The Science of Reading: How the brain learns to read and spell
When you think of “reading” what does it mean to you? Do you think of it as just decoding words? Or do you see it as solely an act of comprehension? Many people see reading through a very narrow lens, as if reading were a singular thing.
Well…here is what science has told us: reading is actually a very complex process!
The term “The Science of Reading” has been in the news a lot lately. Why does this matter? Well in Ontario, the Right to Read inquiry report was just released which focusses on issues that affect students with reading disabilities. It is “calling for critical changes to Ontario’s approach to early reading, in areas such as curriculum and instruction, screening, reading interventions, accommodations and professional assessments. The inquiry found that by not using evidence-based approaches to teach students to read, Ontario’s public education system is failing students with reading disabilities such as dyslexia, and other students.”
This is an important step as we navigate the rollercoaster of helping our kids and students learn to read. We want to make sure that our efforts to support our kids with reading development are actually having an impact.
The term the Science of Reading refers to exactly what it sounds like - the science-backed research surrounding the learning and teaching of reading. And no doubt we all want our kids to have success with learning to read (and we want them to love it too…oh how we want them to enjoy it!).
We were very fortunate to have Dr. Todd Cunningham of Bright Lights Psychology join us to share his knowledge of the Science of Reading with the Shift Your Thinking community (this Masterclass is available in our FREE SYT Support Library. We now know that learning to read is a complex process, that a systematic and structured approach is key to learning to read, and that there is a ton of research out there about the developmental process of learning to read…but having Dr. Cunningham break down things such as the brain processes involved in reading, the ways of reading (phonological and orthographic) and the developmental stages of reading, in an easy to understand way, was so helpful.
So as we mentioned, reading is not a simple process; it actually needs a whole number of things coming together to get to the point of meaning making (which is the real goal of reading!). What would reading be without getting to that point of taking in and understanding the information that you are reading?
Dr. Cunningham walked us through the components of reading. These include:
Oral language skills:
Phonemic awareness
Vocabulary development
Knowledge building
Oral language
Text level skills
Concepts of print
Letter, sounds + phonics
Text structures + genres
Reading fluency + expression
Reading comprehension strategies
When we are working with a kid who is struggling with reading we need to go back to the most simplistic components before moving on to the higher level skills. We need to look at the individual pieces of the reading puzzle rather than looking at reading as a single entity.
We know it can be overwhelming when our kids are struggling. We know it can be hard to know how to help. We know it can feel scary with so many scientific and educational terms being thrown around. We hope that we can help to break down some of the unknowns through access to our experts, and to support you on your journey.
Do you want to learn more about the Science of Reading? Check out our FREE SYT Support Library, full of incredible content on a variety of subjects related to learning, reading, dyslexia, learning differently, and more, including the Masterclass by Dr. Todd Cunningham on The Science of Reading.
We also have many resources related to reading disabilities and dyslexia available to help support your family or students here.
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Written by Jill Watson, B.Ed., M.Ed., OCT