How Children Learn to Read

Children are not born knowing how to read, this is a skill that has to be taught early in the child’s life to enhance their reading development. Learning to read is an ongoing process that starts with birth and continues into adulthood. There are 5 stages of reading development that are built upon one another to ensure that children grow in their literacy development. It is essential that children understand and meet the criteria for each stage before they move onto the next stage. Otherwise they will struggle with their reading and writing skills in the future.

Stage 0: Pre-reading

This is the first reading development stage after birth until age six when children begin learning and developing their language, as well as vocabulary. Children start to grasps the concepts of sounds and word formation, such as some words have the same beginning sound. This is also when children learn to print their names and start to understand some of the letters in their name. They may pretend to read books by holding up the book and looking at the pages. This offers children an opportunity to learn more about pre-reading knowledge to aid in their further development of reading skills.

Stage 1: initial Reading/Decoding

This stage occurs when children are in grades one and two during this time they acquire phonic awareness education. Children develop knowledge of reading by understanding letters and the sounds that they indicate. At the stage they are also able to decode by putting together their knowledge of letters and sounds to blend together one word. Once they are able to recognize multiple words then they will begin to understand the meaning of these words. It is critical that teachers focus on teaching of decoding skills to help children in this stage receive effective reading instruction.

 

 

Stage 2: Confirmation, Fluency, Ungluing from Print, Automaticity

This stage applies what knowledge was acquired in stage one for children in second and third grade. Children are able to take their decoding skills to the next level by reading multiple words and stories. The complexity of the words and stories increases as they learn to read and understand phonic elements. Their fluency also increases as they begin to orally read stories and have more confidence in their reading ability.

Stage 3: Reading for Learning “The New Stage”

This stage occurs in phases from fourth grade until eighth or ninth grade. Children are able to take the knowledge they have acquired and develop this knowledge. During this stage children are learning new information and reading experiences. They begin to select different reading materials, such as magazines and textbooks, while expanding their interests. These students have transitioned from learning to read to reading to learn new information, facts, and ideas. During the beginning phases the students are limited in their vocabulary and contextual knowledge, but as they progress to the later phases their exposed to different viewpoints and being to analyze these viewpoints based on what material they have read.

Stage 4: Multiple Viewpoints

This stage refers to high schools students that are being exposed to different viewpoints that are presented to them through their more complex textbooks. These textbooks provide a greater insight into multiple interpretations of theories and ideas that these students will analyze and critique. They will learn to how to acquire these multiple points of view through different resources and materials. During this time it is important for students to develop effective study skills that will help them understand the complexity of the information presented to them.

Stage 5: Construction and Reconstruction

This stage occurs in adulthood and is the highest stage of reading development. At this stage adults should comprehend the complexity of the materials that they are reading. The reader is able to know what material to read and what not to read based on the information the reader is striving to acquire. They are also able to analysis what the author has written, but make their own ideas about the topic being discussed. It is imperative for readers to understand what they are reading, as well as to interpret that reading and make judgments based on what they read.

These stages model the important criteria that need to be met in order for a child to move onto the next stage of literacy development. The knowledge acquired through each stage helps teachers determine what concepts are critical for students to grasp at what time. The reading that is developed is a direct result of the instruction the child is given at the approximate ages. At each stage it is necessary to assess what level of development the child is at and how as a teacher or parent you can help get them to the next stage of reading development.