Reading Pieces

Teaching reading is important that’s for sure. It is and will always be a concern for parents, caregivers and teachers. How best to help a child become a proficient reader is always a priority. Parents lay the underpinning by expansive oral language experiences and introducing their children to print and MORE! Once a young child attends school, reading instruction becomes a major emphasis. 

Here are some significant influential pieces to consider regarding reading:

In 2000 The National Reading Panel reported out their findings regarding how to teach children to learn to read. Within that report they identified five essential components for developing successful readers: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. These five concepts are sometimes called the five pillars of reading.  The panel further stated in their report, “Finally, it is important to emphasize that systematic phonics instruction should be integrated with other reading instruction to create a balanced reading program. Phonics instruction is never a total reading program. In 1st grade, teachers can provide controlled vocabulary texts that allow students to practice decoding, and they can also read quality literature to students to build a sense of story and to develop vocabulary and comprehension. Phonics should not become the dominant component in a reading program, neither in the amount of time devoted to it nor in the significance attached. It is important to evaluate children’s reading competence in many ways, not only by their phonics skills but also by their interest in books and their ability to understand information that is read to them. By emphasizing all of the processes that contribute to growth in reading, teachers will have the best chance of making every child a reader.”

In 2001 The Reading Rope was created by Dr. Hollis Scarbough as a visualization of how these two key areas word recognition and language comprehension are woven together to create a skilled reader. There are five threads of focus in the language comprehension strand and three threads in the word recognition strand. Her visual shows how the various threads or subskills are intertwined together as the skills become increasingly strategic and automatic, thereby, producing a fluent reader. The Reading Rope includes the five pillars of reading and additional concepts. This is another way to expand on the developmental stages of reading. It presents how the reading process starts. Beginning on the left side with the individual cognitive skill threads and moving towards the center where the two key areas come together and become tightened over time into a strong rope equaling a skilled fluent reader.

Reading is an overwhelming process that the brain must acquire through the building of new pathways that connect many different areas within the brain. There isn’t a built-in neural system connecting vison and speech at birth. There are three main parts of the brain that work together to acquire the ability to read and comprehend words as a child experiences language in the written form.

What is truly interesting is that the young brain realizes it does not have an established  process to learn how to read, causing it to utilize and adapt other regions located within its lobes. This process is known as neuroplasticity, where the brain adapts and changes in response to experience. For example, the temporal and occipital lobes which are used for facial and object recognition now develop new pathways. They are repurposed and become the place used for letter & word recognition called the the “letter box” area or visual word form area. The brain of a non-reader has not fully reshaped this area. Facial and object recognition are not hindered with the formation of the ”letter box”. Instead, the brain-facial recognition function relocates to the right side of the brain. The well-known neuroscientist Professor Dehaene Stanislas explained, “The brain circuitry inherited from our primate evolution is co-opted to the task of recognizing printed words – the brain’s existing neural networks are “recycled” for reading. Because of something called brain plasticity, during brain development a range of brain circuits can adapt for new uses. When we learn a new skill such as reading, we recycle some of our old brain circuits.”  Each brain physically makes changes in order to develop the ability to read and make meaning of print.

The Brain and Reading visual shows the primary regions of the brain that are involved in the reading process. Network pathways do link them together and are not shown on this visual. There are additional areas within these regions that have been identified through brain mapping by neuroscientists which also contribute to the complex process of reading. Neuroscientists are continuing to discover other aspects of how the brain functions when reading. Stay tuned!

The Brain Reading visual below shows the main sequence used when reading a word. This process in a fluent reader takes milliseconds! One must consider the brain is doing this process very rapidly as it’s reading complete sentences containing numerous words while constructing their meaning.

The operation of the brain for each child is unique to them. There are always life influencers that impact how an individual brain will succeed at the challenge of learning to read. Basic information on how the brain functions and where those regions are located in the brain helps to understand the complexity of taking the natural skill of speaking and connecting it to the unnatural process of reading and writing. The brain is in the construction business, reshaping and linking its networks to develop early literacy learning.

It’s so amazing how the young brain begins changing itself to create a process for changing speech sounds in an oral language to learn the literacy skills of reading and writing. More information to follow on how to help your toddler develop those pre-reading readiness skills!

Happy days to you,

Kylene

Resources & References

Dehaene, Stanislas, Dr.,( 2017), The Brain Prize Presents: Stanislas Dehaene, https://youtu.be/wlYZBi_07vk?si=80gZMTiUFfj-Ctrd

Dehaene, Stanislas, Dr., (2010), Reading In The Brain: The New Science of How We Read, PenguinBooks 

Eden, Guinevere, D., (2019), What do we know about what’s different in the brain of a person with dyslexia, Reading Rockets, https://youtu.be/yRuHT0QUlJg?si=poSR5n5SNQ3R9ORp

Francois, Dr., Stella, (2022), Anatomical and neurophysiological basis of face recognition, Science Direct, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0035378721007645#:~:

Harvard Medical School, (2024), How We Learn to Read, https://youtu.be/LhILoStzOTM?si=Of3We3UpDF3Mm_r3

Hill Learning Center, (2022), The Reading Brain and How We Learn to Read, https://youtu.be/A2HHrKpjlYM?si=S1ABoCbnADeAKKgW

Hollowell, Malia, (2023), The Science of Reading in Action, TeacherGoals Publishing, LLC  

National Reading Panel, (2000), TEACHING CHILDREN TO READ, An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction, (page 2-97) https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf

RELAY/GSE, (2025), Science of Teaching Reading Resource, The Reading Brain, https://relay.libguides.com/science-of-teaching-reading-resource-guide/reading-brain

Sedia, Joan, ( 2020), How  the Brain Learns to Read, https://keystoliteracy.com/blog/how-the-brain-learns-to-read/

Wani, Pinaki D., PD, (2024), From Sound to Meaning: Navigating Wernicke’s Area in Language Processing, National Library of Medicine, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11491986/

Wallden, Krista, Creative Clips, clipart, https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Krista-Wallden-Creative-Clips