The Science of Reading What skills are important for learning to read? When do these skills develop? How should they be taught? These questions have been asked and rigorously studied by scientists for decades. This research on reading development and reading instruction is part of a body of knowledge referred to as the Science of Reading (Petscher et al., 2020). Learning to Read vs. Learning to Talk One of the earliest debates related to the Science of Reading addressed whether reading was an innate ability or a learned ability: Can children learn to read without explicit instruction? This debate has often involved comparing a child’s development of reading skills to the development of oral language. The brain is wired to develop oral language naturally Children are born with brains that are ready for and receptive to learning oral language. In a typical environment where children are exposed to speech, they will automatically acquire the ability to speak without being taught explicitly (e.g., Eimas, 1985). By about age six, children can typically pronounce all speech sounds correctly, speak in detailed sentences, and use correct grammar (American Speech- Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], n.d.b). The brain must be taught to read Unlike with oral language, Science of Reading research indicates that the brain is not hardwired from the start for reading. The brain has one region that processes language stimuli and another region that processes visual stimuli. In order to read successfully, a child’s brain has to connect these two regions so the child can integrate sound (the language stimuli) and print information (the visual stimuli). Brain imaging studies show that children are not born with these two regions of the brain acting in connec- tion with each other. Rather, children’s brains build this connection only as they are taught to read. In addition, children who learn to read also develop their brains’ ability to automatically recognize words from sight (Hruby & Goswami, 2011; Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2008). Because of all those connections in the brain that need to be developed, reading skills require more time, effort, and instruction than oral language abilities. Children often begin to read when they enter formal schooling, then take several more years before they become proficient readers (ASHA, n.d.a; ASHA, n.d.b).
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The Science of Reading | What Research Says About Setting Young Readers Up for Success
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