Reading is the act of getting meaning from printed or written words. It is basic to learning and one of the most important skills in everyday life. Reading provides the key to all kinds of information. It enables us to learn how to build or fix things, to enjoy stories, to discover what other people believe, and to develop ideas and beliefs of our own.
People may read hundreds or thousands of words a day without even looking at a book, newspaper, or magazine. For example, they read their mail, street signs, traffic directions, billboards, the printing on television commercials, package labels, and many other things that contain words.
In the simplest sense, reading means recognizing letters and groups of letters as symbols that stand for particular sounds. The sounds, in turn, form words that express ideas in written or printed form. A broader definition of reading links it more closely with other uses of language and with thinking. According to that definition, reading first depends on a reader’s memory and experience to understand what is read. It then involves how well the reader remembers, uses, and reacts to the material.
In most cases, the teaching of reading stresses certain skills, such as word recognition, vocabulary development, and comprehension (understanding of reading matter). However, the best way to learn to read may simply be just to read. Adults, especially parents, teachers, and librarians, can help children become good readers by reading to them and by encouraging them to read many kinds of materials—and to read often.
The importance of reading
Reading plays an essential role in the daily lives of most people. People read road signs, maps, recipes, labels on medicine bottles, and directions for operating new appliances. They read and fill out forms to file their income tax, to apply for jobs, and to request credit. The ability to perform such useful activities is sometimes called functional reading or functional literacy.
A special kind of functional reading, learner literacy, has always been important to students. All elementary school subjects, such as mathematics, science, social studies, and spelling, require students to read. In high school and college, learner literacy becomes even more vital. Older students must read to gain an understanding of a wide variety of topics. Learner literacy also requires the ability to read special kinds of materials, including charts, graphs, maps, and tables. People learn throughout their lives, and so such reading skills remain useful after a person has completed school.
Another kind of functional literacy, workplace literacy, concerns the ability to read written materials necessary for doing a job. Such materials include manuals on how to operate computers, robots, and other technical devices. In addition, being promoted often involves special training classes and workshops that call for particular reading skills. This is one way that a person’s ability to read directly influences job success.
Besides reading in the classroom and on the job, people read books, magazines, and other printed materials for personal information and recreation. Many people read to learn more about their special interests, such as sports, science, current events, history, health, flowers, or painting. Millions of people read novels, adventure stories, biographies, and other books for fun. Recreational reading helps people understand others, takes readers on journeys to unknown parts of the world, and enables them to share the experiences of people throughout history.
As television became a major part of modern life, some experts predicted that people would not need or want to read as much as before. However, books, magazines, and newspapers still fill shelves in bookstores, drugstores, and supermarkets, as well as in libraries. Some experts believe that the information and entertainment provided by TV and related technologies have exposed people to new ideas and interests and so have created additional reasons to read.
Kinds of reading
People differ in reading ability. For example, those who have been reading a long time tend to understand what they read more quickly and more automatically than do new readers. In addition, older readers bring more background experiences to their reading. They can use their experiences to fill in important information that is not clearly stated in the text.
Regardless of age, training, and other experiences, reading abilities and habits vary from person to person. Some people read remarkably fast, while understanding the main points and remembering key examples. Others read at a snail’s pace as they try to absorb every word—sometimes without evaluating the worth of the information.
A good reader uses various reading techniques. The technique depends on the type and difficulty of the material, the purpose for reading it, and the reader’s own language development and familiarity with the subject.
Reading can be classified into three main kinds: (1) recreational reading, (2) study-type reading, and (3) survey reading. Good readers can easily shift from one kind to another, depending on their purpose for reading and on the material itself.
Recreational reading
can provide hour after hour of enjoyment. When reading a story purely for pleasure, most people read at a relaxed, uneven speed. They may skim through a tale until they come to a scene, a description, or even a phrase that is especially pleasing or satisfying. That portion may be read slowly and then reread to be enjoyed, appreciated, or considered.
Study-type reading
usually requires the reader to pay close attention to the text. A good reader looks for significant ideas and details. The reader then tries to understand how those ideas and details relate to one another and how they fit into the general topic. Reading speed tends to be slower the first time study-type material is read, and the reader may need to reread portions of the text to understand it fully. Reading speed may be much faster when the material is reviewed.
Survey reading
involves covering a large amount of text to get a general idea of its content. In such cases, the person may first skim the material to understand the main point. The reader may then look for details that reinforce or illustrate that point. If the purpose is to find a particular fact or example, the reader may begin by skimming the text. The person may then read some sections carefully to make sure that the desired information has been found.
Shifting among kinds of reading.
Most people use different reading techniques for different reading situations. For example, a mystery enjoyed simply for entertainment may be read rapidly. But a classic Russian novel may call for slow, careful reading. Technical texts that could lead to job advancement or that tell how to fix something usually require thoughtful reading.
Good readers can easily shift from one kind of reading to another. For instance, a student collecting information to write a paper might begin surveying articles to see if they fit the topic. One article may lead the student to consider changing the topic, and so the article is studied thoroughly and another topic chosen. While surveying for the new topic, the student looks for information to create an outline. During the survey reading, the student may see an entertaining article and read it for pleasure.
Reading flexibility improves with experience. Beginners may tend to read everything somewhat awkwardly, advancing slowly word by word because they doubt their ability to recognize words. By reading materials that follow their own language patterns—that is, familiar words and sentences they use—even beginning readers can read with both speed and understanding. In time, they learn that different reading materials make different demands on their abilities.
How we read
Reading depends first on our perceiving (seeing and recognizing) written or printed letters and words. We must then be able to comprehend what we perceive.
Perceiving reading matter.
The process of reading begins as our eyes see visual stimuli—that is, the printed or written symbols that make up what is to be read. Eye movements across the symbols capture the stimuli. Eye movements called saccadic movements take place as our eyes move across a page, pausing briefly to take in groups of words. As our eyes move across a line, they alternately pause and move on. The pauses are called fixations. Another type of eye movement, regression, occurs when our eyes shift back to reread a word or group of words. To move from one line of type to the next, our eyes use a movement called a return sweep. However, good readers are unaware of their eye movements as they read.
Nerve cells in our eyes change the visual stimuli into electrical impulses that travel to the vision center of the brain. The vision center then sends the impulses to the specific areas of the brain responsible for thought organization, memory storage, and reasoning. Those areas identify the printed and written symbols and translate them into meaning. The physical process of reading also includes the storage of the sounds, meanings, and pictorial representations of what we read.
Comprehending what is perceived.
Reading involves far more than simply seeing visual stimuli. You must first choose a particular text to satisfy some purpose. That purpose not only determines the selection of the text but also helps you decide which experiences and reading skills to use to comprehend the material. Your purpose may also suggest how you might use any new knowledge or understanding that you gain from the material.
While reading, you draw on numerous ideas and feelings stored in your memory. Those ideas and feelings make up your background. You also rely on verbal memory—that is, an understanding of how words come together and form more complex ideas.
Your background and verbal memory change and grow with each reading experience. Information in new material blends with your past experiences and may correct misunderstandings, provide fresh knowledge, broaden interests, or help solve problems.
In many cases, readers lack the background and verbal memory needed to comprehend a text quickly and easily. Such readers may use techniques called word-recognition strategies. The more experienced a reader becomes, the more automatically the reader applies these strategies to comprehend unfamiliar words.
Readers can use several general types of word-recognition strategies. For example, a reader who does not know the meaning of a particular word may look for context clues in the surrounding text. These clues may be either semantic or syntactic. When using semantic clues, the reader tries to relate the word to other information or illustrations in the material. Semantic clues include comparisons and contrasts, definitions, descriptions, and the placement of new words near familiar words that help explain their meaning. A reader may also rely on syntactic clues—that is, the word’s position and grammatical use in the text. For example, deciding whether a word is functioning as a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb can help a reader figure out its meaning.
In a word-recognition strategy called structural analysis, a reader uses clues within the word itself to guess what the word means. The reader relies on knowledge of the meanings of prefixes, suffixes, roots (word bases), compound words, and inflectional endings such as ed and ing, and of how they are combined. For example, the adverb undoubtedly has the prefix un, the root doubt, the inflectional ending ed, and the suffix ly. Knowing the meanings of the parts of the word leads the reader to decide that the word means without doubt. Some methods of teaching reading drill students on prefixes, suffixes, and the meaning of Latin and Greek roots. But the best way for readers to add such knowledge to verbal memory is to encounter words made of those parts in text they find meaningful, and to use the words in conversation and writing.
A word-recognition strategy called phonics uses the relationships between spoken sounds and letters. The word phonics comes from a Greek word meaning sound. Many beginning readers are taught to “sound out” a word, which they may then recognize if they have heard it before. In that way, a reader learns to associate printed symbols with spoken sounds. For more information on phonics, see the section The teaching of reading in this article. See also Phonics.
Readability.
Reading success is determined not only by how well a person reads, but also by how readable the material is. Important factors that influence the readability of any printed material include (1) the average number of words in sentences, (2) the number of commonly understood words, (3) the average number of syllables in the words, (4) the number of long complex sentences, (5) the number of abstract ideas, and (6) the use of prepositional phrases.
Textbooks, reference books, newspapers, government publications, and informational brochures for consumers can be written at predetermined grade levels by controlling these factors. A number of formulas have been developed for estimating readability. The approximate reading level of the people who will read the material must be known. However, there is no formula or procedure to predict the attitudes and interests of readers, or to predict their previous knowledge about the subject. These three factors may lead people to read at lower or higher levels than might be predicted by a formula. Today many publishers reject rigid readability formulas, but they continue to design materials to the reading levels of the intended audience.
The teaching of reading
The complexity of the reading process makes it difficult to teach reading by only one method. Instead, most reading teachers use a combination of techniques determined by their own preferences, students’ needs, and the instructional materials available. Commonly used teaching programs include (1) the developmental method, (2) the whole-language philosophy, (3) the language-experience method, (4) phonics instruction, (5) sight words and look-and-say instruction, and (6) individualized reading programs.
The developmental method
uses a series of textbooks called basal readers. They serve as the basic reading materials in many schools. Basal readers gradually introduce the skills considered important for new readers, especially word-recognition strategies. The textbooks also give students opportunities to apply and practice the various skills.
The typical basal reader series consists of textbooks for each level of reading instruction. Publishers of these textbooks try to present stories, essays, and other writings to which children can relate. A book may include selections from award-winning literature and classics. In addition to student textbooks, basal programs provide teacher manuals, student workbooks, tests, and supplementary materials for each grade level. Teachers who use basal readers generally separate the children into groups according to reading abilities and instructional needs. They can then select the teaching materials that most closely match their teaching goals and the students’ needs.
In developmental programs, most reading lessons involve answering in writing questions about the assignment and completing workbook pages that enable students to practice concepts presented in the reading lesson. A large number of lessons and activities also focus on the development of comprehension and analytical thinking. In addition, many programs help students determine their purpose for reading and encourage them to select additional reading materials.
Developmental programs are planned in great detail and enable schools to adjust their reading courses for all grade levels. However, some experts believe that the programs emphasize word-recognition strategies over comprehension, especially for beginning readers.
The whole-language philosophy
tries to teach children that language is an effective and enjoyable way to communicate. Children learn new words in the reading material itself, where the meanings and uses of the words can be best understood.
The relationships between reading, writing, listening, and speaking are essential to the whole-language philosophy. The method defines writing as speaking in print, reading and listening as means of learning, and writing and reading as two ways of thinking with language. Whole-language teachers introduce children to both oral language and written language at as young an age as possible, sometimes as early as preschool.
The whole-language method states that the best way to learn to read is to read meaningful materials. Whole-language teachers emphasize the purpose for reading and student selection of reading matter. Instead of reading copies of the same textbook, students read materials that reflect their individual interests. They may often choose their own materials from their classroom, school, library, and home collections.
Reading in a whole-language classroom does not follow lessons that foresee reading strategy needs for a particular text. Nor do teachers drill students after reading a particular text on the reading skills used for that text. Instead, practice comes from simply reading more.
Whole-language theory claims that students cannot interpret a text correctly or incorrectly. Teachers encourage students to bring meaning to a text on the basis of their own backgrounds. The teachers assist students in the process by engaging them in conversation, asking thought-provoking questions, and suggesting examples of how they might interpret or respond to the text. A student learns through experience that inappropriate interpretations may lead to unsuccessful applications of what has been read. At the same time, the student learns that fresh, creative interpretations may be effective. Teachers accept any reasonable ideas that result from trying to construct meaning.
Educators who favor the whole-language method believe that reading cannot be analyzed in terms of specific strategies or skills. They argue that such analysis detracts from what reading really and simply is—the attempt of a reader to get meaning from a text. However, other educators believe that children learn reading more effectively through more structured programs that teach various strategies essential to reading.
The language-experience method
seeks to develop reading skills by having learners use their own experiences and language abilities. It is based on the belief that “What I can say, I can write. What I can write, I can read.” The method helps students understand that written language is simply oral language in printed form. The teacher uses the children’s own language patterns and ideas to help them improve skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The method is commonly used in whole-language classrooms and in some developmental programs.
In language experience, beginning readers create their own texts by dictating story ideas to the teacher. The students base the ideas on their own experiences at home or school. The teacher writes the story ideas on a chalkboard or on large sheets of paper, creating what are sometimes called experience charts. The teacher then goes over the experience chart with the class, having individual students read various sentences, reviewing material the class has already learned, or teaching any new words the chart contains. More experienced readers may also write and illustrate the stories themselves to create books for others to read.
Some educators believe that the language-experience method might limit students’ learning of different ideas and cultures. But in most cases, teachers soon combine language experience with other methods. Experts who favor language experience believe that it is especially effective in giving children a solid grasp of what reading is—the process of getting meaning from written words.
Phonics instruction
teaches children to relate letters to sounds. Phonics is actually a word-recognition strategy that becomes a teaching method only through heavy emphasis. Using phonetic principles, youngsters learn to associate the correct sound with each part of a word and to recognize and pronounce words.
Teachers of phonics assume that children know certain words from hearing them. They also assume that children can learn that the various sounds of spoken language, called phonemes, are represented by specific letters and letter combinations, called graphemes. Phonics instruction generally begins with teaching the sounds of initial consonants in words and of some vowel sounds. It moves on to consonants at the end of words, additional vowel sounds, and consonant combinations, such as ch in chair and sh in wish. Students also learn certain rules for sounding out words. For example, they are taught that when a word contains two vowels and one of them is a final e, as in hole, the final e is silent while the sound of the first vowel is long and so sounds like the name of the letter.
Phonics can be taught in two general ways. Synthetic, or deductive, phonics deals with the relationships between individual letters and sounds. Children then learn to split graphemes and to blend the phonemes they represent into words. They synthesize (sound out) the sounds that form unfamiliar words. Synthetic phonics has helped some people with severe reading problems. But it may limit a reader’s ability to quickly grasp the ideas represented by groups of words. In analytic, or inductive, phonics, children analyze words for their sounds. Instruction begins by teaching the relationships between letters and sounds by referring to words the students know by sight. The teacher may then present other words that begin or end with the same letter and sound. Consonant and vowel combinations are also taught that way. Beginning readers eventually learn to recognize the sounds of new words.
The great irregularity in the relationships between letters and sounds in the English language presents difficulty if reading instruction heavily emphasizes phonics. Many sounds may be spelled in several ways. For example, the words beat and beet, size and sighs, and eight and ate sound the same but have different spellings and meanings. In addition, the same letters and letter combinations can stand for several sounds. For instance, the word tear is pronounced one way if it means to rip and another way if it means a drop of water from the eye. Some phonics instruction tries to deal with such irregularities through numerous complex exceptions to the rules of sounding out words.
A knowledge of phonics enables a person to determine the sounds of many unfamiliar words. Phonics can also help children in the early elementary grades learn to read. But the majority of experts believe that phonics becomes most effective when combined with other methods which stress meaning and comprehension.
Sight words and look-and-say instruction.
If a reader recognizes a series of letters as soon as they are seen as a word, it is considered a sight word. Such a word communicates its meaning to the reader so fast that the process seems automatic. Sight-word instruction grew out of the assumption that children probably learn to identify words first by either their appearance or the context in which they appear. They learn to recognize the form of many words from simple books, program titles and commercials on television, and labels on various products. The beginning reader must acquire a basic sight vocabulary that includes the words used most frequently in spoken language. The same words also occur often in written language. Children can be helped to recognize basic sight words by practicing them.
Some reading authorities believe that new words can be taught as sight words, without any analysis of the sounds they require. Children learn many common words that way. In the 1930’s, an extension of the practice led to a method called look-and-say instruction or whole-word identification. The technique stresses word recognition. Phonetic principles may unconsciously aid word recognition in the method. Reading teachers no longer emphasize look-and-say learning, but the development of a vocabulary of sight words remains part of the reading instruction in many classrooms.
Individualized reading programs
take into account the wide range of reading abilities and needs. Such a program adjusts instruction and reading materials to the reading achievement, interests, and ability of each student. The classrooms and school libraries have books and other reading matter that cover many grade levels and fields of interest. An individualized reading program requires careful supervision by the teacher, who must check each child’s progress in skills, attitudes, and interests. Individual children progress as rapidly as they can. These programs may include elements of other teaching methods, such as the whole-language philosophy or the language-experience method.
Computer-assisted instruction may play an important role in individualized reading programs, though it can also supplement other teaching methods. Computer instruction includes text material followed by questions that test the student’s comprehension. In addition, word-processor programs enable students to create their own stories. Such programs are also common in language-experience and whole-language classrooms.
Developing good readers
For many years, educators tried to determine reading readiness—that is, when children were ready to learn how to read. They believed that visual and listening abilities, personality development, interests and experiences, emotional stability, language achievement, and certain other characteristics indicated reading readiness. The experts generally agreed that by the time boys and girls reached 61/2 years of age, the various characteristics had developed enough for children to learn to read. As a result, most schools offered formal reading instruction to youngsters beginning at that age.
Today, most educators question the idea of reading readiness at precisely age 61/2. They point out that being 61/2 years old does not automatically assure that a child will profit from reading instruction. Some children do not fully develop the skills traditionally associated with reading readiness until age 8. Others have them by age 4. In addition, many experts now believe that learning to read depends mainly on whether a child can focus the mind on letters and words as symbols of meaning. The development of that capacity has come to be called emergent literacy—that is, the beginning of the ability to read. The amount of experience a child has had with oral and written language—rather than the child’s age—appears to be a key to emergent literacy.
Research shows that children begin to associate sounds with the symbols they stand for at an early age. Very young children with no reading experience may astound their parents with the first words they read, such as a department store sign announcing Big Sale. If children who cannot write are asked to write the story they have been telling orally, they tend to scribble in patterns across a page. Such children show an understanding of what writing is and how it is put on a page.
Research thus demonstrates that children begin to understand language from the time they first listen to adults talk to them. Children try, in turn, to express their needs to adults with a variety of sounds. Emergent literacy suggests that children of all ages can learn from language-related experiences. Children’s experiences at home and at school greatly influence how well they learn to read.
Learning in the home.
At home, parents and other adults can promote the growth of a child’s language-related abilities in many ways. First, they should make sure that the child is physically able to read by watching for vision or hearing problems that could be treated or corrected. Adults should also spend much time talking to the young child in an appealing and clear voice. Such attention will likely arouse the youngster’s interest in language and provide opportunities to distinguish various sounds and to build vocabulary. Some adults move attractive objects before a baby’s eyes to encourage alertness and to exercise developing motor skills (controlled movements) of the eyes and head.
As children begin to use language, parents and other adults should try to converse with them. In so doing, grown-ups should respect a child’s interests and ideas and be patient with the youngster’s attempts to express them. Adults thereby teach the value of language as a means of communication. They also become a chief source of information for a curious child. Adults can help a child grasp basic ideas and how they relate to one another, such as the difference between up and down and between under and over.
Letting a child assist with cooking or building something serves as an excellent way to introduce measurements and an understanding of sizes and proportions. In helping sort the laundry, the youngster can learn to group or classify objects. Such activities aid the development of logical-thinking skills and teach the young girl or boy how to follow a sequence of directions.
By reading aloud to a child regularly, an adult can help a child learn to love books and reading. Even a child too young to understand the words will enjoy the closeness of the activity. In selecting reading materials for older children, adults should consider the child’s maturity and interests. The youngster can become involved in a story by asking questions or by trying to guess what will happen next. Above all, frequent reading aloud to the child enables the adult to demonstrate the enjoyment that language and reading can provide. Adults can also show how much they like to read by setting aside time to read for their own enjoyment.
Working with the school.
Schools build on the language learning begun in the home. Teachers encourage reading development by reading to children, telling them stories, discussing childhood experiences, and providing them with new experiences. Teachers can also give children many opportunities to express themselves orally, and they can write or type simple stories the children dictate. Reading programs in the early elementary grades stress basic skills essential to gaining independence in recognizing and understanding new words. Such programs also help children use the words in meaningful sentences and develop interests and attitudes toward reading as a satisfying experience.
A child’s progress in becoming an independent reader depends heavily on cooperation between parents and teachers. Parents can reinforce the school’s reading instruction by learning about their youngster’s school experiences. As the child learns to read, adults should continue to show that they view reading as important, enjoyable, and worthwhile. For example, they can read often and regularly themselves. They can also provide interesting and appealing reading matter in the home.
Parents and other adults should find out which topics and school subjects especially interest a child. The information will help them determine how well the school’s reading materials serve—or could serve—the youngster’s particular interests. Adults themselves may then be led to provide reading matter that the child would gladly turn to. For example, the parent of a teen-ager might mention what a critic said about a new pop singer in a magazine. A copy of the magazine just happens to be on the coffee table, where the teen-ager can later discover it and verify or challenge the critic’s comments.
Children who care little about school and perform poorly might not have developed the necessary reading abilities to succeed, or they may simply lack interest in the subjects covered. Forcing a youngster to read seldom provides a lasting solution and almost certainly does not contribute to developing a good reader. But appealing to young people’s interests and showing how reading can serve them have proved to be successful.
Reading problems
Researchers have long tried to identify the specific reasons some people do not learn to read as well as others. But the more that researchers have realized how complex the reading process is, the more they have concluded that it is more important to treat the reading problems that arise in an individual child than to find the precise cause of the problems. Some specialists use the term dyslexia to cover most reading problems. Narrowly defined, dyslexia refers to an inability to identify the distinguishing characteristics of letters and words. However, such an inability occurs fairly often among inexperienced readers. The term has lost favor with some experts because it came to be used to describe a broad range of reading problems, which led to confusion about its meaning. See Dyslexia.
Most specialists prefer the term reading disability to describe a lack of the reading development that could be expected in a person with normal vision, normal hearing, and normal or above normal intelligence. Many experts now believe that reading problems have a combination of causes. Many of the causes are so closely interwoven that it is extremely difficult to separate them. In addition, no two readers have exactly the same difficulties. All reading problems should be therefore diagnosed and treated by a specialist. For more information on reading problems, see Learning disabilities.
Signs of reading problems.
Parents, teachers, and other adults should watch for signs of reading difficulty in children. They should suspect a possible disability if a child dislikes reading, school, and homework. Instead, the child may prefer activities that require little or no use of language. Poor grades and teacher concern may result. The youngster may seek out friends who are not particularly involved or successful at school.
Adults should also consider the possibility of a reading problem if a child has an unusually small vocabulary. A youngster who does not speak well, resists talking with adults, or avoids situations that might involve writing may have trouble understanding both oral language and written language.
Causes of reading difficulties.
Reading problems can be classified into four general types. They are (1) aliteracy, (2) failure to concentrate, (3) insufficient experience, and (4) physical disabilities.
Aliteracy
means the lack of desire to read. Aliterate people can read, but they tend to avoid the activity. Aliteracy reinforces itself—that is, people who do not read much do not develop their reading skills. People usually dislike doing things they do poorly, and so aliterate people tend to read less and less. Such reinforcement becomes especially true in the classroom, where the aliterate student sits among skilled readers.
A solution to aliteracy lies in capturing the student’s interest with attractive, meaningful reading materials. The student who learns obviously beneficial things through reading may become a frequent reader.
Failure to concentrate.
To get meaning from reading matter, a person must focus the mind on the text. Almost all readers occasionally fail to understand the text their eye movements perceive. Some readers—particularly young ones dealing with assigned material—often try to read that way, as though the process were so automatic as to require no thought. But for comprehension to occur, readers must bring their knowledge and experience to the act of gaining meaning from words. Obviously, comprehension demands paying attention to the topic and what the text appears to say about it.
Readers can work to improve comprehension in several ways. First, they should understand the reason for reading a particular text. Readers should then make assumptions and predictions regarding the text to be read based on such things as its title, author, and structure. While reading, they should summarize and evaluate the material. Consulting other resources—such as a dictionary, another text, or a teacher or other adult—can help clarify difficult material.
Insufficient experience.
All readers bring their experiences to the comprehension process. Youngsters from homes where conversation, ideas, and printed materials are valued have a broad base of experience and thus an advantage in developing as readers. Children whose experiences have been limited may have more difficulty with reading. In addition, readers may bring considerable background to some topics but little experience to others.
Adults can help children become successful readers by providing them with many varied experiences, especially language-related experiences. The act of reading itself enriches the child’s background, and so experience and reading reinforce each other.
Children who speak a language or dialect that differs from the one used in their school may require language-development programs. Such programs teach that children can learn more than one language or dialect to take part in mainstream society—and still have pride in their own culture. Many schools in the United States teach English as a second language and provide special instruction for children who speak two languages.
Physical disabilities.
Inadequate brain development or vision or hearing defects can cause reading difficulties. However, they account for only a small percentage of all reading problems. Adults will almost certainly notice major brain-development abnormalities in a child long before concerns about the youngster’s reading abilities arise. Parents may thus already have been receiving help with the child. However, lesser abnormalities may not appear until the child begins to learn to read. Teachers who notice a large difference between a child’s expected reading performance and the youngster’s actual achievement may recommend that a pediatrician evaluate the child.
A vision or hearing problem does not by itself cause poor reading. However, correction of such a problem aids reading development. Vision or hearing defects may not become obvious until a child takes screening tests at school, but parents or teachers may notice them earlier. Signs of possible vision problems include frequent rubbing or squinting of the eyes, holding pictures and print close to the face or too far away, and complaining of headaches. Children who do not pay attention, who misunderstand directions or ask to have them repeated, or who have unusual speech habits may experience hearing difficulties. In most cases, vision or hearing problems can be corrected with eyeglasses or a hearing aid. But for some children, special help with reading is also necessary.
Reading and society
The way of life in any country reflects in large part the percentage of its people who can read and write—and the percentage who can read and write well. The higher the percentage of literate people, the more technologically, scientifically, and economically advanced the way of life.
Most societies therefore value the ability to read and write well. Skilled readers contribute to creating a prosperous, productive society. At the same time, they themselves enjoy fuller, more satisfying lives.
In every society, some people have only basic reading and writing skills. They can read simple signs, package labels, and similar matter. Such functionally literate people can read and write just enough to get by. That limited ability may be adequate in a remote village of a developing country but not in a major city of a modern industrial nation. On the other hand, even highly developed nations have functionally illiterate people. They cannot handle the reading and writing that may be required on the job. They may also be unable to use language well enough in other ways to meet the demands of their society.
Figures on literacy around the world are based on estimates made in each country. Not all countries define literacy the same way. But most try to describe some very basic level of reading and writing ability. In the early 1990’s, about three-fourths of the world’s population 15 years old or older could read and write. That means about 1 billion of the world’s people were illiterate.
In a number of countries, including Australia, Germany, and Japan, 99 percent or more of the people age 15 or older can read and write. However, functional illiteracy remains a problem in advanced nations. For example, about one-fifth of all adult Americans are functionally illiterate.
Africa, Asia, and Latin America have the greatest percentages of illiterate people. The world literacy rate, however, has been increasing. In Latin America, for example, the literacy rate rose from about 70 percent in 1960 to about 85 percent in the early 1990’s. See Literacy (table: Literacy rates for selected countries).
