Facts You Need to Know About How Children Read
The reading skills needed to learn to read easily and well can be taught right from birth. Reading is a complex process.
It involves the ability to attend to details or attention; concentrate; focus your eyes on the letters
and see the often subtle differences between them or visual discrimination; focus on and hear the very subtle differences in the sounds or auditory discrimination; say the sounds or articulation; remember the connection between the sounds and symbols or long term memory; remember the sequence of sounds and repeat them or short term auditory and visual sequential memory.
without these sub-skills or pre-reading skills or if there is a deficit in any of them, problems with reading can occur. Fortunately, these skills are normally developed through play activities and being encouraged to draw, paint, and read books throughout early life.
Theories of the causes of dyslexia highlight problems with these as being possible causes or contributory factors to children being dyslexic. The teaching of reading requires the integration of different methods for learning.
In previous years the phonics versus look and say methods of teaching reading has been hotly debated. The best way of teaching a child to read is to first look at the individual needs and preferences of the child and to use a balanced and integrated 'eclectic' approach to teaching reading.
There are six factors that greatly influence the ability to read well. Learning to read well is closely linked to;- overall intelligence, visual ability, auditory ability, language ability (spoken and received language), physical factors such as illnesses, and environmental provision such as material provisions -books, games, toys, etc, emotional factors such as the relationship with parents, teachers, motivation and level of self -esteem.
Learning to read is very closely linked to talking and listening. Children who are talked to and listen to as young children develop better vocabulary and are better at reading and comprehension in later life.
Children with speech and language difficulties are more likely to be identified and given help sooner. One in five children leaves primary school unable to read beyond a basic level.
Worldwide, literacy levels are a problem. People who can't read or who can't read beyond a basic functional level number of 5.2 million in the UK. What a child learns before they go to school ay five matters more to reading than what happens after that age.
The human brain develops and learns most before the age of five so what happens at home before school age is most important. The most common cause of reading problems is that children cannot sound out words.
Difficulties in decoding and recognizing words are at the root of most reading problems. When word decoding isn't automatic, fluency and comprehension suffer. Teaching methods using phonics is essential to any reading program.
Without intervention, late readers won't improve. There was a study in America that showed that 85% of poor readers in the third grade were still poor readers when they entered high school.
It is vital to help as soon as problems are identified. With help, slow started can succeed in reading. Another American study showed that with early intervention and the right help, two-thirds of poor readers can become average or above-average readers.
If you set a good example your child will succeed at reading. Do you read? Children's role models themselves on adults they care about. If you show the value and importance you place on reading, your child will follow.
