America Has A Reading Problem

Reading disabilities have a tremendous social impact. A research study conducted by the Pew Research Center indicates that at the end of 2007, approximately 7,300,000 United States citizens were either in jail, in prison, on probation, or on parole.

That is 1 out of every 31 American adults.

The Pew Center continues and states that the United States has 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s prison inmates.

Further research demonstrates that 7 out of 10 incarcerated persons were struggling readers while going through school.

7 out of 10

That’s 70 percent.

These figures serve as a clear indication that reading instruction in American educational institutions is problematic.

The Learning Processes

While there is not complete agreement among scientists and educators on the nature of human learning, certain ideas are generally accepted and provide a model through which we can work. Learning theories have been based, historically, on the findings of modern psychology, and most theories of learning can be divided into three main groups: 1) behavior modification; 2) cognitive theories; and 3) humanistic theories. While all three groups attempt to explain the means through which people can best achieve their educational goals, each stresses a different method of achievement.

Behavior modification theories state that learning consists of forming habits. Additionally, a person will only form a habit if the process offers him some degree of satisfaction. By utilizing a series of accumulated simple habits, a person can eventually be able to accomplish more sophisticated habits, such as solving complicated numerical equations. Theories of this type are measured by asking the student to solve problems with only one possible solution. Based upon the correctness of the answer, a determination is made as to the mastery of the material.

Cognitive theories stress the importance of thought processes in learning. Included in these processes are the abstract concepts of understanding and decision-making. Proponents of cognitive theories feel that behavior modification theorists do not fully comprehend the thought processes, as most problems have more than one solution.

Humanistic theories stress the importance of the emotions in learning. Proponents of this theory feel that the two previous theories completely and thoroughly minimize the emotional development of the student. The individuality that each student possesses and the different responses to external stimuli are stressed in this theory. Resultantly, each student must be given the opportunity to develop in the manner which suits their individual personality. As each individual student possesses different strengths and weaknesses in its learning processes, ideally, modern educators should implement strategies for instruction that will cater to all three of these theories.

Reading Is Not A Natural Process

The development of reading skills obviously serves as the gateway to the world of printed information. Most, if not all, of the informal education that we received is accomplished without the use of printed material. Historically, the oral tradition was the foundation of the informal education process and continues to remain so. However, through the development of reading skills, we prepare ourselves for our journey toward learning the material that must be mastered during the formal education process.

Many proponents of ‘whole language’ feel that, since humans learn to speak their native language through immersion, the act of reading follows a similar pattern and exposure to the printed word leads to the development of reading skills. This reasoning bears a false truth value. A great deal of care and attention to detail must accompany reading instruction because reading is quite different from speech.

In speech, the listener is provided with many clues as to the meaning of the words presented by the speaker. Intonation, pitch, cadence, and body language all provide context clues that assist in the comprehension of auditory signals. Further, according to the Innateness Hypothesis, children are equipped with a blueprint for the innate principles and properties that pertain to the grammars of all spoken human language called universal grammar. This blueprint aids the child in the task of constructing a grammar for the native language. Structure dependency of the native language and coordinate structure constraint are inherent. The rules of grammar that are language specific are learned from the surrounding linguistic environment through stages in oral communication presenting speech as a natural process.

Reading involves a quite different process. The two key components of reading, which do not manifest themselves in speech, are word identification and concept imagery. Word identification involves recognizing that words are a systematic string of individual graphemes (letters). Each individual sequential combination represents a different word. Students must be able to string together the individual phonemes (sounds) to produce these words. This is the essence of decoding. The other half of the reading puzzle involves comprehension of the meanings behind the sequential combinations of letters (words). Concept imagery allows students to visualize the item or process represented by the words. Students who have weak word attack skills (word identification) will stumble and stammer as they attempt to read the printed language. Those weak in concept imagery (comprehension) may read with prosody but will not understand what was read.

To understand the impact of word identification and concept imagery on the reading process, one merely needs to understand that the printed language is a code for spoken language. In order to read, a student must be able to translate the written symbol to the corresponding sound that it represents. This knowledge is called sound-symbol correspondence. The ability to make this translation is called phonemic awareness. Reading, or decoding, involves sound-symbol correspondence and phonemic awareness, neither of which is a naturally occurring process.

A Thought from Margaret Byrd Rawson

“To know and be part of his world is every child’s birthright. To experience the sights, the sounds, the feel and the smell and the taste of it-city and country, in all seasons and weathers; to watch and feel kinship with animals and plants and their life cycles and to participate in them; to be intimately acquainted with rocks and streams, soil, and sea, forest and lake-all are as important as to know his fellow man. To be aware in the present, to know of the past and how things and life came to be, to dream of the future as he may experience it and as it may be beyond his time are his predominantly human privilege. Not only to be and to grow, but to make and do, to try himself against reality, to bend it to his will or to merge himself with its forces as seems good and possible to him; to find purpose in his world and himself, stalwart courage to meet what comes; resourceful skills in coping with life’s challenges; to have a basic sense of inner security which gives due realization to danger and evil, but which knows that, however biting the winds of adversity, he can deal with them with a spirit not broken but victoriously strengthened and enlarged; to relate warmly and empathetically to people, both taking and giving-sharing life positively with them in small ways and large; understanding, accepting, and welcoming diversity and coming to terms with it as constructively as lies within his powers, knowing its hazards and using well its positive potential-these he needs if he is to be a fully functioning, ever-growing human person. These are the proper heritage of every human child.”

-Margaret Byrd Rawson, The Many Faces of Dyslexia, pgs. 57-58.

The Instructional Ideal

The ideal form of instruction would be one where the student feels a sense of empowerment over the learning process. There are many roads which may lead to the development of the sense of educational empowerment, but the key is to create the educationally conducive environment that provides opportunity for the fostering of emotional stability. As the development of decision-making skills (called problem-solving skills by some) lies at the root of the ideal educational process, the ideal form of instruction must provide a safe, comfortable environment for the students to practice and strengthen these skills. Students must be willing to make choices and accept the consequences in order to assume a role as a maturing adult in American society. As adults, we are well aware that, sometimes, the consequences of our actions are good. Sometimes, they are bad. It is the role of educational institutions to provide an environment where students feel safe to try.

One of the key components to ideal instruction is to remember that children, like all animals, learn best when they can relate new experiences to knowledge that they already possess. New information should be presented following a brief review of knowledge or related to concepts with which the student is already familiar. This allows them to strengthen their knowledge base in preparation for exposure, in the advanced grade levels, to new or expanded ideas. Students who experience this level of ‘recycling’ are better equipped to handle one of the most important life skills that we teach, risk taking. While students are standing on the familiar, teachers may more easily encourage them to get out of their comfort zones. This is an important step in the maturation process of children. As humans grow, we must frequently let go of the old in order to embrace the new. The void in between can be frightening.

Another important aspect of ideal instructional is time. Students should be encouraged to process information that they have received, and time should be provided for them to accomplish this. Through time for reflection and discussion, students are able to deepen their understanding of the presented material or activity. As their understanding deepens, their knowledge base widens and further solidifies. Inevitably, they are lead to new and expanded ideas of a more complicated nature. The entire process fosters increased cognitive ability.

Famous Dyslexics

“The future can be bright; dyslexics do and can succeed.”

-Margaret Byrd Rawson

· Agatha Christie, English mystery writer

· Tom Cruise, actor

· Whoopi Goldberg, actress

· Walt Disney, founder of Disneyland, cartoonist

· Charles Schwab, founder of the investment brokerage firm

· Thomas Edison, inventor

· Winston Churchill, former prime minister of Britain

· Leonardo Da Vinci, Renaissance artist

· Harrison Ford, actor

· Jay Leno, comedian

· Robin Williams, actor and comedian

· Albert Einstein, scientist

· Nolan Ryan, athlete

· Harry Belafonte, singer, entertainer

· Cher, entertainer, actress

· Danny Glover, actor

· Gustave Flaubert, writer

· William Hewlett, co-founder, Hewlett-Packard

· Andy Warhol, artist

· John Lennon, musician

· Ted Turner, media mogul, philanthropist

· George Burns, actor, comedian

· Alexander Graham Bell, inventor

· Bruce Jenner, Olympian athlete

· George Patton, U.S. general

· Tom Smothers, comedian

· Henry Winkler, actor

· Billy Bob Thornton, actor

· Nelson Rockefeller, former governor of New York

· Woodrow Wilson, former U.S. president

· William Yeats, poet

· Hans Christian Anderson, author

Formal Vs. Informal Education

In the process called informal education, our parents are our first and most important teachers. This forms the first half of the educational experience. The bonds that are formed between parent and child impact the lifelong experience of humans since our parents teach us not only values and attitudes that help shape our moral character, but also decision and problem-solving skills which translate into skills required for survival. These lessons remain with us throughout our entire lives. This process has endured from time immemorial. Throughout history, learning from our parents has been the hallmark of animal existence. It occurs everywhere in nature. The bear cub, for example, learns how to catch fish from the mother bear. The cub further learns how to swim, climb, provide for itself, and avoid dangers. It’s the natural progression of things and occurs in all forms of locomotive life, including that of man.

Prehistoric man, as another example, needed education in order to survive. Fathers taught their sons how to hunt wild animals for food. The sons, when they became of age and had offspring of their own, in turn, taught them how to hunt. Beyond the experience of hunting and food gathering, early people had to learn how to live in harmony with each other and their environment. This evolution of human interactions allows the process of civilization to exist. For it is the process of civilization that ensures that man’s chief means of acquiring and transmitting the essential knowledge and skills of life is presented in a coherent and sequential form, leading to a productive and useful accumulation of information.

In the process called formal education, the second half of the educational experience is accomplished through an endeavor called ‘schooling,’ in which a child receives organized instruction. As may be self-evident, even for modern man, education continues to exert its influence of necessity. A modern society cannot survive without an institution of education, for education is more important today than ever before. It helps people acquire the skills that are required for mundane tasks such as driving to work or the specialized training required for the maintenance and operation of the machinery of industry and commerce. However, the key benefit of education is the self-reward that is derived from accomplishment. Through the combination of self-reward and accomplishment, a person is given the opportunity to learn more about himself, as well as, the world entire. On many of the temples associated with the Ausruca, the Egyptian Mysteries System which served as the earliest educational institution, the phrase “Know Thyself” is inscribed. Knowledge of one’s self and one’s relationship to the outer world is, therefore, the beginning of true understanding, for it is the beginning of self-realization. Self-realization assists in many other areas that are supportive of society because self-realization helps people to adjust to change. In modern society, this ability is important because change occurs at an ever-increasing pace.

Early Phonics Instruction Leads To Better Reading

Research conducted by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NICHD) reinforces that systematic and early instruction in phonics leads to better reading. This is because knowledge of sound-symbol relationships aids in the development of word recognition. Word recognition increases fluency since less effort must be applied to decoding. When less effort is applied to decoding, more attention may be applied to extracting meaning from print through heightened concept imagery, the ability to image basic concepts and visualize the gestalt from what is read or heard. This ability underlies oral and written language comprehension, problem solving, and critical thinking. Individuals with well developed concept imagery create imaged gestalts or holistic mental representations in their minds and, consequently, are able to process the “big picture” from which to reason, resolve problems, and think critically. They can perform higher order thinking skills such as understanding the main idea, making inferences, drawing conclusions, predicting, problem-solving, and performing other reasoning tasks. Conversely, lack of English code-breaking skills translates into the creation of a disability in basic reading skills.

What Is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and visually image the number, order, and identity of sounds and letters within words. These abilities underlie accurate word attack, word recognition, reading fluency, and spelling. Prior to learning to read, it is necessary for a child to understand that words are composed of strings of speech sounds called phonemes. Children who have phonemic awareness skills are likely to have an easier time learning to read and spell than children who have few or none of these skills. Weakness in these functions causes individuals to add, omit, substitute, and reverse sounds and letters within words while reading and spelling

What Is Auditory Processing?

As visual processing ability referred to word recognition and recall of words after the image has been received by the eyes, auditory processing ability refers to what happens to impulses of sound in the brain after the ears have received them. You will recall that sound is processed into understandable words in an area of the temporal lobe of the dominant hemisphere called Wernicke’s area. The level of functioning of Wernicke’s area directly impacts the auditory recognition and recall of words. Those students who have a high level of activity in Wernicke’s area have good auditory processing ability. Those who have low levels of activity in this region struggle with the verbal skills associated with spoken words and ideas. These students have difficulty remembering what was said (following oral directions), are highly susceptible to distracting noises, and find it extremely difficult to master foreign languages. As with visual imagery and word recognition and recall, auditory processing ability is independent of intelligence. Further, longitudinal research demonstrates that six out of ten people with visual processing difficulties also have auditory processing deficits.

Auditory processing includes:

• hearing differences between sounds
• replicating a particular sound
• remembering general sound patterns
• segmenting words into individual sounds
• blending parts of words together
• rhyming
  

Students with an auditory deficit usually have most difficulty with reading, writing, and both expressive and receptive language.