A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Language and Literacy Development

Reid Lyon
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
The National Institutes of Health

The following article is a summary of testimony delivered before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on July 10, 1997.

How do children learn to read?

NICHD research has found that in order for a beginning reader to learn how to connect or translate printed symbols (letters and letter patterns) into sound, the would-be reader must understand that our speech can be segmented or broken into small sounds (phoneme awareness) and that the segmented units of speech can be represented by printed forms (phonics). This understanding that written spellings systematically represent the phonemes of spoken words (termed the alphabetic principle) is absolutely necessary for the development of accurate and rapid word reading skills. The development of phoneme awareness, the development of an understanding of the alphabetic principle, and the translation of these skills to the application of phonics in reading and spelling words are non-negotiable beginning reading skills that all children must master in order to understand what they read and to learn from their reading sessions. In addition to learning how to "sound out" new and unfamiliar words, the beginning readers must eventually become proficient in reading at a fast pace larger units of print such as syllable pattern, meaningful roots, suffixes, and whole words. This pace allows for reading fluency because, as one child said, "If you don't ride fast enough, you fall off."

The ultimate goal of reading instruction is to enable children to understand what they read. Children who comprehend well seem to be able to activate their relevant background knowledge when reading. That is, they can relate what is on the page to what they already know. Good vocabularies help, as does a knack for summarizing, predicting, and clarifying what they have read. Children's ability to understand what they are reading is inextricably linked to their background knowledge. Young children who are given opportunities to learn, think, and talk about new areas of knowledge will gain much from the reading.

Why do so many children have difficulty learning to read?

In general, children who are most at-risk for reading failure are those who enter school with limited exposure to language and thus less prior knowledge of concepts related to phonemic sensitivity, letter knowledge, print awareness, the purposes of reading, and general verbal skills including vocabulary. Children raised in poverty, youngsters with limited proficiency in English, children with speech and hearing impairments, and children from homes where the parent's reading levels are low are clearly at increased risk of reading failure. Given this general background, recent research has been able to identify and replicate findings which point to at least four factors that hinder reading development among children irrespective of their environmental, socioeconomic, ethnic, and biological factors. These four factors include deficits in phoneme awareness and developing the alphabetic principle; deficits in acquiring reading comprehension strategies and applying them to the reading of text; deficits in developing and maintaining the motivation to learn to read; and limitations in effectively preparing teachers.

How can we help children learn to read?

Learning to read is a lengthy and difficult process for many children, and success in learning to read is based in large part on developing language and literacy-related skills very early in life. A massive effort needs to be undertaken to inform parents, and the educational and medical communities of the need to involve children in reading from the first days of life; to engage children in playing with language through nursery rhymes, storybooks, and writing activities; and, as early as possible, to bring to children experiences that help them understand the purposes of reading, and the wonder and joy that can be derived from it. Parents must become intimately aware of the importance of vocabulary development and the use of verbal interactions with their youngsters to enhance grammar, syntax, and verbal reasoning.

• Young preschool children should be encouraged to learn the letters of the alphabet, to discriminate letters from one another, to print letters, and to attempt to spell words that they hear.

• Reading out loud to children is a proven activity for developing vocabulary growth and language expansion, and plays a causal role in developing both receptive and expressive language capabilities.

• Procedures with good accuracy now exist to identify children at risk of reading failure. This information needs to be widely disseminated to schools, teachers, and parents so that early identification and intervention can take place.

• Kindergarten programs should be designed so that all children will develop the prerequisite phonological, vocabulary, and early reading skills necessary for success in the first grade.

• Beginning reading programs should be constructed to ensure that adequate instructional time be allotted to the reaching of phonemic awareness skills, phonics skills, the development of spelling and orthographic skills, the development of reading fluency and automaticity, and the development of reading comprehension strategies. For children demonstrating difficulty in learning to read, it is imperative that each of these components be taught in an integrated context and that ample practice in reading familiar material be afforded.

• Strong competency-based training programs with formal board certification for teachers of reading should be developed.

• A formal procedure need to be developed to assess the current status of scientific research-based knowledge relevant to reading development, reading disorders, and the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching children to read and to develop strategies for rapid dissemination of this information to facilitate teacher preparation and effective reading instruction in our nation's schools.

For more information please contact Reid Lyon at (301) 496-9849

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