[Addressing the Needs of Children With Persistent
Reading Difficulties ]
"THE MAJORITY OF READING PROBLEMS faced by today's
adolescents & adults could have been avoided or resolved
in the early years of childhood," according to a report
released March 18 by the National Research Council (NRC).
The report, "Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young
Children," calls for widespread reforms "to ensure that all
children are equipped with the skills & instruction they
need to learn to read."
Responding to the report, Secretary Riley said that "The
Council's findings send the nation's parents & educators a
clear signal that we need to move beyond the contentious
reading debate in some communities & focus on how children
learn to read." The Secretary went on to say that...
"The study clearly defines the key elements all
children need in order to become good readers.
Specifically, kids need to learn letters & sounds & how
to read for meaning. They also need opportunities to
practice reading with many types of books. While some
children need more intensive & systematic
individualized instruction than others, all children
need these 3 essential elements in order to read well &
independently by the end of 3rd grade. Effective
teaching & extra resources can make it possible for
many 'at-risk' children to become successful leaders."
An image version of the prepublication copy of the nearly
400-page report, is at:
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/enter2.cgi?030906418X.html
The NRC press release is available at:
http://www2.nas.edu/whatsnew/286a.html
The Secretary's full statement is available at:
http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/index.html
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Executive Summary
"Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children."
Catherine E. Snow, M. Susan Burns & Peg Griffin, Editors.
Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young
Children, National Research Council.
Copyright 1998 by the National Academy of Sciences.
All rights reserved.
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Executive Summary
*****************
Reading is essential to success in our society. The ability to
read is highly valued & important for social & economic
advancement. Of course, most children learn to read fairly well.
In this report, we are most concerned with the large numbers of
children in America whose educational careers are imperiled
because they do not read well enough to ensure understanding & to
meet the demands of an increasingly competitive economy. Current
difficulties in reading largely originate from rising demands for
literacy, not from declining absolute levels of literacy. In a
technological society, the demands for higher literacy are ever
increasing, creating more grievous consequences for those who
fall short.
The importance of this problem led the U.S. Department of
Education & the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to ask
the National Academy of Sciences to establish a committee to
examine the prevention of reading difficulties. Our committee
was charged with conducting a study of the effectiveness of
interventions for young children who are at risk of having
problems learning to read. The goals of the project were three:
(1) to comprehend a rich but diverse research base; (2) to
translate the research findings into advice & guidance for
parents, educators, publishers, & others involved in the care &
instruction of the young; & (3) to convey this advice to the
targeted audiences through a variety of publications,
conferences, & other outreach activities.
The Committee's Approach
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The committee reviewed research on normal reading development &
instruction, on risk factors useful in identifying groups &
individuals at risk of reading failure, & on prevention,
intervention, & instructional approaches to ensuring optimal
reading outcomes.
We found many informative literatures to draw on & have aimed in
this report to weave together the insights of many research
traditions into clear guidelines for helping children become
successful readers. In doing so, we also considered the current
state of affairs in education for teachers & others working with
young children; policies of federal, state, & local governments
impinging on young children's education; the pressures on
publishers of curriculum materials, texts, & tests; programs
addressed to parents & to community action; and media activities.
Our main emphasis has been on the development of reading & on
factors that relate to reading outcomes. We conceptualized our
task as cutting through the detail of mostly convergent, but
sometimes discrepant, research findings to provide an integrated
picture of how reading develops & how its development can be
promoted.
Our recommendations extend to all children. Granted, we have
focused our lens on children at risk for learning to read. But
much of the instructional research we have reviewed encompasses,
for a variety of reasons, populations of students with varying
degrees of risk. Good instruction seems to transcend
characterizations of children's vulnerability for failure; the
same good early literacy environment & patterns of effective
instruction are required for children who might fail for
different reasons.
Does this mean that the identical mix of instructional materials
& strategies will work for each & every child? Of course not.
If we have learned anything from this effort, it is that
effective teachers are able to craft a special mix of
instructional ingredients for every child they work with. But it
does mean that there is a common menu of materials, strategies, &
environments from which effective teachers make choices. This in
turn means that, as a society, our most important challenge is to
make sure that our teachers have access to those tools & the
knowledge required to use them well. In other words, there is
little evidence that children experiencing difficulties learning
to read, even those with identifiable learning disabilities, need
radically different sorts of supports than children at low risk,
although they may need much more intensive support. Childhood
environments that support early literacy development & excellent
instruction are important for all children. Excellent
instruction is the best intervention for children who demonstrate
problems learning to read.
Conceptualizing Reading & Reading Instruction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Effective reading instruction is built on a foundation that
recognizes that reading ability is determined by multiple
factors: many factors that correlate with reading fail to
explain it; many experiences contribute to reading development
without being prerequisite to it; and although there are many
prerequisites, none by itself is considered sufficient.
Adequate initial reading instruction requires that children:
* use reading to obtain meaning from print,
* have frequent & intensive opportunities to read,
* are exposed to frequent, regular spelling-sound
relationships,
* learn about the nature of the alphabetic writing system, and
* understand the structure of spoken words.
Adequate progress in learning to read English (or any alphabetic
language) beyond the initial level depends on:
* having a working understanding of how sounds are
represented alphabetically,
* sufficient practice in reading to achieve fluency with
different kinds of texts,
* sufficient background knowledge & vocabulary to render
written texts meaningful & interesting,
* control over procedures for monitoring comprehension &
repairing misunderstandings, and
* continued interest & motivation to read for a variety of
purposes.
Reading skill is acquired in a relatively predictable way by
children who have normal or above average language skills; have
had experiences in early childhood that fostered motivation &
provided exposure to literacy in use; get information about the
nature of print through opportunities to learn letters & to
recognize the internal structure of spoken words, as well as
explanations about the contrasting nature of spoken & written
language; and attend schools that provide effective reading
instruction & opportunities to practice reading.
Disruption of any of these developments increases the possibility
that reading will be delayed or impeded. The association of poor
reading outcomes with poverty & minority status no doubt reflects
the accumulated effects of several of these risk factors,
including lack of access to literacy-stimulating preschool
experiences & to excellent, coherent reading instruction. In
addition, a number of children without any obvious risk factors
also develop reading difficulties. These children may require
intensive efforts at intervention & extra help in reading &
accommodations for their disability throughout their lives.
There are 3 potential stumbling blocks that are known to throw
children off course on the journey to skilled reading. The first
obstacle, which arises at the outset of reading acquisition, is
difficulty understanding & using the alphabetic principle--the
idea that written spellings systematically represent spoken
words. It is hard to comprehend connected text if word
recognition is inaccurate or laborious. The second obstacle is a
failure to transfer the comprehension skills of spoken language
to reading & to acquire new strategies that may be specifically
needed for reading. The third obstacle to reading will magnify
the first two: the absence or loss of an initial motivation to
read or failure to develop a mature appreciation of the rewards
of reading.
As in every domain of learning, motivation is crucial. Although
most children begin school with positive attitudes & expectations
for success, by the end of the primary grades & increasingly
thereafter, some children become disaffected. The majority of
reading problems faced by today's adolescents & adults are the
result of problems that might have been avoided or resolved in
their early childhood years. It is imperative that steps be
taken to ensure that children overcome these obstacles during the
primary grades.
Reducing the number of children who enter school with inadequate
literacy-related knowledge & skill is an important primary step
toward preventing reading difficulties. Although not a panacea,
this would serve to reduce considerably the magnitude of the
problem currently facing schools. Children who are particularly
likely to have difficulty with learning to read in the primary
grades are those who begin school with less prior knowledge &
skill in relevant domains, most notably, general verbal
abilities, the ability to attend to the sounds of language as
distinct from its meaning, familiarity with the basic purposes &
mechanisms of reading, & letter knowledge. Children from poor
neighborhoods, children with limited proficiency in English,
children with hearing impairments, children with preschool
language impairments, & children whose parents had difficulty
learning to read are particularly at risk of arriving at school
with weaknesses in these areas & hence of falling behind from the
outset.
Recommendations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The critical importance of providing excellent reading
instruction to all children is at the heart of the committee's
recommendations. Accordingly, our central recommendation
characterizes the nature of good primary reading instruction. We
also recognize that excellent instruction is most effective when
children arrive in first grade motivated for literacy & with the
necessary linguistic, cognitive, & early literacy skills. We
therefore recommend attention to ensuring high-quality preschool
& kindergarten environments as well. We acknowledge that
excellent instruction in the primary grades & optimal
environments in preschool & kindergarten require teachers who are
well prepared, highly knowledgeable, & receiving ongoing support.
Excellent instruction may be possible only if schools are
organized in optimal ways; if facilities, curriculum materials, &
support services function adequately; and if children's home
languages are taken into account in designing instruction. We
therefore make recommendations addressing these issues. (The
complete text of all the committee's recommendations appears in
Chapter 10.)
Literacy Instruction in 1st Through 3rd Grade
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Given the centrality of excellent instruction to the prevention
of reading difficulties, the committee strongly recommends
attention in every primary grade classroom to the full array of
early reading accomplishments: the alphabetic principle, reading
sight words, reading words by mapping speech sounds to parts of
words, achieving fluency, & comprehension. Getting started in
alphabetic reading depends critically on mapping the letters &
spellings of words onto the speech units that they represent;
failure to master word recognition can impede text comprehension.
Explicit instruction that directs children's attention to the
sound structure of oral language & to the connections between
speech sounds & spellings assists children who have not grasped
the alphabetic principle or who do not apply it productively when
they encounter unfamiliar printed words.
Comprehension difficulties can be prevented by actively building
comprehension skills as well as linguistic & conceptual
knowledge, beginning in the earliest grades. Comprehension can
be enhanced through instruction focused on concept & vocabulary
growth & background knowledge, instruction about the syntax &
rhetorical structures of written language, & direct instruction
about comprehension strategies such as summarizing, predicting, &
monitoring. Comprehension also takes practice, which is gained by
reading independently, by reading in pairs or groups, & by being
read aloud to.
We recommend that 1st through 3rd grade curricula include the
following components:
* Beginning readers need explicit instruction & practice that
lead to an appreciation that spoken words are made up of
smaller units of sounds, familiarity with spelling-sound
correspondences & common spelling conventions & their use in
identifying printed words, "sight" recognition of frequent
words, & independent reading, including reading aloud.
Fluency should be promoted through practice with a wide
variety of well-written & engaging texts at the child's own
comfortable reading level.
* Children who have started to read independently, typically
2nd graders & above, should be encouraged to sound out &
confirm the identities of visually unfamiliar words they
encounter in the course of reading meaningful texts,
recognizing words primarily through attention to their
letter-sound relationships. Although context & pictures can
be used as a tool to monitor word recognition, children
should not be taught to use them to substitute for
information provided by the letters in the word.
* Because the ability to obtain meaning from print depends so
strongly on the development of word recognition accuracy &
reading fluency, both of the latter should be regularly
assessed in the classroom, permitting timely & effective
instructional response when difficulty or delay is apparent.
* Beginning in the earliest grades, instruction should promote
comprehension by actively building linguistic & conceptual
knowledge in a rich variety of domains, as well as through
direct instruction about comprehension strategies such as
summarizing the main idea, predicting events & outcomes of
upcoming text, drawing inferences, & monitoring for
coherence & misunderstandings. This instruction can take
place while adults read to students or when students read
themselves.
* Once children learn some letters, they should be encouraged
to write them, use them to begin writing words or parts of
words, & use words to begin writing sentences. Instruction
should be designed with the understanding that the use of
invented spelling is not in conflict with teaching correct
spelling. Beginning writing with invented spelling can be
helpful for developing understanding of the identity &
segmentation of speech sounds & sound-spelling
relationships. Conventionally correct spelling should be
developed through focused instruction & practice. Primary
grade children should be expected to spell previously
studied words & spelling patterns correctly in their final
writing products. Writing should take place regularly &
frequently to encourage children to become more comfortable
& familiar with it.
* Throughout the early grades, time, materials, & resources
should be provided with 2 goals: (a) to support daily
independent reading of texts selected to be of particular
interest for the individual student, & beneath the
individual student's frustration level, in order to
consolidate the student's capacity for independent reading
and (b) to support daily assisted or supported reading &
rereading of texts that are slightly more difficult in
wording or in linguistic, rhetorical, or conceptual
structure in order to promote advances in the student's
capabilities.
* Throughout the early grades, schools should promote
independent reading outside school by such means as daily
at-home reading assignments & expectations, summer reading
lists, encouraging parent involvement, and by working with
community groups, including public librarians, who share
this goal.
Promoting Literacy Development in Preschool & Kindergarten
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is clear from research that the process of learning to read is
a lengthy one that begins very early in life. Given the
importance identified in the research literature of starting
school motivated to read & with the prerequisite language & early
literacy skills, the committee recommends that all children,
especially those at risk for reading difficulties, should have
access to early childhood environments that promote language &
literacy growth & that address a variety of skills that have been
identified as predictors of later reading achievement.
Preschools & other group care settings for young children often
provide relatively impoverished language & literacy environments,
in particular those available to families with limited economic
resources. As ever more young children are entering group care
settings pursuant to expectations that their mothers will join
the work force, it becomes critical that the preschool
opportunities available to lower-income families be designed in
ways that support language & literacy development.
Preschool programs, even those designed specifically as
interventions for children at risk of reading difficulties,
should be designed to provide optimal support for cognitive,
language, & social development, within this broad focus, however,
ample attention should be paid to skills that are known to
predict future reading achievement, especially those for which a
causal role has been demonstrated. Similarly, & for the same
reasons, kindergarten instruction should be designed to stimulate
verbal interaction, to enrich children's vocabularies, to
encourage talk about books, to provide practice with the sound
structure of words, to develop knowledge about print, including
the production & recognition of letters, and to generate
familiarity with the basic purposes & mechanisms of reading.
Children who will probably need additional support for early
language & literacy development should receive it as early as
possible. Pediatricians, social workers, speech-language
therapists, & other preschool practitioners should receive
research-based guidelines to assist them to be alert for signs
that children are having difficulties acquiring early language &
literacy skills. Parents, relatives, neighbors, & friends can
also play a role in identifying children who need assistance.
Through adult education programs, public service media,
instructional videos provided by pediatricians, & other means,
parents can be informed about what skills & knowledge children
should be acquiring at young ages, and about what to do & where
to turn if there is concern that a child's development may be
lagging behind in some respects.
Education & Professional Development for
All Involved in Literacy Instruction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The critical importance of the teacher in the prevention of
reading difficulties must be recognized, & efforts should be made
to provide all teachers with adequate knowledge about reading &
the knowledge & skill to teach reading or its developmental
precursors. It is imperative that teachers at all grade levels
understand the course of literacy development & the role of
instruction in optimizing literacy development.
Preschool teachers represent an important, & largely
underutilized, resource in promoting literacy by supporting rich
language & emergent literacy skills. Early childhood educators
should not try to replicate the formal reading instruction
provided in schools.
The preschool & primary school teacher's knowledge & experience,
as well as the support provided to the teacher, are central to
achieving the goal of primary prevention of reading difficulties.
Each of these may vary according to where the teacher is in his
or her professional development. A critical component in the
preparation of pre-service teachers is supervised, relevant,
clinical experience providing ongoing guidance & feedback, so
they develop the ability to integrate & apply their knowledge in
practice.
Teachers need to be knowledgeable about the research foundations
of reading. Collaborative support by the teacher preparation
institution & the field placement is essential. A critical
component for novice teachers is the support of mentors who have
demonstrated records of success in teaching reading.
Professional development should not be conceived as something
that ends with graduation from a teacher preparation program, nor
as something that happens primarily in graduate classrooms or
even during in-service activities. Rather, ongoing support from
colleagues & specialists, as well as regular opportunities for
self-examination & reflection, are critical components of the
career-long development of excellent teachers.
Teaching Reading to Speakers of Other Languages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Schools have the responsibility to accommodate the linguistic
needs of students with limited proficiency in English. Precisely
how to do this is difficult to prescribe, because students'
abilities & needs vary greatly, as do the capacities of different
communities to support their literacy development. The committee
recommends the following guidelines for decision making:
* If language minority children arrive at school with no
proficiency in English but speaking a language for which
there are instructional guides, learning materials, &
locally available proficient teachers, then these children
should be taught how to read in their native language while
acquiring proficiency in spoken English, and then
subsequently taught to extend their skills to reading in
English.
* If language minority children arrive at school with no
proficiency in English but speak a language for which the
above conditions cannot be met & for which there are
insufficient numbers of children to justify the development
of the local community to meet such conditions, the
instructional priority should be to develop the children's
proficiency in spoken English. Although print materials may
be used to develop understanding of English speech sounds,
vocabulary, & syntax, the postponement of formal reading
instruction is appropriate until an adequate level of
proficiency in spoken English has been achieved.
Ensuring Adequate Resources to Meet Children's Needs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To be effective, schools with large numbers of children at risk
for reading difficulties need rich resources--manageable class
size & student-teacher ratios, high-quality instructional
materials in sufficient quantity, good school libraries, &
pleasant physical environments. Achieving this may require extra
resources for schools that serve a disproportionate number of
high-risk children.
Even in schools in which a large percentage of the students are
not achieving at a satisfactory level, a well-designed classroom
reading program, delivered by an experienced & competent teacher,
may be successful in bringing most students to grade level or
above during the primary grades. However, achieving & sustaining
radical gains is often difficult when improvements are introduced
on a classroom by classroom basis. In a situation of school-wide
poor performance, school restructuring should be considered as a
vehicle for preventing reading difficulties. Ongoing
professional development for teachers is typically a component of
successful school restructuring efforts.
Addressing the Needs of Children
With Persistent Reading Difficulties
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Even with excellent instruction in the early grades, some
children fail to make satisfactory progress in reading. Such
children will require supplementary services, ideally from a
reading specialist who provides individual or small-group
intensive instruction that is coordinated with high-quality
instruction from the classroom teacher. Children who are having
difficulty learning to read do not, as a rule, require
qualitatively different instruction from children who are
"getting it." Instead, they more often need application of the
same principles by someone who can apply them expertly to
individual children who are having difficulty for one reason or
another.
Schools that lack or have abandoned reading specialist positions
need to reexamine their needs for specialists to ensure that
well-trained staff are available for intervention with children &
for ongoing support to classroom teachers. Reading specialists &
other specialist roles need to be defined so that two-way
communication is required between specialists & classroom
teachers about the needs of all children at risk of &
experiencing reading difficulties. Coordination is needed at the
instructional level so that intervention from specialists
coordinates with & supports classroom instruction. Schools that
have reading specialists as well as special educators need to
coordinate the roles of these specialists. Schools need to
ensure that all the specialists engaged in child study or
individualized educational program (IEP) meetings for special
education placement, early childhood intervention, out-of-
classroom interventions, or in-classroom support are well
informed about research in reading development & the prevention
of reading difficulties.
Although volunteer tutors can provide valuable practice &
motivational support for children learning to read, they should
not be expected either to provide primary reading instruction or
to instruct children with serious reading problems.
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Conclusion
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Most reading difficulties can be prevented. There is much work
to be done, however, that requires the aggressive deployment of
the information currently available, which is distilled in this
report. In addition, many questions remain unanswered concerning
reading development, some of which we address in our
recommendations for research. While science continues to
discover more about how children learn to read & how teachers &
others can help them, the knowledge currently available can equip
our society to promote higher levels of literacy for large
numbers of American schoolchildren. The committee's hope is that
the recommendations contained in this report will provide
direction for the first important steps.
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