Some Inconvenient Truths about Reading

In a recent LD@school article, Kim R. Fitzer and James B. Hale wrote

Reading is not a natural part of human development. Children do not automatically learn how to read and need to be taught to read. 

The same is true for the spoken word. Children need to be taught to understand audible words. And they learn quickly even before they can say the words. But it takes 5 years before they know the meaning of the same word in print.

This absurdity is the direct result of the way reading is taught. English is an alphabetic language and reading starts with the alphabet. The sounds of the letters add a phonetics component, and the child can say the word aloud. This will trigger auditory comprehension and the child will learn what the word means: Phonetic decoding. Neuropsychologists call this process “the indirect phonological route to meaning.”

We teach the spoken word, as a whole word, not sound by sound. Do the same for reading. At the same time as you are teaching the spoken word, show the written word. The child learns listening and reading at the same time.

Two arguments are raised against this approach.

The children are just memorizing and there is a limit to how much can be memorized. How many words have you read? How often do you forget a word? Memory is not an issue. Think of the diversity of faces we recognize with no difficulty and a face is much more complex than a word. Many of the Asian countries use a graphological language and memory does not seem to be a problem for them.

When readers come across a word they have not memorized, they do not have the recourse of phonetic decoding.  If they can decode, the word must be phonologically regular and already contained in auditory memory, you could say the word and now know what it means. It might have been a useful skill in the 19th Century, but your smartphone is always with you. And if you have lost access to your phone, you will have a lot more to worry about than phonetic decoding.

Speed Reading is considered a valuable skill and it means to read without decoding. It would seem more efficient to use speed reading from the start. Many Asian countries use graphological writing and so must use speed reading. Does this give them an advantage over students taught phonetic decoding?

Once you eliminate phonetic decoding a child can learn to listen and read, to speak and write at the same time. How much potential will we be unleashing?

The whole concept of Early Reading was based on research I did in the 1980’s that showed that dyslexics understood the meaning of words even though they could not say them. They could read for comprehension, but not read aloud. But the purpose of phonetic decoding is to allow you to read aloud. 

Studies of brain activity have shown that dyslexics show a dysfunction in the brain system indicating a physical disability. The blind are given Braille and deaf sign language, but the dyslexic is given more and more practice in what they cannot do. Rather than accommodating a disability, education has decided to practice brain surgery and fix it.

This is not just a theoretical concept but a proven concept. Early Reading started in suburban Uganda and the slums of Nairobi. After 4 months nursery school children were reading 3 sentence paragraphs and we have moved toward our goal of children reading and writing when they start school. There are more than 50 schools using Early Reading. 

You can get a summary of theory and practice at www.enabling.org/e





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