The 100 words children need to learn have been identified by Midland academics.

The words, which featured in the Peter and Jane stories of the 1960s, are all that are needed before children can tackle a wide range of books, according to a Warwick University study.

But children are kept on reading schemes longer than needed in order to increase their vocabulary, said Jonathan Solity, of Warwick's Institute of Education.

The Government's literacy strategy requires children to learn 158 words by the age of seven.

However, youngsters might learn more if they moved off reading schemes and started ordinary books earlier, the study concludes.

The #1 million study, by Dr Solity and Janet Vousden, found only 100 "high frequency" words were needed to tackle any book, including adult fiction and non-fiction.

The Ladybird books of the 1960s, featuring Peter and Jane, used the same approach of teaching 100 of the most common words.

The academics analysed 900,000 words in a range of adult and children's books and two popular reading schemes used in primary schools.

They found that only 16 words made up one quarter of written English.

By learning 100 key words, children found they could understand books designed for both youngsters and adults.

But being able to recognise the extra 50 most-used words, as recommended by the literacy strategy, means children gained an understanding of just an extra four per cent of the texts.

Their research also questioned the "back-to-basics" approach to teaching reading through a system known as "phonics", which Education Secretary Ruth Kelly backed last week.

Phonics involves children learning to build up words from letter sounds before they are introduced to books.

But the study said children should move straight to reading real books as they master the 100 basic words.

Dr Vousden said the report showed children were wasting too much time learning words by sight instead of working them out for themselves.

She said: "By the time you get to age seven, your phonetic skills will get you a lot further than learning sight vocabulary."

Mrs Kelly performed a U-turn earlier this month when she ruled all five-year-olds must be taught to read using a traditional phonics method from next September.

It followed a damning official review which concluded the existing national literacy hours were failing children.

Schools currently use the "searchlights" system, which encourages teachers to use a range of methods.

Instead, they will be expected to use phonics "fast and first", Ms Kelly said.

A six-month review concluded that there was "no good reason" to delay the teaching of phonics after the age of five after research had showed that it was "essential" to a good understanding of English.

The 100 words you need:

a, about, after, all, am, an, and, are, as, at, away, back, be, because, big, but, by, call, came, can, come, could, did, do, down, for, from, get, go, got, had, has, have, he, her, here, him, his, I, in, into, is, it, last, like, little, live, look, made, make, me, my, new, next, not, now, of, off, old, on, once, one, other, our, out, over, put, saw, said, see, she, so, some, take, that, the, their, them, then, there, they, this, three, time, to, today, too, two, up, us, very, was, we, were, went, what, when, will, with, you

The 58 you don't:

play, cat, day, dog, mum, no, dad, yes, another, ball, bed, been, boy, brother, can't, dig, don't, door, first, girl, good, half, help, home, house, how, if, jump, just, laugh, love, man, many, may, more, much, must, name, night, or, people, push, pull, ran, school, seen, should, sister, than, these, took, tree, water, way, where, who, would, your

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