Reading difficulties set challenge for teachers

Press, 4 July 1978, Page 17

Reading difficulties set challenge for teachers

Mrs K. E. Kinley, who has studied diagnostic and remedial reading, teaches remedial reading in Christchurch. Here she discusses how to teach children who have reading difficulties.

Up to 15 per cent of children of normal intelligence find it hard to learn to read. Their parents are often those most concerned about education. If you are a concerned parent we have much in common, for I am a concerned teacher — concerned for the many young people leaving school unable to read. Perhaps you watched the television programme, “Question Mark — Education,” last month. Did you answer the quiz about schooling? Perhaps you wondered why you could not agree with all the answers prepared by our educational advisers. I failed No. 4: “Teaching children to read is very similar to teaching children to walk or talk and the same methods should be used.” My own answer was “Not always.” The answer given was •‘True.” Community concern could well be linked to that answer, “True,” because it ignores the need for teaching the skills which many

consider basic in reading. The difference in opinion may be the core of one of today’s pressing problems. If we, as parents and teachers, care about intelligent school leavers whose futures are limited by very low levels of ability in reading and spelling, we should look to education for reasons rather than excuses. Is it true that something, needed especially by the 10 to 15 per cent of children who have difficulty learning to read, is often missing? Parents who have read stories, encouraged conversation, and co-operated with one teacher after another as years have gone by, are distressed when their 12 year olds are still reading at a six or seven year level. Although these parents realise there must be special difficulties, they are weary of excuses. They are demanding a “return to basics,” but just what do they really want? For children who are struggling to read at primer level in classes above the junior school, basic skills are not — as we heard in

“Question Mark” — “nostalgia for a past not clearly remembered." They are the skills of matching sounds to letters and are vital to success in both reading and spelling. Perhaps more teaching to help with these phonic skills is what parents want when they ask for basics. Phonic word study does help to emphasise the order of the sounds — something that is not easy for children with even miid learning difficulties to grasp — and it does link spelling to reading in a sensible way. It is significant that where this type of lesson has been retained in schools there do not seem to be any lasting problems with reading. Once a child is ready to read he needs to learn many things, including reading from left to right, recognising alphabet letters, and using a variety of clues to

get meaning from the story. Knowing the sounds that letters probably stand for is only one of these clues, but without it reading is impossible. Some children are able to find these things out for themselves through plenty of reading experience plus a little guidance. Such children support the “True” answer to that No. 4 question. However, others, often equally intelligent, require more help than this. Reading combined with listening (e.g. with taped recordings) is an effective way of aiding development, but progress seems to be better when phonic word study is also included in the daily programme. “A structured system of teaching reading skills is essential” writes Marilyn Lichtman in “Keys to a Successful Reading Programme.” Although “Question Mark” made a gallant bid to demonstrate the lively qualities of good teaching, worried parents did not find it easy to learn from the experts. They were, sadly, even more worried at the end of 90 minutes.

Interested and informed, many parents are aware of the importance of language and thought in reading. They appreciate the early identification of children who are likely to have problems, but cannot understand why newer insights into reading should be making it fashionable to discard word study. Taught in a way that combines listening, looking and saying in a step-by-step manner this study, which does not pretend to" be reading, is easily understood. It provides a store of knowledge to be drawn upon during reading and spelling. Let us be careful to distinguish between teaching (what the teacher does), and development (what happens within the child). Knowledge that makes it possible for language ability to be used 'in reading must be taught,

whereas reading development itself is rooted in experience gained through listening and talking before school even begins. Certainly a child grows into walking and talking, but to grow into reading he must find out how sounds are represented by letters.

“The teacher must know basic phonic and structural analysis and linguistic patterns, and have the ability to devise effective strategies for teaching,” writes William Powell in “The Effective Reading Teacher.” It is regrettable that some who should know better are trying to give both basics and phonics an uninformed meaning. When the “sight word” approach swept through New Zealand teaching of reading, phonics became an outdated word. If we continue to allow basic phonic skills to be considered old fashioned we abandon the group of children who most need a teacher’s help. Difficulties in learning are often associated with slow development of memory for shapes, memory for sounds, or both. This means that letters and sounds are likely to be confused even though sight and hearing are normal. The assumption that social conditions cause learning difficulties is only .partially correct. Problems in our society may be the main reason for emotional disturbances that sometimes make a teacher’s job almost impossible, but they should not be offered as an excuse for failure with too many pupils whose backgrounds are secure.

Teaching the children who have some degree of learning difficulty is the challenge. The others teach themselves. The children who do not find reading easy are entitled to the sort of teaching that they can understand.

Not instead of opportunities for thoughtful reading, but added to these, they need what their parents are demanding — a “return to basics.” Basic phonic word study should be taught and taught again. We need teachers who know how to do just this.