What's the best way to teach children to read? According to the National Reading Panel, "teaching
children to manipulate phonemes in words was highly effective under a
variety of teaching conditions with a variety of learners across a range
of grade and age levels and that teaching phonemic awareness to
children significantly improves their reading more than instruction that
lacks any attention to Phonemic Awareness." [1] This is a statement made by the National Reading Panel (NRP) in their report titled "TEACHING CHILDREN TO READ:
An Evidence-Based Assessment
of the Scientific Research Literature
on Reading and Its Implications
for Reading Instruction."
Phonemic Awareness instruction was selected for
review by the NRP in their report because studies have identified
phonemic awareness and letter knowledge as two of the best predictors of
how well children will learn to read in their first 2 years of entering
school. There is strong Scientific evidence to suggest that phonemic
awareness instructions are an important part in helping children develop
reading skills.
One study discussed the presence of phonemic
awareness in Austrian children aged 6 to 7 that were unable to read when
first entering school. This study found that many children had not one
correct response in their test of a simple vowel substitution task.
However, a few children who exhibited high phonemic awareness scored
close to perfect on this same task. The study further stated that "there
was a specific predictive relationship between initial phonemic
awareness differences and success in learning to read and to spell."
Even more importantly, the study indicated that it was phonemic
awareness abilities, and not IQ, that predicted the accuracy of reading
and spelling at the end of grade one. Children with high phonemic
awareness at the beginning of grade one had high reading and spelling
achievements at the end of grade one, compared to some children with low
phonemic awareness who had difficulties learning to read and spell. [2]
In the National Reading Panel report, they also
determined that the beneficial effects of phonemic awareness on reading
lasts well beyond the period of training. While phonemic awareness
instructions are proven to significantly help children learn reading, it
is not a complete reading program. What it does, is provide children
with a foundational knowledge base of the alphabet language. The NRP
analysis also showed that phonics instructions produces significant
benefits for students from kindergarten through grade 6, and is also
helpful for children with learning to read difficulties.
Children who are taught with phonics and phonemic
awareness instructions are consistently able to decode, read, and
spell, and even demonstrated significant improvement in their ability to
comprehend text. Even older children who receive these similar
teachings improved their ability to decode and spell. The NRP made a key
statement saying that "conventional wisdom has suggested that
kindergarten students might not be ready for phonics instruction, this
assumption was not supported by the data. The effects of systematic
early phonics instruction were significant and substantial in
kindergarten and the 1st grade, indicating that systematic phonics
programs should be implemented at those age and grade levels."
However, I would like to further expand on that
by saying that children as young as two years old can learn to read
through phonics and phonemic awareness instructions. If a young child
can speak, then they should be able to learn to read, even if they are
as young as two years old. In fact, I have proven this with my own
children. We started teaching our daughter at 2 years and 8months, and
she was very capable at reading by the time she was just 2 years and 11
months old.
1. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report
of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An
evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on
reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
2. Cognition. 1991 Sep;40(3):219-49.
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