Where is the breakdown in reading?
What often puzzles parents is where and why the reading process is breaking down. Problems can occur in any area,including, decoding, comprehension, or retention. However, according to many experts, the root of most reading problems is decoding.
Reading Facts:
Reading Difficulties:
Decoding:
Decoding is the process by which a word is broken into individual phonemes and recognized based on those phonemes. For instance, proficient decoders separate the sounds "buh," "aah," and "guh" in the word "bag." Someone who has difficulty decoding, and thus difficulty reading easily, may not hear and differentiate these phonemes. "Buh," "aah," and "guh" might be meaningless to them in relation to the word "bag" on the page.
Experts have no one explanation for this phenomenon. In some cases, it may reflect that some people simply require more time to separate sounds -- time that isn't there.
Signs of decoding difficulty:
Comprehension Difficulties:
Comprehension relies on mastery of decoding; children who struggle to decode find it difficult to understand and remember what has been read. Because their efforts to grasp individual words are so exhausting, they have no resources left for understanding.
Signs of comprehension difficulty:
Retention Difficulties:
Retention requires both decoding and comprehending what is written. This task relies on high level cognitive skills, including memory and the ability to group and retrieve related ideas. As students progress through grade levels, they are expected to retain more and more of what they read. From third grade on, reading to learn is central to classroom work. By high school it is an essential task.
Signs of retention difficulty:
Parents I highly suggest reading with your child for at least 30 minutes a day.
WHY READ 30 MINUTES A DAY?
*If daily reading begins in infancy, by the time the child is five years old, he or
she has been fed roughly 900 hours of brain food!
*Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes a week and the child's hungry mind loses 770 hours of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and stories.
*A kindergarten student who has not been read aloud to could enter school with less than 60 hours of literacy nutrition. No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours of mental nourishment.
*Therefore...30 minutes daily = 900 hours
30 minutes weekly = 130 hours
Less than 30 minutes weekly = 60 hours
Guess you now understand why reading daily is so very important. Why not have family
night reading? It is great to just shut off the television for 20-30 minutes and
read... and share.
Reading Facts:
- Roughly 85% of children diagnosed with a learning disability, have a primary problem with reading and related language skills.
- Most children with reading difficulties can be taught reading and strategies to use for success in school.
Reading Difficulties:
Decoding:
Decoding is the process by which a word is broken into individual phonemes and recognized based on those phonemes. For instance, proficient decoders separate the sounds "buh," "aah," and "guh" in the word "bag." Someone who has difficulty decoding, and thus difficulty reading easily, may not hear and differentiate these phonemes. "Buh," "aah," and "guh" might be meaningless to them in relation to the word "bag" on the page.
Experts have no one explanation for this phenomenon. In some cases, it may reflect that some people simply require more time to separate sounds -- time that isn't there.
Signs of decoding difficulty:
- trouble sounding out words and recognizing words out of context
- confusion between letters and the sounds they represent
- slow oral reading rate (reading word-by-word)
- reading without expression
- ignoring punctuation while reading
Comprehension Difficulties:
Comprehension relies on mastery of decoding; children who struggle to decode find it difficult to understand and remember what has been read. Because their efforts to grasp individual words are so exhausting, they have no resources left for understanding.
Signs of comprehension difficulty:
- confusion about the meaning of words and sentences
- inability to connect ideas in a passage
- omission of, or glossing over detail
- difficulty distinguishing significant information from minor details
- lack of concentration during reading
Retention Difficulties:
Retention requires both decoding and comprehending what is written. This task relies on high level cognitive skills, including memory and the ability to group and retrieve related ideas. As students progress through grade levels, they are expected to retain more and more of what they read. From third grade on, reading to learn is central to classroom work. By high school it is an essential task.
Signs of retention difficulty:
- trouble remembering or summarizing what is read
- difficulty connecting what is read to prior knowledge
- difficulty applying content of a text to personal experiences
Parents I highly suggest reading with your child for at least 30 minutes a day.
WHY READ 30 MINUTES A DAY?
*If daily reading begins in infancy, by the time the child is five years old, he or
she has been fed roughly 900 hours of brain food!
*Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes a week and the child's hungry mind loses 770 hours of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and stories.
*A kindergarten student who has not been read aloud to could enter school with less than 60 hours of literacy nutrition. No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours of mental nourishment.
*Therefore...30 minutes daily = 900 hours
30 minutes weekly = 130 hours
Less than 30 minutes weekly = 60 hours
Guess you now understand why reading daily is so very important. Why not have family
night reading? It is great to just shut off the television for 20-30 minutes and
read... and share.