For the person with learning disabilities, the process of learning to read can break down with reading mechanics or comprehension, and at any of the specific skill levels.
What do educators and families need to know about how children learn to read? Here you can explore reading “basics” — from oral language to comprehension — as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. You’ll also find our PBS Launching Young Readers series and our self-paced Reading 101 course.
Using Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) or practices to encourage engagement, educators can advance the breadth and depth of students’ reading by explicitly and systematically nourishing students’ motivations as readers.
Concepts of print need to be expanded to include graphics, with instruction in how to read and analyze graphical devices such as diagrams, timelines, and tables. Learn more about how to teach young students to read and understand visual information.
In this special Reading Rockets video series, experts answer real questions from families about reading and writing, and how to support their children at home.
The National Early Literacy Panel looked at studies of early literacy and found that there are many things that parents and preschools can do to improve the literacy development of their young children and that different approaches influence the development of a different pattern of essential skills.
Three main accomplishments characterize good readers. Find out what these accomplishments are, and what experiences in the early years lay the groundwork for attaining them.
Parents, caregivers, and preschool staff play a critical role in preparing young children for school and life success. In addition to a warm and nurturing environment, the adults in children’s lives should also focus on the building blocks of reading and writing.
This article discusses one component of writing mechanics — finesse with sound/symbol correspondence. It describes a method, called Memory Foundations for Reading, that can be used by a parent with a single child or a teacher with a group and which helps children use many senses to recall letter sounds.
Fluency develops gradually over time and through practice. At the earliest stage of reading development, students’ oral reading is slow and labored because students are just learning to “break the code” – to attach sounds to letters and to blend letter sounds into recognizable words.
When some children are learning to read, they catch on so quickly that it appears effortless. It does not seem to matter what reading curriculum or teachers they encounter, for they arrive at school already possessing the important foundational skills. For other children, though, the path to literacy is far more difficult and by no means assured. It matters very much what curriculum their schools use and who their first teachers are.
Travel to Sofia, Bulgaria with American Kindergarten teacher Launa Hall as she learns how young Bulgarian children learn to read. The centerpiece of every classroom is the Cyrillic alphabet.
Find answers to 14 commonly asked questions about teaching reading fluency, including the amount of fluency instruction, the benefits of paired reading, and choosing texts for fluency practice.
