The first version of That Reading Thing was shaped in the crucible of one-to-one sessions with young people involved with the local youth justice system. They taught me so much but mostly that stereotypes are unhelpful and that both the cause of literacy issues and the road to prison are multifaceted, often entwined, but not a direct 'cause and effect' scenario.

The reading problems of young people in the youth justice system exist for many reasons, perhaps because of poor instruction in primary school, but also because of complex educational, social and emotional needs. This is true for all marginalised and excluded young people who struggle to read. Those in YOIs (youth detention centres) are just the ones who got caught and sentenced to an institution, not the ones who got a community sentence or an ASBO or who are just hanging with the wrong crowd or who are at risk but have never done anything to break the law. Most 'young offenders' I've met are really just 50% teenager, 30% risk-taker and 20% up to no good for a variety of reasons. Most of them won't offend as adults whether they can read or not.

Those young people who are at odds with their communities and have no way into the secondary school system, need more than just a good reading method. They need a reading method that will make them feel safe and a person delivering it who will make them feel safe - educationally and emotionally - and who will make them laugh. They need to learn that making a mistake doesn't make you 'thick', a message they have picked up from school.

Some have genuine learning difficulties that may or may not have been identified officially, but when a young person announces 'I'm dyslexic', I always ask who told them that. 'My nan' and 'my mum' are more common answers than 'my teacher' or 'my educational psychologist'. I don't tell them they are or aren't dyslexic but I do let them know that dyslexic people can learn to read and we've got a great way to get there.

That is important because some have just missed learning to read. Even if they were offered the best phonics instruction possible, they weren't at primary school often enough to grasp the principles and put them into practice. When you ask a young person if they remember learning to read and their answer is, 'Nah - I was too busy throwing chairs at the teacher', then you know you've got a hope of moving them along quickly. These are the students who make you feel like a miracle worker because they just get on with it and are reading in hours.

Some learned to read quite well but, because of being constantly in trouble in the classroom, can no longer access what it is they know. This is the young person who, after about 6 hours, was reading the travel section of a broadsheet newspaper and voicing his opinions about justice.

One thing I've learned is that prisons house a lot of sensitive souls. They may have bravado in certain situations but not when they're sitting in front of a printed page. I remember describing a young man as the most vulnerable teenager I'd ever met. His youth offending team worker laughed and said he was the terror of his street, fearing nothing and no one. Well I can promise you that he feared looking stupid because he couldn't read. The reason we have 'The Deal' in TRT is to reduce to nothing the chance of a young person feeling like they did in school when someone said, 'Come on, you know this one. It's easy.'

By allowing them to make mistakes with no fear of humiliation, we have a chance to help these young people develop a much healthier sense of self, where they can be proud of accomplishments that don't involve violence or intimidation. We can also help them begin to perceive themselves as learners. These aren't measured by any reading test.

Of course, improved reading does show up on reading tests which is why there has been such growth of That Reading Thing in schools. There will always be a student in any school (from the smallest alternative to the largest mainstream setting), whose educational and even life trajectory could be changed by learning to read with That Reading Thing.