Early reading

This mornings ramblings are all about how we learn to read. I was looking at the theorist Chall and her suggested stages of reading development and realised that Stage 0, pre-reading which occurs from birth to 6 is actually really complex and essential. It is during this time that children master many prerequisites for reading. The obvious ones are identifying a few letters of the alphabet, recognising names or a few basic words but also way before that it is reading etiquette. How to turn pages, realising that generally you go from front to back, left to right, even simple things such as it is easier to read sitting or laying down. The fact that it is calming and entertaining and that it can be either a solitary or a shared experience.

Unfortunately, what my ramblings highlight is that there is a real difference between children's early experiences. I know that politicians will say that this is due to socio- economic factors and that poorer children do not have the same access to books but I think that is unfair. Unless of course we chastise the government for shutting down libraries where many young children used to spend hours playing or listening to story time sessions. I think it is more likely that the parental attitude towards reading is a key factor. If the parent/carer realises the importance of books then the child is off to a fighting chance whether they have one bashed up old copy of 'Spot the Dog' or a whole shelf full of Beatrix Potter classics. Let's face it, as a child there is generally one book that you want read over and over until you know it off by heart and if your parent tries to skip a line so that bedtime comes earlier, then the small child will object strongly, causing the bedtime story to last much longer than anticipated.

When we are talking about learning to speak we think about switching on the language acquisition device (Chomsky). This happens by us hearing and experiencing language, whether accidentally or intentionally by carer input. We also know that Lenneberg suggests that there is a critical time period for this LAD to be activated, which is about 13. Of course, fortunately it rarely happens that there are cases of children who are completely isolated from language and therefore are unable to learn to speak fluently. The reason being that for this to happen real neglect has occurred! So what happens if children do not have access to books or reading material in their early years? Is there a critical time frame where you have to have experienced reading to be able to perfect it later in life? When children first start school at 3 or 4 or 5 they will automatically have access to books and reading but will those who have not been used to reading or more likely being read to have the same level of interest? Is there already a gap and if so will that gap ever narrow?

I feel like going to poundland and the works and buying loads of cheap books and posting them through people's doors if they look like children live there but I may get arrested and let's face it they still may not read.

This is getting too depressing so am going to think about the books I love for another post.