What is Reading?

As I was getting out of the pool after teaching one of my 2-year-old swimmers to swim last weekend, his mom said, "What if he has a hard time learning to read like my husband and I did?"

The reality is, he might struggle to read since his parents struggled. Research shows that he has a 50% greater chance of having dyslexia if either of his parents had dyslexia, and he isn't alone. Since 92% of students with learning disabilities have reading problems, it’s important to come up with a workable definition of reading so that we know what it is and how to teach it.

What is Reading?
Reading has been defined differently throughout history. In the 19th century, the focus was on oral fluency and accuracy. In the early 20th century, the focus shifted toward reading for meaning and comprehension, especially in SAT tutoring. Given the transitional definition throughout history, we see that reading is difficult to define. In my opinion, reading is made up of a variety of tasks that are influenced by social context, the reader’s purpose, and background knowledge, and that the definition of reading lies somewhere on the continuum of decoding and comprehension.

What Causes Reading Difficulties?We don’t know. Similar to many diseases, we don’t know what causes the problem, but we know how to treat it. Research shows that students with reading difficulties respond best to specific and intensive reading instruction. If you know a student who is not responding to reading instruction, it’s time to question the quality of instruction and consider working with someone trained in reading interventions such as an educational therapist, reading specialist, or special education teacher.

What Skills Are Involved in Reading?Efficient readers have usually mastered the following skills:

• Phonological awareness
• Word identification
• Fluency
• Comprehension
• Vocabulary

Reading assessments help us figure out which skills are deficit in a struggling reader. Once we can identify the deficit skills, we teach them! Teaching reading isn't easy, but the combination of the right specialist and the right research based intervention will lead to success for almost all struggling readers.

Now that we have defined reading, looked at the skills involved in reading, and addressed the purpose of reading assessments and interventions, we have a more solid foundation from which to approach struggling readers.

Happy Reading!