How Children Learn to Read
By: Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities
Building blocks of reading
Reading skills are like building blocks. To learn to read well, children need the blocks of
knowing the sounds of letters and the blocks of knowing the meanings of words
(vocabulary), word parts (grammatical markers) and groups of words (overall meaning or
semantics). To build these foundations of reading, children need effective reading
instruction.
The best ways for parents to learn about the kinds of reading instruction at their child's
school is to talk with teachers, listen to him or her talk about what they do during the day,
and examine homework assignments. Knowing the differences between phonics and whole
language - the two main approaches to teaching reading - can help parents determine what
methods their child's school is using to teach reading.
Phonics focuses on the sounds of letters and words
A phonics approach focuses instruction on learning to associate printed letters and
combinations of letters with their corresponding sounds. Phonics instruction gives students
strategies to unlock or decode words.
A phonics approach to teaching reading can include:
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"Sounding out" words as a way of figuring out new words. For example, in a phonics
lesson, "moon" would be sounded out as "mm-oo-nn."
Practice worksheets or exercises on letter sounds, matching pictures with spoken
words, short vowel/long vowel or letter of the week.
Whole language focuses on comprehension
The whole language approach is based on the understanding that reading is finding the
meaning in written language. Multiple experiences with words - written and spoken - are
what children need to learn meanings of words.
A whole language approach to teaching reading can include:
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Teaching reading and writing throughout the day in the context of the lesson topics
Teachers emphasizing storybooks rather than worksheets as well as multiple writing
opportunities
A balanced approach can help all children learn to read
A decade of research shows us that there is no one best way to build students' literacy
skills. A balanced approach to teaching reading combines a strong foundation in phonics
with whole language methods. Only through more than one kind of instruction can students
gain the skills to recognize and manipulate the sounds of letters and words and the skills to
understand what they read. Since all children learn differently, only a balanced approach to
teaching reading can give all children the skills they need to read well.
An effective reading program
From long-term studies conducted by the National Institutes of Health, it is known that an
effective reading program should include the following components.
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Recognize that students learn to read in a certain order: first they must understand
that words are made up of different sounds, then associate sounds with written
words, and finally they can decode words and read groups of words.
Students who have trouble learning to read need to be specifically taught the
relationships of letters, words and sounds. (Awareness of letter/sound relationships
is the main tool good readers use to decode unfamiliar words.)
Each child needs a different amount of practice to be a fluent reader.
Phonics instruction should be based on individual student needs and taught as part
of a comprehensive, literature-based reading program.
Abundant opportunities for children to read at their own reading level help them to
learn to read for meaning and enjoy reading.
Highly trained teachers can help children develop good, overall literacy skills: good
vocabularies, knowledge of correct syntax and spelling, reasoning skills and
questioning skills.
Reading instruction for children with learning disabilities
For children with language-based learning disabilities, learning to read is especially difficult
because they have a harder time with sounds of letters and words than their peers.
Research indicates that because phonics instruction focuses on recognizing and
manipulating sounds of letters and words, more intense phonics instruction may be
beneficial for children with learning disabilities.
Early warning signs of learning disabilities
From preschool through fourth grade, parents can watch for the following signs their child
may have a learning disability:
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Slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds
Difficulty "sounding out" unknown words
Repeatedly misidentifying known words
Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including letter reversals (b/d),
inversions (m/w), transpositions (felt/left), and substitutions (house/home)
Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs (+, -, x, /, =)
Difficulty understanding or remembering what is read because so much time and
effort is spent figuring each word
If a child regularly displays one or more of these behaviors, he or she may have a learning
disability and parents should seek appropriate testing and intervention from their child's
school.
With diagnostic tests, it can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy which students in
kindergarten and first grade will have difficulty learning to read. Identifying reading
difficulties early means children have more time to learn to be successful readers. Since
reading is learned more easily and effectively during the early years, identifying languagebased learning disabilities and providing appropriate interventions give children more time
to learn to read well.