compared with an analytic phonics program. Results indicated that at Primary 5 (when children were 9.7 years old) the girls had a mean word reading age of 11.6 years, and the boys of 12.2 years; spelling and comprehension scores were also significantly above chronological age but did not differ significantly between sexes. Findings suggest that by Primary 5 children who had received synthetic phonics training had a 26-month advantage over chronological age. (NKA)