Learn to Read
the Wholesome Way
Keen-to-Read Books
OFF-SITE LINKS TO STUFF ABOUT LEARNING AND LEARNING TO READ
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2005/11/does_reading_to_children_help.php
This link takes you to the article Does Reading to Children Help Them Learn to Read? by Dave Munger.
The article is based on the research published in Psychological Science by Mary Anne Evans and Jean Saint-Aubin. In their experiments, they tracked the eye movements of 4 year olds as their parents read to them. They found that children rarely looked at the words. In fact, they generally looked at the illustrations 20 times more than they looked at the text. Therefore, how could they learn anything about words or reading?
(PS. In Ted’s Tales, the focused words often feature in the illustrations. Therefore, even when children are looking at the illustrations, they are still looking at and learning about that word and words in general.)
However, reading to children does develop vocabulary, knowledge and a love of books. Evans and Saint-Aubin cite research done that substantiates this fact.
The article goes on to say that parents who read to their children are more likely to coach their children in orthographic (letter, word & reading) skills, which is an explanation as to why children whose parents read to them, often have improved reading ability.
Evans mentions the easiest way to coach children on reading skills is to point to the words as we read to them.
(PS. All Keen-to-Read Books have generous spacing between the words to make pointing a breeze.)
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http://www.riggsinst.org/BrainPower.aspx
This link takes you to the article Kid’s Brain Power by Steve Nadia.
This article cites the scientific evidence that backs up the saying that young children’s minds soak up information like a sponge.
It cites research done on young children’s ability to learn and offers advice on ways to help children reach their full potential.
The brain of a four-year-old child is more than twice as active as an adult’s. A child’s brain burns much more glucose as they have many more connections between neurons to maintain. When these connections are not used, they may be eliminated. For instance, unlike adults, young children can learn to speak a second language like a native. Feral children cannot master a language if they are brought back to civilisation after the age of ten.
Steve in this article quotes eminent brain researchers, such as Michael Phelps, (UCLA biophysicist) “If we teach our children early enough, it will affect the organisation or ‘wiring’ of their brains.”
The article also warns against pushing children. Although children need a flood of information to reach their full potential, excessive exposure can be counterproductive as stress hormones can destroy nerve cells.
(PS. Reading Ted’s Tales with your child is a fun, informal, natural and wholesome way for your child to pick up reading skills at an early age.)
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http://memfox.com/the-folly-of-jolly-old-phonics.html
This link takes you to the article The Folly of Jolly Old Phonics by Mem Fox (a famous Australian author), who presented this at an Auckland’s principals conference in New Zealand in 2008.
In this article, Mem gives anecdotal evidence that children can pick up reading when their favourite book is read to them often enough.
Mem cites the stories behind three Australian children (Sean, Justin and Josephine) and how they learnt to read before they went to school without any lessons. Most children do not learn to read until they go to school, but a growing number are learning quickly, happily and easily before they start school.
Here is a direct quote from the article. “When children learn to read before school without any formal lessons, they do so because they’ve been looking at the same print over and over again as they’ve listened to the same language, in the same stories, which have been read so many times that their parents are driven to distraction. Not only does the print become familiar, language becomes familiar. Learning to read is much more about learning language than it is about making sounds from the letters on a page.”
Sean, Justin and Josephine never sounded out words phonetically when they learnt to read. However, Mem does give examples of when a knowledge of phonics does come in handy, for instance to help us spell, and therefore write.
Fluent readers, regardless of age, do not sound out words when they read. Mem illustrates this point by asking us to read the following passage, which fluent readers can do with ease.
“Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteers are in the rghit pclae: the rset can be a toatl mses but you can still raed it wouthit a problem. This is bcuseae we don’t raed ervey lteter but the wrd as a wlohe.”
(Although the above paragraph illustrates the point Mem makes, the subject is much more complex. Many other factors are involved in reading jumbled text such as context clues, the number of small words in a sentence, the positioning of the letters, and the complexity of the sentence etc. Here is a link to further discussions on the topic for those interested.)
www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/cambridge.asp
Mem points out that when we force children to sound out words they don’t know, instead of just giving them the word, they tend to read so slowly that they make little sense of what they are reading and get no joy from it.
She goes on to say that a multitude of explicit phonic lessons can be taught from the pages of joyful books...
(PS Ted’s Tales, Readers and Activity Books offer many opportunities to enjoy books, have fun, and learn phonetic skills simultaneously. Go to the Books/Specials/Shop Section of our site to access details for teachers and parents about the textual features of each of our learning-to-read books.)
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http://trelease-on-reading.com/rah-ch2-pg2.html#ifimreading
Jim Trelease has an informative site on the importance of reading aloud to children. He has generously included on his site excerpts from his book, The Read-Aloud Handbook (Penguin 2006). The link above takes you to an excerpt from Chapter 2 and addresses the following two questions. How is my child’s reading going to get better if I’m doing the reading? Is there something I could buy that would help my child read better?
Jim states that listening comprehension feeds reading comprehension.
How did we learn the meaning of such a little word as the? We learnt it because we heard it over and over again. We heard it from our parents etc. We heard it in meaningful context, such as the dog and the cat.
When we hear words often enough, they overflow from our listening vocabulary into our speaking, reading and writing vocabulary.
Children entering school with narrow vocabularies, usually do not catch up as they continue to hear the same routine words at home, and school reading time is generally geared towards reading the more common words, which are already part of their listening vocabulary. They may have little exposure to new or advanced language.
He states that narrowing the achievement gap depends entirely on bridging the vocabulary gap and the most efficient way to do this is to read to children beginning at infancy.
Children’s books, even good picture books, are much richer than ordinary home or classroom conversation.
This leads us to the other question posed. Is there something I could buy that would help my child read better?
Jim mentions ownership of a book, with the child’s name inscribed in it, that does not have to be returned to the library. There is a clear connection between book ownership and access and reading achievement.
(PS Ted’s Readers have a limited vocabulary and are designed for children to read mostly by themselves especially after the first or second reading; however, they can be used to promote discussion to further vocabulary and language development. Ted’s Tales are much richer in vocabulary and are designed to promote reading skills and develop vocabulary and language skills simultaneously. Our new category of picture books, Story Time, uses more advanced vocabulary, but still furnishes opportunities for emergent and beginner readers to chime in.)
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