The ability to see and understand written or printed language is called reading. People who cannot read are said to be illiterate, or unlettered. The ability to read is one of the foundation skills in all industrialized societies. In such societies written language is the chief means of transmitting culture and the benefits of civilization from one generation to another.

Main Aspects of Reading

Like many human abilities, reading is a learned skill. It must be taught. Young children learn to read a very few years after learning to speak. In doing so, they are made to see a connection between the words they have learned to say and the ones they see on a printed page. The words that appear on a page are printed symbols. The mind interprets those symbols as words it already knows in a rapid recognition process based on the individual's past experiences. Printed language thus stimulates the recall of ideas that are already in the mind of the reader. If reading did not do this, then what is visible on the page would be nonsense, like reading something in a foreign language. Some previous understanding on the part of the reader is necessary before beginning to read. New readings combine with past experience to create new meanings and ideas.

Perception or decoding of words is basic to all reading. Perception is an activity of the senses, and in the case of reading the sense involved for most people is sight. For the blind the sense is touch, because a blind person uses the fingers to read a code called Braille.

Words and their meanings are recognized together. Beyond the decoding of words is comprehension. This is more than just understanding the words, sentences, and paragraphs. It is a matter of seeing relationships and of connecting what is stated on a page with what one already knows about a subject. A good deal of reading stimulates the imagination as the reader pictures what is being read.

Comprehension, assimilation, and interpretation of literature are steps toward building new concepts or ideas as well as toward increasing one's vocabulary. A reader corrects and refines concepts through each new reading experience. Part of a reader's reaction involves making judgments about the worth of what is read. Some responses are emotional, while others may be intellectual assessing the truth of what is read.

Several factors determine a reader's level of comprehension and assimilation: intellectual ability, the range of personal experiences, and the speed at which one reads. Intellectual ability and the breadth of experience are personal matters, and they often have something to do with the age of the individual. The more one has learned and experienced, the more one tends to gain from reading.

The speed of reading is more subject to control. Slow readers can be trained to read faster. Some kinds of reading matter can be skimmed quickly. Books that contain a lot of information or are more technical in nature must be absorbed at a slower pace.

Skimming, or scanning, is a method of partial reading to get specific information without going through a whole text line by line. Slow, analytical reading is necessary for absorbing details. Following printed directions is required in many activities using a recipe to bake a cake; learning how to play a game; studying a highway map or street guide; assembling bicycles, model airplanes, or furniture; attaching a videocassette recorder to a television set; or operating a computer. Some reading calls for critical evaluation of what is read. In newspapers and magazines one often encounters conflicting views or finds opinions that differ from one's own way of thinking.

Reading Disabilities

There are a few brain disorders that cause difficulties in speaking, writing, or reading words. The general term aphasia refers to the inability to form and speak words correctly. In a related disturbance, called either agraphia or dysgraphia, the individual may be able to read or speak correctly but be unable to write. The disorder related to reading is called dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a perceptual disorder often among persons of normal, or even above average, intelligence. The reader is unable to perceive correctly what is on a page. Letters and numbers often appear reversed: "b" seems to be "d," "quite" is "quiet," and "from" is "form." The reader tends to leave out letters or words or insert words or letters that are not there. Vowel and consonant sounds may be confused. Many dyslexics are left-handed or are able to write with either hand. They often confuse left and right. Learning to speak may also be delayed beyond infancy. The condition seems to be inherited and is more often found among boys than girls. It may persist into adulthood, even with treatment.

Some researchers believe that latent dyslexia may be aggravated by the way reading is taught. The modern whole-word, or look-and-say, method seems to be more of a hindrance to learning for dyslexics than it is for ordinary pupils. The phonetic method of teaching students to learn letters and sound them out appears to achieve better reading results. The problem of words that cannot be sounded out such as rough, laugh, or through is not solved by phonetics. These words must simply be memorized.

For children with dyslexia estimated to be as high as 15 percent of the school-age population in the United States the problem can be compounded by failure of parents or teachers to recognize the condition. This can easily lead to emotional problems for dyslexic children, who cannot understand their failure to keep up with their classmates.

Researchers try to detect the potential for dyslexia by laboratory procedures. These include electroencephalography (monitoring of brain waves) and Positron Emission Tomography, another means of measuring brain activity and discovering lesions. In the mid-1980s a new test for the condition was devised. The Decoding Skills Test measures a child's ability to decode, or read aloud, words that should be comprehensible at a particular grade level. The test also detects the ability to speak the words correctly. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development can provide information on dyslexia and the testing procedures. Material can also be obtained from the Orton Dyslexia Society.

Other disorders have varying causes. Some are related to eyesight. Farsightedness, nearsightedness, astigmatism, the tendency for the eyes to cross, or unequal images in each eye are among vision problems that make it difficult to read. Most vision problems can be diagnosed and corrected by an ophthalmologist or other trained eye specialist. Hearing difficulties can also lessen the ability to read because words cannot be sounded out correctly. Glandular conditions such as hypothyroidism may also contribute to learning disabilities.

Learning to Read

A child's readiness to begin reading depends on brain development, as does the ability to speak. A certain level of mental and emotional maturity, along with a favourable attitude toward learning, must be attained. Teaching children to read was once done in first grade, based on preparatory instruction given in kindergarten. There has been a tendency to push children into earlier reading in preschool.

Glenn J. Doman, author of 'How to Teach Your Baby to Read' (1964), insists it is possible to teach infants to read. The success of his program has aroused some opposition from psychologists who believe that the very young should not be pressured to achieve beyond their natural abilities. They note that preschoolers coached in reading do not maintain an accelerated pace throughout their school years as well as self-taught children. Self-taught is defined as one who is not forced to read. Nevertheless, the more encouragement there is in the home and at preschool, the more successful early reading programs are.

A child's first reading teachers are parents. The flow of words from parents toward infants gets children accustomed to hearing speech and using it themselves. Once verbal conversation is born in the child, normally sometime after age 1, the sounds and rhythms of the native language begin to be absorbed.

A teacher and child read aloud from a book at a day-care centre. -- Stock, Boston, Hazel Hankin

Children first encounter reading at home when parents read to them. There are books for all levels of child development from books containing only pictures to those with pictures and words. Being read to can serve as an inspiration to a child to learn to read. Another encouragement to reading is the availability in the home of books, magazines, and newspapers, because children will readily follow the example of parents.

The puppets on the television program Sesame Street try to make reading fun to learn. -- Children's Television Workshop

Television can be a tool in learning to read if children watch educational programs. Television can also be a hindrance to learning, because the medium deals primarily in visual images with sounds. Words on a page engage the mind and stimulate the imagination. With television the images are presented directly, and the viewer's imagination is not challenged.

An elementary school girl uses a book to practice phonics. -- Stock, Boston, Bryce Flynn

Schools have used a variety of techniques with differing success when teaching reading. The phonics method, used earlier in the 20th century, has been revived since the 1960s. The word phonics is from the Greek for "sound." The method entails learning the sounds of letters, then passes to sounding out words.

The displacement of phonics in schools was strongly criticized by Rudolf Flesch in his widely read book 'Why Johnny Can't Read' (1955). He was influential in a partial restoration of phonics methods.

Completely opposite to the phonics technique is the sight method. Also called the look-and-say method, it concentrates on words and their meanings. The method is essentially a memorization exercise. Words are learned through their context or by association with pictures. The success of the look-and-say technique depends on a child's ability to remember new words and add them to the stock of words that are already known.

The linguistic approach to reading is similar in some ways to phonics. Its basic premise is that spoken language is in a code called the alphabet. The idea is to help children relate written letters and words to the sounds of words they already know. Learning the alphabet is the first step. Children are then exposed to consistent sound/letter patterns such as "Sam ran" or "cat in the hat." They learn to decode printed language through such patterns. Beginning vocabulary is carefully controlled in this approach, with letters representing their most common sound. For instance, words with the hard "c" of cat are used, but not words with the soft "c" of cent.

One problem in regarding the alphabet as a code is the varying pronunciation of some letters, depending on their use. The "a" in cat is not the same as the one in day or ball. The consonants "c" and "g" can be soft (ceiling, ginger) or hard (cap, go). Because the letters of the alphabet do not always stand for the same sounds, the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA) was developed by Sir James Pitman in England. The ITA has 44 characters instead of the standard 26. Each letter stands for a different sound, and each character always represents the same sound. Children using the ITA learn to read in that alphabet. They must then switch to the standard alphabet, usually in grade two or three. The ITA has been used in England far more than in the United States.

Various methods are used to teach children to read. A grade school boy uses a class audiovisual system to associate words with pictures. -- Stock, Boston, Jean-Claude Lejeune

Programmed reading instruction is almost a self-teaching approach to learning, because each child works at a separate machine perhaps a typewriter or, more likely, a computer. Several companies have developed software programs designed to teach the alphabet, reading, and spelling at a measured pace to which each child can adapt. The advantage of programmed teaching is twofold. In addition to learning to read and spell, a child is often given the opportunity to create a text and also to become familiar with the operation of a computer.

A common approach to teaching beginning reading is through a series of books called basal readers that are graded in difficulty. The series generally begins with a reading-readiness book. Through pictures, picture sequences, and a few words, the child builds a sight vocabulary as well as the ability to interpret pictures and the story sequence. (Basal texts are sometimes combined with phonics.) Later books in the series gradually expand reading skills. Vocabulary becomes larger and sentence patterns more varied. Children may be exposed to different kinds of reading prose, poetry, fiction, or non-fiction to strengthen reading skills in different areas.

Individualized reading is similar to the basal-text method, but it rejects the texts themselves as being too simpleminded in content even for children. Proponents of individualized reading advocate the use of a variety of reading materials, allowing children to select their own reading material and proceed at their own pace.

Individualized instruction does not necessarily mean a one-to-one relationship. The teacher may pair children or form small groups for special purposes to develop common needed skills or to share materials. The teacher, however, holds individual periodic conferences with each student. The teacher also diagnoses reading levels, checks on skills mastered, and inspects the books read.

Continuing with ‘READING: The ability to understand (Part II)’

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