Heather Deighton-O'Flynn

Heather  Deighton-O'Flynn is the creator of Kiwi Phonics. This carefully sequenced reading/spelling method teaches new readers, of all ages, the 'sound-symbol' relationships of written English, and the phonemic skills necessary to gain mastery of this unruly 'code'.

With Diane Miller and Brian Miller, she has written three levels of Kiwi Phonics readers, which are suitable for use with any phonics based reading system.

As a mental health professional working with troubled children and adolescents in the UK and Canada, Heather became aware that many had difficulties with literacy. Consequently, she began researching reading theories and practice, concluding that early reading instruction must include phonemic awareness training, and mastery of our written English phonetic code.

Her interest in education led her, with three other women, to develop the first Charter school in Northern Alberta, Canada. She also home-schooled her children for many years.

In 2000, Heather became a trainer for Read America, using the Phono-Graphix reading method.

While working with a large number of teachers and students in Southland schools, she developed Kiwi Phonics as a whole classroom approach to reading instruction. Heather runs Kiwi Phonics training courses for teachers and others involved in literacy development, and as a consultant, works with schools to improve the literacy of their children.

Heather also offers remedial reading instruction from the Dunedin bookshop 'Sanctuary Books', which she owns with her husband.