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What Do We Mean by “America’s Reading Crisis?”

Louisa Moats, Ed.D.

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We Used to Think

That reading problems were primarily visual That boys and left-handers were at greater risk That children would grow out of their problems That learning to read should be “natural” That intelligence predicted reading ability That we couldn’t diagnose reading problems

until children failed to learn

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Research Has Changed Our Views

30 years of research in reading development and learning difficulties at multiple sites by hundreds of researchers from many academic disciplines (educational psychology, cognitive psychology, neurosciences, linguistics, genetics, etc.)

Several thousand articles, book chapters, books

Funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); United States Department of Education (USDOE); universities and private foundations

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What Research?

National Reading Panel (2000)National Research Council (Snow, Burns, and

Griffin, 1998)American Psychological Society (Rayner,

Foorman, et al., 2001)Learning First Alliance (1998, 2000)American Speech-Language Hearing Association

(2001)National Association for the Education of Young

Children

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Research Findings (NICHD)

Boys and girls are equally likely to fall behind in reading.

About 40% of all children (white, black, all SES levels) are at risk for problems, depending on the quality of instruction

When instruction is optimal, we can help all but about 5% by the end of first grade get the basics of reading

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How Many People Have Reading Difficulties?

17 % of children have reading disabilities

40% of all children are “at risk”

70% of poor, Black and Hispanic children may be “below basic”

According to the National Institutes of Health (NICHD Branch)

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All at risk

Poor at risk

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What causes reading difficulties?

Not simply “low IQ” I.Q.

Not just “being poor”

Not simply because parents didn’t read enough

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Which of these is most important?

1. Knowledge of the world2. Being read a story every day3. Knowing the letter names4. Having good eyesight5. A good vocabulary6. Having an intact family7. Awareness of speech sounds8. Overall maturity9. Right handedness

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Which of these is most important?

1. Knowledge of the world2. Being read a story every day3. Knowing the letter names4. Having good eyesight5. A good vocabulary6. Having an intact family7. Awareness of speech sounds8. Overall maturity9. Right handedness

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SustainedAttention

ProceduralLearning

ConceptFormation

PhonologicalAwareness

Rapid Naming Vocabulary PairedAssociateLearning

Visual Motor

Profile Variables

Age

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Reading Difficulty Groups

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Problem Solving ConceptFormation

PhonologicalAwareness

Rapid Naming Vocabulary Paired Associate

LearningVisual Motor

IQ- Consistent

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IQ-Discrepant

IQ Tests Are Irrelevant to Identifying Reading Problems

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Children Don’t Catch Up…

Once children fall behind, they are likely to stay behind and the gap is likely to widen C. Juel, 1994 (Harvard Graduate School of

Education) J. Torgesen, K. Stanovich, F. Vellutino (NICHD) A. Biemiller (Toronto) R. Good, E. Kame’enui, D. Simmons (U. of Oregon) S. Shaywitz and J. Fletcher (Connecticut Longitudinal

Study)

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Growth Rate Toward Reading Achievement Is Established Early

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The Natural History of Reading Difficulty

Trouble with speech sounds (K)

Trouble learning the alphabetic code (1st)

Slow, laborious reading (2nd, 3rd)

Little practice, limited reading (3rd, 4th)

Stagnant vocabulary (4th +)

Can’t comprehend…

Would rather clean toilets than read…

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Grades K-2, Symptoms

Trouble segmenting and blending sounds Poor letter-sound recall Poor application of phonics Inconsistent memory for words & lists Mispronouncing words, not connecting with

word meanings Inability to spell phonetically

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Grades 3-4, Symptoms

Phonic decoding is a struggle Inconsistent word recognition Poor spelling Over-reliance on context and guessing Trouble learning new words (spoken) Confusion about other symbols

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Grades 5-6, Symptoms

Poor spelling, poor punctuation Reverts to manuscript from cursive Organization of writing is difficult Decodes laboriously, skips unknown

words Avoids reading, vocabulary declines

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Grades 7-8, Symptoms

Slow reading, loses the meaning Persistent phonological weaknesses, less

obvious Poor spelling and writing Confusions of similar words Does better with structured, explicit

teaching of language

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Grades 9+, Symptoms

Trouble with foreign language study Writing and spelling problems persist Reading is slow and labored, can’t sustain Longer writing assignments very difficult Can cope when given extra time, study

strategies, and structured language teaching

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Prognosis of Discrepancy-Defined and “Low Achievers” Francis et al. (1996)

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In other words…

There is every reason to intervene early with any child “at risk” for reading difficulty.

Our goal is to change the prediction of long term outcomes.

Children needing intervention should be identified in ways that do not require an IQ measurement.

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Dyslexia: Brain Activation Differences

Brain of a normal reader (or non-dyslexic) activates at the back

Brain of a dyslexic reader activates primarily in the front

S. Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia

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Comprehensive, Integrated Instruction: It is Rocket Science!

Comprehension and Written ExpressionReading Fluency

Vocabulary KnowledgePhonics, Word Study, and Spelling

Phoneme Awareness[foundation in oral language]

-Put Reading First, 2001

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It’s LANGUAGE!

Phonological processing – awareness of speech sounds

Orthographic processing – attention to and memory for letters and letter patterns in printed words

Morphology – the meaningful parts of words and how they are typically spelled

Word meanings (semantic processing)

Sentence sense (syntactic processing)

Academic discourse – paragraph organization and genre structures, figurative language, word choice and word use in formal contexts, inferential comprehension

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INSTRUCTION

What Can You Do to Help?

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Begin to Teach All of This

Listening to speech Recognizing speech sounds Letters and letter patterns Blending sounds into words Building background knowledge Comprehending and using spoken

language Vocabulary – building word meanings

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Phoneme Awareness AND Phonics: They Are Not The Same!

Phoneme awareness provides the foundation for learning phonics and for differentiating similar words in speech

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Reading Aloud to Your Child Builds His Vocabulary

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A Child with a Large Vocabulary has an Advantage in Learning to Read

rock-ets

“When we flash you a signal you will have to open the door and bail out with the help of emergency rockets.”

He learns the word while listening to the story...

...Then your child can more easily sound out the word if it is part of his listening and speaking vocabulary.

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An Achievable Goal

Almost every child with reading difficulty will progress yearly in relative standing, as a consequence of early, expert, intensive, collaborative intervention based on an understanding of best practices supported by research.