What inspired Auntie Dora to develop the ‘DOORS Method for Reading and Spelling’ in 1986 was her determination to spend quality time with her own daughters while they were toddlers. She found babies can learn their first language, grammar and pronunciation by reflex, automatically, without thinking or knowing how to make certain sounds. Since one cannot reason with a toddler as young as 17 months, whose attention span is 10 to 15 minutes at the most, the DOORS Method was created, using the reflex approach.

Auntie Dora’s daughters were able to read 100 Chinese characters and over 100 English words before age 2, without any illustrative aids nor knowing the alphabets. Her daughters’ reading abilities before turning 5 years old were evaluated by the German Swiss International School (GSIS) as equivalent to the reading ages of 10.3 and 9.7. Besides, the youngest also got a full mark in reading comprehension paper for age 8. Therefore, upon GSIS request Auntie Dora’s daughter started primary 2 at age 5.5 and finished Form 3 by age 13.5 all by herself… even though Auntie Dora stopped coaching her own girls after age 3.

Via extensive research and experimentation, the DOORS Method is a unique methodology to gradually build an intrinsic DOORS Phonic System in a child through playing reflex games, applicable to children at a very young age. Students are trained to react reflexively, without having to think or to analyze how phonetic sounds of letters are blended yet can pronounce new words speedily after listening to Tutor’s simple hint, like playing a rhyming game. Once possessing such ‘breakthrough’, a child can read any new book naturally and easily.

At DOORS Method Learning Centre (DMLC) we believe a child’s mind is like an absorbing sponge. Children only grow up once and the golden period of learning is in the first 3 to 5 years when brain cells rapidly divide. Exposure to languages and various concepts in these early years will affect a child’s development in the next 10 years and beyond. Many parents underestimate a child’s ability to learn at this stage. It is true that the more one reads, the better one can understand the sentence structure, different meanings and grammatical functions of words, which directly leads to faster absorption of contents, and ability to write correctly and nicely as a result. Equipping your child with strong verbal reading and writing skills at a young age is therefore crucial and will affect his or her study and later years in life.

For over 36 years, our students have been referred almost exclusively through “Word of Mouth” by many appreciative parents who are impressed and convinced by our results, also by some international schoolteachers and two Interview School Principals who told parents that most of their top students in both verbal and written mock-exams had studied or are studying at DOORS. Some inquisitive parents met DOORS young students who were reading in public and asked for DOORS contacts. Students are our walking advertisement, and many mothers have become “DOORS Goodwill Ambassadors”.  The DOORS Method has won and continues to win wide recognition and acclaim. There is always a waiting list, which is a testimony of its popularity and effectiveness.

 

驅使 Auntie Dora 於1986年研發 “DOORS Method for Reading and Spelling” (DOORS Method拼讀與拼寫) 的主因，是當她決意用辭退科學主任工作後的寶貴時間去親自教導培育蹣跚學步期的女兒們。 她發現嬰兒可以無需經過思考或認識如何發聲，卻能透過與生俱來的反射能力 去自動學習他或她們的母語、發音和句子組合的文法。 由於大人無法與年僅17個月的幼兒以理性來討論與溝通，而且他們的專注力最多只能維持10至15分鐘，於是她便創立了使用幼兒自然反射能力 為教學方法的DOORS Method。

Auntie Dora的女兒們於兩歲前，在無需任何插圖輔助下和未認識英文字母前，已能朗讀100個中文和超過100個英文字。儘管Auntie Dora在最幼女兒三歲後停止輔導自己的女兒們及開始收學生，她的女兒們在五歲前皆被德瑞國際學校 評估為擁有相當於十歲三個月和九歲七個月的閱讀能力，又因少於三歲幼女在作答八歲程度的閱讀理解試卷時得了滿分，所以按著德瑞 的要求跳班，以五歲半之齡便開始讀小二，自己全程應付到十三歲半便完成中三課程，這全賴Auntie Dora在幼女三歲前打下的英文基礎。

透過廣泛的研究和實驗，創作的DOORS Method自成一套獨特的英文教學法，利用玩反射性 的圖片/句子卡遊戲，逐漸在小孩腦海內建立DOORS Phonic System (DOORS拼音語音系統)，這更適用於教導非常年幼甚至兩歲前的幼童。 學生們藉著反射 回應訓練遊戲，無需經過思考或分析字母的語音如何結合，卻可以在聽到導師簡單提示後，就像玩押韵遊戲一樣，能迅速發音朗讀新的生字。一旦擁有這個「突破」，小孩便可容易地自然朗讀任何新書。

在DOORS Method Learning Centre（DMLC）學校，我們相信孩子的頭腦就像一塊有強吸收力的海綿。 孩子只有一次的成長經歷，學習的黃金時期是在大腦細胞迅速分裂的頭三至五年。 在成長早期所接觸的語言和各種概念，將會影響孩子未來十年甚至更遠的發展，而許多父母都低估了幼孩在這個階段的學習能力。 的確閱讀得越多，對理解句子的結構、每一單字的不同含義和文法功能都會越好，這直接能導致小孩更快吸收內容，寫作能力也會隨之提高。 在孩子年幼時為他們裝備強大的朗讀和寫作表達技巧，對他或她未來的學業及人生有重大的影響。

36年以來，本校的學生幾乎全部是透過眾多家長的「口碑推薦」而來報讀，這套有效的教學法讓許多家長們刮目相看並信服；曾有一些國際學校的教師和兩位面試學校的校長告訴家長們，他們學校大部分的會話和書寫模擬考試的頂尖學生，都曾經或正在DOORS就讀。 一些好奇的家長曾在某些會所或街頭偶遇DOORS年幼且能閱讀的學生，查詢與本校聯絡的方法。 DOORS的學生就是我們的活動廣告，許多母親已成為 “DOORS親善大使”。 因DOORS Method贏得並持續獲得廣泛的認可和讚譽，本校常有等候的名單，這是其受歡迎和有效性的證明。