How Children Learn to Read

Learning to read begins at birth. The development of language starts the moment we are born and our parents begin to communicate verbally with us. By speaking, reading, and even singing, our parents ignite our language development, setting the stage for our individual paths as lifelong reader.

During the first year of life, children begin to associate words and sounds with wants and needs. This develops into an association of names with people, pets and objects. Around the time that a child reaches his/her first birthday, the ability to linking words to meaning has begun. Children have a vocabulary base of approximately 50 to 75 words by the time they are toddlers and begin to combine words to form basic sentences. By age three, a child will understand most of what is said to them. Around their fourth birthday, children have a vocabulary base of about 1,500 words and are speaking in relatively complex sentences.(GS. 2014)

When a child enters kindergarten, phonemic awareness has been in place for some time and usually has moved onto the phonics stage. Many students are beginning to read simple books. However, the range of reading readiness is extensive and a teacher or a parent should never make comparison between individual student’s abilities.

The National Institute for Professional Practices (NIPP, 2014) website, outlines beginning instructional levels as similar to the following:

•           Awareness and Exploration of Reading Stage (typically pre-K)

•           Emergent Reading Stage (typically pre-K to early Kindergarten)

•           Early Reading Stage (typically Kindergarten to early Grade 1)

•           Transitional Reading Stage (typically late Grade 1 to Grade 2)

•           Fluent Reading Stage (typically Grade 3 and higher)

Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension begins at home but are emphasized in the elementary school classroom.  In a pre-school setting students are learning the letters of the alphabet and what sounds those letters represent. The first stage of language is Phonemic Awareness. “This is where learning to read starts. Phonemic awareness means that children become aware that speech is made up of individual sounds. It is a critical part of "reading readiness," so it is often a focus of early learning programs. However, since writing isn't speech, phonemic awareness isn't enough to allow children to learn to read. In order to learn how to read, children must be able to recognize that the marks on a page represent the sounds of a language. Those marks, of course, are letters.” (Bainbridge)

As a student progresses on to kindergarten, linking what is heard and spoken into written form, begins with writing your name and beginning to understand that words linked together make sentences. The second stage is Phonic. “This is more than just memorizing the alphabet. Learning the alphabet is part of reading readiness, but to be able to read, children must be able to do more than simply memorize the letters. They must also be able to identify which sounds in the language (phonemes) go with which letters. “(Bainbridge) Early reading begins with simple sight words and word families are introduced.

As student progresses through first and second grade, vocabulary expands and spelling is work on daily. “In this stage, children have memorized all the sounds represented by the letters and can read words by recognizing each letter in a word and the way the sounds represented by those letters blend together to form words. They can tell the difference between talk, take, and tack.” (Bainbridge)

By the end of third grade, fluency in reading is expected and with that, so too is comprehension. Understanding what has been read and having the ability to retell, answer questions, make predictions, and form conclusions are skills most student have obtained. “Once children can recognize enough words relatively quickly and easily, they are ready to move from reading individual words to reading sentences and then paragraphs. At that point, they can start to focus on comprehending what they are reading. Most children reach this stage sometime during third grade.” (Bainbridge)

            If a teacher can understand and remember that every child learns to read and develops at his/her own pace, then half the battle has been won. These developmental stages give teachers an estimate of when to expect milestones to be reach. However, it is only an estimate and not every student will arrive at the same place at the same time.  Through assessments, the teacher will be able to differentiate instruction for those students who need it. Intervention for some students will be needed and accommodations will be made for others. The most important part of teaching students to read is to make it a fun activity; an activity which students will enjoy and look forward to doing, not a burdensome task which one must get through before he/she can go play at recess.

References

Bainbridge, Carol. (2014).  How Do Children Learn to Read? Online.

http://giftedkids.about.com/od/gifted101/a/How-Children-Learn-to-Read.htm

Great Schools. (2014). Developmental Milestones: Ages 3 through 5. Online.
http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/health/724-developmental-milestones-ages-3-through-5.gs

Johns, Jerry L., Laurie Elish-Piper, and Beth Johns. (2012) Basic Reading Inventory: Pre-primer through Grade Twelve and Early Literacy Assessments. 11^th Edition.

 Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Pub.

National Institute of Professional Practices. (2014). Developmental Stages of Learning to Read

Online. http://www.professionalpractice.org/about-s/developmental_stages_of_learning_to_read/