Learning to read

Wilmington university

Learning To Read

Developmental Stages of Learning to Read

Jordan Barton

1/23/2013

                Learning to read is a process that begins early on in life and never really ends.  Much like teaching, our reading skills are always being tested and improved through practice and revision.  Before reading children begin to speak and build their oral vocabulary.  Speech is a stepping stone towards reading just like crawling is a stepping stone to walking.  Speech can begin as early as one year of age or as late as 18 months.  A child’s exposure to written text greatly influences their development speed from speaking to reading.  Therefore, a child who is constantly read to and shown written text will develop reading skills much quicker than a child who is not exposed to written text.

They then move on to phonemic awareness prior to beginning school.  At this stage children begin to understand the alphabetic principle.  This means that children start to understand that words are made up of letters and sounds.  This stage continues into phonics where spelling becomes important.  Students begin to understand how their spoken vocabulary can be written on paper.  These stages combine to make the “Awareness and Exploration of Reading Stage” that is typically seen in pre-K or before.  As the students move through pre-K and into Kindergarten they enter the “Emergent Reading Stage”.  At this point the students have a basic understanding of the alphabet and the sounds letters make in order to create words.  Their oral and written vocabulary both begin to grow rapidly.  As the students enter the “Early Reading Stage” fluency comes into the picture.  The students will begin to read word by word, often using a pointing device or their fingers to identify each word that is being read.  The more the students identify a particular word such as “the” the more fluent they will become as they come across it.  This is called the “Transitional Reading Stage” and typically takes place between 1^st and 2^nd grade.  Students do not develop fluency until the “Fluent Reading Stage” which begins in 3^rd grade and continues throughout their schooling years.  Fluency in reading tends to bring on comprehension.  Comprehension can begin much earlier than 3^rd grade however a student reading word by word will retain much less than a student who can fluently read the passage.  It is much simpler for a student to comprehend a reading passage that is simpler for them to read.  Although vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension continue to build throughout the grade school years, they are always based on phonemic awareness and phonics.

In conclusion, like most things practice builds skill in reading.  Just as a child will fall several times before standing, students will misspeak and struggle to read but through repetition their skills will improve.  Fluency, comprehension and vocabulary are skills that will continue to improve throughout the children’s lives and will never be perfected.  Given that perfection is impossible, there is always room for improvement at all levels of readers.   

References:

Developmental stages of learning to read. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.professionalpractice.org/about-us/developmental_stages_of_learning_to_read/